(Yet) requires more.
Note: Links in this post may be affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission, at no extra charge to you, if you make a purchase through such a link. Learn more here.
Notes
“It’s not working (yet).”
“(Yet)” offers reassurance through embracing the practice and more:
- time, cycles
- bravery
- process
- you: idiosyncrasy, genre, seeing, generosity
- learning
Thoughts
This echoes Carol Dweck’s “Power of Yet”—the power of a growth mindset, the belief that with effort and perseverance we can grow our skills, abilities, intelligence, creativity, and so on. It’s fresh in my mind because I’ve just wrapped up teaching a unit about mindsets to the students in my composition classes.
That last bullet point, about learning, is important. Sheer repetition (process, time, cycles) doesn’t necessarily lead anywhere. But a growth mindset is more expansive: a person with such a mindset seeks out help, alternatives, experiments , etc., while holding to the process.
Or maybe it’s better to understand the process/practice as equally flexible. That’s been a challenge for me, as I have a tendency to give up and take a different tack way too soon. So perhaps a process—generally repetitive, but learning and expanding incrementally—would make a difference for me.
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.