Concept
The Professional's Practice
The professional's practice, in Steven Pressfield's Turning Pro, is the daily discipline beneath any single project: the same kind of work, done with intention in a set place and at a set time, and continued for its own sake through project after project.
A project has a start and an end; a practice does not. Pressfield borrows the word from settings such as martial arts, meditation and medicine, where nobody expects to be finished. Treating the work as a practice changes the unit of success from the finished project to the session done well, and it means a stalled project no longer stops the work. Pressfield also stresses the place and time of a practice, which the professional protects and keeps in order so that returning to them needs no negotiation. This is where the professional's patience becomes practical: one does not have to stay patient about a distant goal, only return to the place at the usual hour. A practice still needs feedback. If the sessions stop producing better work, it needs a teacher or a harder challenge, not just more attendance.
A real-life example
An emergency nurse in Kayseri who is learning to illustrate health guides for patients stops tying her drawing to commissions. She keeps 6:30 to 7:15 on weekdays at the same desk, draws whatever page is in front of her and logs one line at the end. When a hospital project is cancelled, the practice carries on.
How to use it
- 1Name your practice separately from your current project, so that it does not end when the project does.
- 2Keep the place and the hour fixed, and prepare the place before you go to bed.
- 3Every few months, judge the practice by the quality of the work, not by attendance alone.