"Everything in life worth achieving requires practice. In fact, life itself is nothing more than one long practice session, an endless effort of refining our motions. When the proper mechanics of practice are understood, the task of learning something new becomes a stress-free experience of joy and calmness, a process which settles all areas in your life and promotes proper perspective on all of life’s difficulties."
Thomas M. Sterner (The Practicing Mind)
Practice is not just a means to an end but is a way of alleviating stress, enhancing learning, and leading a fulfilling life.
The Essence of Practice
At its core, practice is the continuous effort to refine our actions and thoughts toward mastery. Yet, many perceive it as a chore. This perception shifts dramatically when we view the practice as a source of freedom and therapy, an idea beautifully articulated by Sterner. By adopting the right mindset, practice transforms from duty into a stress-relieving and therapeutic journey.
Foundations for Effective Practice
“Practice encompasses learning but not the other way around.”
Thomas M. Sterner (The Practicing Mind)
Self-Control and Awareness
Understanding the mechanics of practice begins with self-control and self-awareness, anchored in the power of attention. Our ability to regulate our emotions and thoughts is critical for engaging in meaningful practice. This foundation ensures we approach our tasks with intention and focus, steering clear of aimless effort.
Without these things, we’re riding a horse with no reins, we have no power or control. Our source of power must come from within and be expressed through self-control and awareness. We need to have an internal locus of control to practice.
Life as Practice
Viewing life as an ongoing practice session reveals that every action, from mundane to complex, is an opportunity for growth. This perspective encourages us to approach all aspects of life with the same dedication and openness to improvement.
Works arise out of the practice. The things we build that can be later known as our “life’s work” spring from the countless hours of practice that we dedicate to the craft. When I started writing my first book, I felt impatient and was pretty hard on myself about getting my work done faster. There was a significant problem with that — when I started writing the book I didn’t have the writing skills nor the knowledge to write the kind of book I intended to.
I needed to develop the skills and knowledge along the way and that can only be cultivated through practice.
Even though I know this, I still have to fight the idea that “this project should have been done yesterday” quite often. Sterner references this specific struggle and explains that it’s just part of the process.
“At its inception, I would not have been able to write “this” version of The Practicing Mind even if someone had sat me down and said, “I will pay your bills and look after your family. You just write.” It took the writing process and observing myself going through my days to learn that.”
Thomas M. Sterner (The Practicing Mind)
This quote permitted me to believe that it’s okay to learn along the way.
Now I’m convinced that it’s the only way to accomplish anything.
Dedicate to the craft, learn along the way, and trust that we will learn everything we need. Sterner showed me that as long as I focus on the practice of writing, then I will eventually complete the book in its highest form.
The last idea that I want to mention is that life is one giant practice session. Everything we do is practice. From walking to tying our shoes, from adding 2+2 to integrating trigonometric functions, everything is practice.
Everything.
Those three ideas set the stage nicely for understanding the mechanics and art of practice. Internalizing these ideas will make the practice seem a lot less daunting than it needs to be.
Mechanisms of Practice
The Significance of the Process
The first mechanic of practice I want to bring up is also probably the biggest idea in the book and carries substantial wisdom.
Focus on the process rather than the outcome.
This mindset shift is crucial for maintaining motivation and preventing burnout. By valuing each step of the journey, we find satisfaction and progress naturally unfolds.
Focusing on the process, not the product, is the key to making practice effective, consistent, and cathartical.
This is analogous advice to “Set up systems, not goals.”
I’ve always been results-oriented and obsessive with progress, but I’ve also always had problems with burnout and stress. I’ve noticed that switching my focus to the process has created higher productivity yields with less pressure.
I used to think that if I wanted to perform better, then I needed to apply more pressure.
After all, diamonds are created from high amounts of pressure, right?
