The Practice of Groundedness: A Transformative Path to Success That Feeds—Not Crushes—Your Soul
by Brad Stulberg
You've been told don't have enough talent (but that's oka you because you can learn the skill instead). You've been told you're not entitled to speak up (but now you can see how many others have taken their turns). And you've been told that if you can't win, you shouldn't even try (but now you see that the journey is the entire point). Art is the generous act of making things better by doing something that might not work. We can adopt a practice. Here are the surprising truths that have been hidden by our desire for those perfect outcomes, the ones industrial recipes promise but never quite deliver: • Skill is not the same as talent. • a good process can lead to good outcomes, but it doesn't guarantee them. Perfectionism has nothing to do with being perfect. Reassurance is futile. • Hubris is the opposite of trust. • Attitudes are skills. • There's no such thing as writer's block. • Professionals produce with intent. • Creativity is an act of leadership. • Leaders are imposters. • All criticism is not the same. •We become creative when we ship the work. • Good taste is a skill. • Passion is a choice.
So we focus on the outcome, because that's how we know we followed the steps properly. The industrial system that brainwashed us demands that we focus on outcomes to prove we followed the recipe. That priority makes sense if the reliable, predictable outcome really matters and the payoff is truly guaranteed. But what happens when your world changes?
Good taste is the ability to know what your audience or clients are going to want before they do. Good taste comes from domain knowledge, combined with the guts and experience to know where to veer from what's expected. Veer enough times, watch what the market does, and learn from that. That's the formula for good taste.
And the biggest pick for many kids is the approval that comes from a famous college (or the improv group that's running auditions at said famous college). This desire for external approval and authority directly undermines your ability to trust yourself, because you've handed this trust over to an institution instead.
Of course there's no manual, no proven best practices, no established rulebook. The very nature of innovation is to act as if-to act as if you're on to something, as if it's going to work, as if you have a right to be here. Along the way, you can discover what doesn't work on your way to finding out what does.
You don't have to like their work or agree with their assertions. But need to know who they are and what they're saying. you The line between an amateur and professional keeps blurring, but for me, the posture of understanding both the pioneers and the state of the art is essential. Skill is earned.
"You've been told don't have enough talent (but that's oka you because you can learn the skill instead). You've been told you're not entitled to speak up (but now you can see how many others have taken their turns). And you've been told that if you can't win, you shouldn't even try (but now you see that the journey is the entire point). Art is the generous act of making things better by doing something that might not work."
"We can adopt a practice. Here are the surprising truths that have been hidden by our desire for those perfect outcomes, the ones industrial recipes promise but never quite deliver: • Skill is not the same as talent. • a good process can lead to good outcomes, but it doesn't guarantee them. Perfectionism has nothing to do with being perfect. Reassurance is futile. • Hubris is the opposite of trust. • Attitudes are skills. • There's no such thing as writer's block. • Professionals produce with intent. • Creativity is an act of leadership. • Leaders are imposters. • All criticism is not the same. •We become creative when we ship the work. • Good taste is a skill. • Passion is a choice."
"True learning (as opposed to education) is a voluntary experience that requires tension and discomfort (the persistent feeling of incompetence as we get better at a skill). [...] Discomfort engages people, keeps them on their toes, makes them curious. Discomfort is the feeling we all get just before change happens. But this new form of hospitality-of helping people change by taking them somewhere new-can make us personally uncomfortable as well. It might feel easier to simply ask people what they want and do that instead."
"Better clients are demanding. They demand more rigorous deadlines, but they also pay more. They demand extraordinary work, but they're more respectful. And they demand work they can proudly share with others. Better clients also have good taste. [...] They are lousy clients for a reason. They don't want better work. [...] You earn better clients by becoming the sort of professional that better clients want. It's lonely and difficult work. It's jugglingthrow and throw, and one day, the catching will take care of itself."
"A Roundup of Tips and Tricks for Creators Build streaks. Do the work every single day. Blog daily. Write daily. Ship daily. Show up daily. Find your streak and maintain it. Talk about your streaks to keep honest. Seek the smallest viable audience. Make it for someone, not everyone. Avoid shortcuts. Seek the most direct path instead. Find and embrace genre. Seek out desirable difficulty. Don't talk about your dreams with people who want to protect you from heartache."
"Intentional Action Has a Few Simple Elements 1. Determine who it's for. Learn what they believe, what they fear, and what they want. 2. Be prepared to describe the change you seek to make. At least to yourself. 3. Care enough to commit to making that change. 4. Ship work that resonates with the people it's for. 5. Once you know whom it's for and what it's for, watch and learn to determine whether your intervention succeeded. 6. Repeat."
"The industrial system we all live in is outcome-based. It's about guaranteed productivity in exchange for soul-numbing, predirected labor. But if we choose to look for it, there's a different journey available to us. This is the path followed by those who seek change, who want to make things better. It's a path defined by resilience and generosity. It's outward focused, but not dependent on reassurance or applause."
- →And the biggest pick for many kids is the approval that comes from a famous college (or the improv group that's running auditions at said famous college). This desire for external approval and authority directly undermines your ability to trust yourself, because you've handed this trust over to an institution instead.
- →You don't have to like their work or agree with their assertions. But need to know who they are and what they're saying. you The line between an amateur and professional keeps blurring, but for me, the posture of understanding both the pioneers and the state of the art is essential. Skill is earned.
- →This is the story of every human innovation. This is the story of every good idea, every new project, every . pop song, every novel. There was a bad idea. And then there was a better one. If you want to complain that you don't have any good ideas, please show me all your bad ideas first.
- →We have a meeting at 4:00 p.m. Okay, what's it for? Well, we always have this meeting. So, the "what's-it-for" is: It's easier to maintain the status quo than to risk not having the meeting. What the meeting is for is making sure that the people who like having the meeting aren't upset,
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