“Jump in the water, save that kid.”
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Notes
Resistance:
- Emotion that blocks, undermines, or stalls the work
- Focuses on bad outcomes
- Seeks reassurance
- Pushes us to seek confidence while undermining confidence
Trusting the practice does not require confidence and thus makes resistance lose much of its power
Generosity
- Most direct way to find the practice
- Undermines resistance by focusing on other, not self
- Activates a different part of the brain
- Resistance is selfish; generosity is not
The core of the practice: “our work exists to change the recipient for the better.”
Thoughts
I suppose the line that I jumped at was that “Generosity is the most direct way to find the practice.” This suggests that perhaps, maybe, to some extent (hedging enough yet?), it’s not so obvious what “the practice” is—otherwise we wouldn’t need to “find” it.
I’ve already said that I think I need to just get started (as Seth pushed early in the book); it’s easier to steer a moving ship, and all that. Generosity becomes the aid to navigation that will help me steer the practice into something recognizable as a practice.
But I haven’t yet identified that specific time, which I said would be my first step. I’m not sure if this is another instance of Pressfield’s Resistance, or if I was just genuinely tired from a long day of student conferences, or what…. But that’s the first step that I identified. And I can use some of that time to figure out what generosity I’m hoping to offer (though, with me, the danger is always that I’ll disappear down that theoretical rabbit hole).
This series is meant to capture my thoughts as I work through Seth Godin’s The Practice. It’s a book with over 200 (very short) chapters, which I hope to work through and, I further hope, to implement over time.
If you’re interested in more of Godin’s ideas, or my thoughts about them, you can check out this collection of posts. Note that if you’re more interested in the former, you should probably get Godin’s book and read it yourself; my notes will be both incomplete and idiosyncratic, and my thoughts will relate to my own experience.
But if my thoughts resonate with you, or if you think I’m just silly, I welcome your comments.