Yes, but we’re human beings, not rocks, and we burn out after long periods of high pressure and stress. We will not become diamonds from adding more stress, we will eventually crumble. Now, this is not to say that we don’t need any stress at all. Some stress is necessary to function at our highest level, just not too much.
Another benefit is that the pressure melts away when we’re focused on the process. I try to use this to my advantage when I’m working with my students. If they’re having trouble with complex multistep problems, then I just ask them what the next step is rather than having them solve the entire thing. Focusing on just putting one foot in front of the next can get the job done accurately and fairly quickly.
“When you focus on the process, the desired product takes care of itself with fluid ease. When you focus on the product, you immediately begin to fight yourself and experience boredom, restlessness, frustration, and impatience with the process.”
Thomas M. Sterner (The Practicing Mind)
The last thing I want to mention about focusing on the process is that it is crucial to know that there are no mistakes and no judgment when we are truly focused on the process. We are simply executing actions, observing the results, and making adjustments accordingly. There is no bad or wrong when we are focused on the process.
Judgment is the death of deliberate practice.
Focusing on the process seems like a great idea, but how do we start doing that?
Detachment and Presence
Letting go of our attachment to goals allows us to be fully present in our activities, facilitating a deeper engagement with the process. This detachment isn't about abandoning ambitions, but about freeing ourselves from the anxiety of outcomes, enabling a more mindful and focused practice.
We are capable of letting go of any attachments we develop, nothing is too substantial that it ought to take us from the present moment.
Once we have created a healthy detachment, we divert our attention to only what we are doing right now in the present. As long as we can keep this up, we are accomplishing our goal in every moment. I find mindfulness meditation is fantastic for practicing this type of process.
Tips to Stay Present
When we develop a practicing mind, Sterner recommends using the 4 S Words to keep our minds in the process.
Simple
Keeping things simple reduces friction and is a great way of developing a success spiral. Creating a forward movement helps tremendously.
When dealing with huge projects, or anything fairly complex, break it down into its component sections. I try to make sure each component is something that seems super easy. Like I said earlier, it’s all about developing a forward motion — get the wins everywhere you can.
Atul Gawande, the author of The Checklist Manifesto, also suggests keeping things simple if we want to remain effective. Simple checklists make all the difference, but once we add complexity they can make things worse.
Keeping things simple is key to keeping things effective.
Small
Similar to keeping things simple, we want our focus to be small.
The smaller the better.
For example, when I was writing this blog post I felt overwhelmed because I knew that there were a bunch of ideas that I wanted to go over. But I just kept my focus on writing the paragraph that I’m working on to the best of my ability and eventually the entire post will be finished.
It’s taken longer than I like, but that perspective is just my mind trying to focus on the product.
Focusing on small sections is much easier than focusing on the entire task. Also when we have many small victories, we get the winning streak on our side.
Short
Keeping things short will make anything seem bearable. Tim Ferriss also suggests keeping things short when creating new habits. Again, a classic example of getting the wins wherever you can.
It’s much easier to say I’m going to sit down and write for 40 minutes a day rather than I’m going to sit down and write for 4 and a half hours per week. If I knew I had to sit down for 4 and a half hours, I would do everything I could to avoid that. Honestly, even 40 minutes is pushing it on some days.
Keeping things short keeps procrastination at bay.
Slow
Taking things slow might seem like a bad idea, especially if you’re like me and love getting as much done as possible. But slowness allows us to pay attention to what we are doing. When we take things slow, we see every little moment of what goes into the process. We make fewer mistakes when we take it slow and tasks sure seem a lot less daunting.
I try to do at least 1 thing per day slowly, to practice being present and paying attention to how I do that task. Some days it will be dishes, other days it will be brushing my teeth, or changing my clothes. I practice with little things so I can perform well on the big things.
D.O.C. - The Practice Cycle
Do, Observe, Correct.
This technique can be used in any activity to engage the practicing mind. It’s designed to snap us out of frustration and shift our perspective to an Observer.
