The Practicing Mind: Bringing Discipline and Focus Into Your Life

I agree with the other reviewers: This book really is great. It provides you with simple tools to help you get more focused on what you do and thus enjoying even seemingly boring activities (honestly, doing dishes -of all things- never felt so great!). It made me more patient (from the book I got the expression quiet perseverance to describe patience, which, together with present moment awareness, is what this book is all about). This little gem together with Getting Things Done by David Allen, really boosted both my productivity and quality of life. It's a quick read, and you can instantly apply the advice. You'll probably get back to it often, because the skills, though simple, take time, patience, and discipline to grow but it's a wonderful trip to inner peace and the book makes for a great companion. After reading it, you can just jump in on chapters 5 to 7 to quickly refresh all of the key concepts. Another bonus for me: even though the book ends on a spiritual note, it is written in a very down to earth style. So you won't find any religious, new age or spiritual hullabaloo, which put me off in many similar books.

I'm just a few pages from finishing my first reading of this book and I can honestly say it's had a more profound impact on me than any modern "self-help" book I've read. Not since reading Emerson's Self-Reliance in college have I been so personally inspired by a piece of writing. The prose here isn't Emersonian (what else is?) but the density and quality of its insights are right up there. I say "first reading" because I know I'll be coming back to it.

How would you like to learn to let go of anxiety? To get twice as much done with half the stress? To find a way to handle intimidating, unpleasant, or even boring tasks without having them take a bite out of you? What if I told you that this would involve your investing a little over $10 and reading a 98-page book? I thought you'd be interested. Here's the deal. Sterner, a musician, a piano technician, a golfer, and an all-around sage (who would probably be a really interesting person to get to know) mined what he he had learned about repetitive tasks, like practicing music and golf swings (and, I guess, piano tuning and adjusting) and put it into a little book. No frills, no fancy language, no huffing and puffing about how profound he is, his message is, or anything else. And, at least from my experience and that of the other contented reviewers here, he got it right. Um, sorry, that really should have been Got It Right. What he presents here is not novel - it's been around in recorded human wisdom for thousands of years - but it is simple, direct, and easy to apply. His basic principles are: attach to process (which you can control) not to outcomes (which you can't); accept yourself as embodying perfectly whatever stage of development you happen to be at - don't postpone happiness until you reach/have/attain something - break big projects down into tiny tasks; open yourself to learning from those around you and to joy, which is everywhere. He lays them out in simple, functional prose that anyone can read and understand. This little book is a giant weapon in The War Against Suffering. Read it. Do what it tells you to do. Read it again. Do more of what it tells you to do. Praise it so that others will read it. Give it to your friends. I've bought books here based on the reviews of others and it was clear to me when I saw the sorry things that passed for books that someone had self-published and then gotten friends to game the process. I don't know Sterner (my loss) and have no interest in doing anything except sharing my pleasure in having discovered this book.

Accomplished musician Thomas M. Sterner spent years learning to play the piano, but it was learning the sport of golf that taught him the dynamics of practice. Through observing his classmates, Sterner began to notice key motivational flaws that keep us in an unyielding state of confusion and discontent. Today's over-stimulated society is focused on multitasking to the point that we are unable to concentrate on a single task. At any given time, our minds race from events in the past to worries about the future, but we are seldom living in the present. We measure success based on where we are in relation to our goals--or where advertising tell us we should be. Sterner argues that the exhaustion we pile on ourselves to achieve is useless and self-defeating. We struggle to achieve perfection, but perfection is a myth, as our concept of perfection is constantly changing and moving away from us. To reach one milestone means that a dozen more are lining up in front of us. Sterner's solution is to live in the present and realize that practice is the goal, not the end result. Therefore, no matter what stage we are at, if we are practicing, we are always in a state of perfection and always successful. Learning to take a step back from life, observe situations and direct our actions without invoking emotion make up Sterner's "DOC" (do, observe, correct) method. He encourages us to immerse ourselves in the process of practice rather than constantly comparing ourselves to the ideal. His four "S" words--simplify, small, short, and slow--help to bring attention to the present and provide the ability to enjoy life, which is one enormous process (or practice) in itself. In Sterner's words, "There are not that many ideas in this book--just a few, and they have always been there for us to discover. But they slip away from us in our daily lives so easily." Armchair Interview says: Through the process of practice, Sterner has managed to fit an incredible amount of wisdom into the 98 pages of The Practicing Mind.