“Everything that matters is something we’ve chosen to do. Everything that matters is a skill and an attitude. Everything that matters is something we can learn. The practice is choice plus skill plus attitude. We can learn it and we can do it again.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 102)
“The time we spend worrying is actually time we’re spending trying to control something that is out of our control. Time invested in something that is within our control is called work. That’s where our most productive focus lies.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 99)
“If the problem can be solved, why worry? And if the problem can’t be solved, then worrying will do you no good.”
Shantideva, via The Practice (Page 99)
“Any idea withheld is an idea taken away. It’s selfish to hold back when there’s a chance you have something to offer.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 98)
“If you never fail, you’re only trying things that are too easy and playing far below your level… If you can’t remember any time in the last six months when you failed, you aren’t trying to do difficult enough things.”
Eliezer Yudkowsky (Read Matt’s Blog On This Quote)
“Your life is purchased by where you spend your attention.”
James Clear, Blog
“If we failed, would it be worth the journey? Do you trust yourself enough to commit to engaging with a project regardless of the chances of success? The first step is to separate the process from the outcome. Not because we don’t care about the outcome. But because we do.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 92)
“The ability to eagerly suggest an alternative to your work is a sign that your posture is one of generosity, not grasping.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 88)
“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”
Henry Miller, via Sunbeams (Page 78)
“Remember: one lie does not cost you one truth but the truth.”
Friedrich Hebbel, via Sunbeams (Page 78)
“When we get really attached to how others will react to our work, we stop focusing on our work and begin to focus on controlling the outcome instead.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 86)
“If the only measure of your worth is in the outcome of a transaction, not in the practice to which you’ve committed, then of course it makes sense to cut corners and to hustle.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 85)
“If our focus is on external validation, then the journey will always be fraught. It’s culturally impossible to do important work that will be loved by everyone. The very act of being ‘important’ means that it will have a different impact on people.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 72)
“The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attractions of an interior voice, but will not listen to other men. He identifies the will of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling, the more he is convinced of his own infallibility. And if the sheer force of his own self-confidence communicates itself to other people and gives them the impression that he really is a saint, such a man can wreck a whole city or a religious order or even a nation. The world is covered with scars that have been left in its flesh by visionaries like these.”
Thomas Merton, via Sunbeams (Page 77)
“A key component of practical empathy is a commitment to not be empathic to everyone. A contemporary painter must ignore the criticism or disdain that comes from someone who’s hoping for a classical still life. The tech innovator has to be okay with leaving behind the laggard who’s still using a VCR. That’s okay, because the work isn’t for them. ‘It’s not for you’ is the unspoken possible companion to ‘Here, I made this.'”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 71)
“In order to say no with consistency and generosity, we need to have something to say ‘yes’ to.”
Justine Musk (writer), via The Practice (Page 58)
“Selling can feel selfish. We want to avoid hustling people, and so it’s easy to hold back in fear of manipulating someone. Here’s an easy test for manipulation: if the people you’re interacting with discover what you already know, will they be glad that they did what you asked them to?”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 46)
“I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.”
Harry S. Truman, via Sunbeams (Page 76)
“The truth is more important than the facts.”
Frank Lloyd Wright, via Sunbeams (Page 76)
“It is a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much.”
Bernard de Fontenelle, via Sunbeams (Page 76)