D.O.C. can also be thought of as the practice cycle. When we are practicing, we are only doing one of those three actions – doing, observing, or correcting. Any energy spent on frustration, anger, insecurity, judgment, or otherwise is a waste and isn’t part of proper practice.
When we are practicing, if we sense feelings of anger or frustration then we know that we aren’t staying in the cycle. Simply do the action, observe how we are doing, and correct course.
Here’s an example to illustrate this point. Whenever I’m writing I tend to get judgemental and insecure, to the point where I won’t release a piece of work or I’ll just destroy it outright. This is the death of practice. I’m wasting my energy, not creating anything, and I’m not getting better at writing.
If I notice I’m feeling judgemental or insecure, then I can recognize that I’m off the D.O.C. cycle and all I have to do is get back on.
That’s a big if though. All of this only works if I can recognize the emotional states within myself – this is why I recommend mindfulness meditation. It trains us in this very skill.
Just write. No judgment. No thinking, just doing.
Observe the words on the page. Is the message that I’m trying to convey clear? Is this what I am trying to say?
If it isn’t, then I need to correct it.
Repeat as many times as necessary.
If it is, then I win.
This technique is fantastic for silencing internal chatter and taking control of our minds.
Of course, this is a difficult thing to do and requires practice. haha. But it gets easier with higher skill in mindfulness.
Winning Every Moment
Sterner's advice to focus on the process encourages a series of continual wins. Each moment spent in practice is a victory, building a momentum of success that propels us further.
If we’re focused on the process, we win every moment. If we focus on the product, we win only once the product is finished.
Which would you rather have: winning every second or winning one time in the end?
We can get more work done with one of those choices. Winning every second doesn’t only feel better, but we will also build a “success spiral” and forward motion which increases our likelihood of executing more forward motion in the future.
Winning creates more winning.
The Role of Patience
Patience is both a product and a prerequisite of practice. It's developed through a change in perspective, where we see patience as active perseverance rather than passive waiting.
“The problem with patience and discipline is that developing each of them requires both of them.”
Thomas M. Sterner (The Practicing Mind)
Practice without patience is fruitless.
The only way we can see the results of our practice is through patience.
We can see this most obviously in the context of health and exercise. When we workout, we don’t see obvious results the next day, or even the day after that. It usually takes a few months before people start noticing small changes, but those few months are filled with constant deliberate practice. Without patience, we would just work out one time and let our disappointment take us out.
So that leaves us with the question:
How can we cultivate patience?
Sterner suggests that we can develop patience by changing our perspective. Sterner likes to think of patience more as quiet perseverance. By changing the vocabulary, we change our perspective of ourselves. Rather than seeing ourselves as someone waiting patiently for things to finally work out, we can become someone who is quietly overcoming all the obstacles thrown in front of them time and time again. This may seem like a small change, but humans are creatures of conversation and our worlds are created by our speech.
Impatience usually comes from trying to live in the future and being unsatisfied with the present.
Sitting in traffic is a great way to trigger this feeling. Since I live in California, I find myself in traffic pretty often. Lately, I’ve been trying to use traffic as an opportunity to practice quiet perseverance. It kind of goes like this:
I hit traffic. I feel impatient. I notice I’m feeling impatient. I realize that I’m trying to live in the future and I’m not satisfied with the present. I try to find a way to be satisfied with sitting in traffic.
I’ve gotten good at this over the years and now I don’t mind when I hit traffic.
It’s all about being present and focusing on what I can do at that moment. This is actually how I researched, organized, and developed a lot of the ideas for my blog. I would listen to podcasts, YouTube videos, and audiobooks related to education and personal development and take notes on all the things I found interesting. This made the time fly by. Traffic isn’t a big deal when you’re working on something important to you.
Impatience is a great indicator that we’re being product-focused and trying to live in the future. Another indicator is when our internal chatter starts going haywire. We have to be able to recognize when our thoughts are going off on a tangent and return ourselves to the present. Controlling our minds like this is challenging at first, but as I mentioned earlier, mindfulness meditation is excellent for cultivating this skill — noticing when the mind runs wild and pulling it back in.
Like a wild horse, it’s going to fight us but if we can tire it out then it’ll stop running away.
Patience naturally comes with a change in perspective, just trying to “be more patient” is a fool’s errand and is incredibly expensive from a cognitive load perspective. If we correctly change our perspective, we can feel the impatience vanish.
Researchers have discovered that people exhibiting the rare trait of patience made more progress toward their goals and were more satisfied when they achieved them (particularly if those goals were difficult) compared with less patient people.
Other research also found that patient people tend to experience less depression and negative emotions and can cope better with stressful situations. Additionally, they feel more gratitude, more connection to others, and experience a greater sense of abundance. That goes a long way when you're building a business.
Practical Advice for Cultivating a Practicing Mind
Remain Process-Oriented: Focus on the current action, not the distant goal.
Stay Present: Engage fully with the task at hand.
Make the Process the Goal: Let the larger goal guide, not dictate, your actions.
Be Deliberate: Practice with intention and maintain awareness of that intention.
The Power of Perspective
When is the flower perfect? Is it at the seed? Or when it sprouts? Or when it blooms?
The flower isn’t impatient. The flower doesn’t think “This is taking forever” or “Once I bloom, then I can be happy.”
The flower just grows every day.
It’s always perfect.
Every stage is perfect.
What the flower is doing exactly what it needs to be doing in each moment.
We are the same way. As long as we focus on the process, growing every day, then we are always perfect. I find thinking this way takes a lot of the pressure off of trying to make something perfect the first time.
We need to work like nature, without ego.
Whenever I get caught up in thinking that my results aren’t where they “should” be, I try to ask myself:
At what stage is the flower perfect?
Perfection is a dynamic state, present at every stage of development. Embracing this view allows us to appreciate our progress and remain motivated.
Habits and Patience
Habits form the backbone of our practice, shaping our actions and, ultimately, our lives. Developing patience, on the other hand, requires a deep understanding of our goals and the acceptance of the time it takes to achieve them.
What we practice becomes our habits, and our habits shape our lives. I’ve written a few posts on habits. Everything I would want to include in this section is also in these posts –including how to build and break habits, how habits work, the significance of habits, and ways to build your dream life through habit formation.
Understanding how habits form and developing an awareness of which habits we are creating gives us access to creating the habits we want for ourselves, which ultimately constructs our lives.
Some sports psychologists say that repeating a motion sixty times a day over 21 days will form a new habit ingrained in the mind. The sixty reps don’t have to be done all at once either. They can be broken up into sets.
New habits are always awkward at first, but over time they will feel more comfortable if we just stick with it.
Remember — we are the ones who decide our habits, no one else
Thomas M. Sterner's The Practicing Mind offers invaluable insights into the art of practice. By embracing the principles outlined above, we can transform our approach to challenges, learning, and personal growth. The journey of practice is endless, and its rewards are boundless. As we continue to practice, we not only enhance our skills but also enrich our lives with joy, calmness, and a sense of accomplishment.
"Repetition unlocks value. The value of your first workout increases the more you exercise. The value of your first article increases the more you write. The value of your first conversation increases the longer you stay in the relationship. Day One continues to compound."
James Clear (Atomic Habits)
With patience and persistence, the art of practice can lead us to achieve not only our immediate goals but also a deeper satisfaction and understanding of life itself.
These were some of the ideas I found most interesting from The Practicing Mind, but I still highly recommend that everyone read it for themselves. There is a ton of information in that book and this post is just the stuff I found useful or related to what I usually talk about.
I’m hoping that these ideas and techniques can help you find the therapeutic advantage to practice and keep you on the path to mastery.
We are always perfect, but we are always practicing.
We are always growing.
The question is, in which direction?