Let a practice be your companion.

Each day, morning and night, practice is your best friend. It is your anchor, the mechanism by which you can plant and grow roots in any discipline.

Modern life privileges addictions over practices. Every app has its incentive to take you out of the moment and vacuum your attention into its motives.

These damn dopamine devices. A rebellion is in order.

The greatest edge an individual can have in the modern world is the ability to focus and consistently practice. Technology continues to externalize jobs and skills, making apps and LLMs do all the critical thinking work for us. If we are not careful, our cognition will atrophy.

Practice is our rebellion against the modern order. It is our sword and shield against the forces that selfishly demand our attention.

A practice develops who we are. It develops what we can do. It develops how we can relate to others.

I listened to a podcast recently with the founder of Suno.ai and a venture capitalist interviewer. The founder states over and over again how people do not like making music because of how hard it is. He balked at the difficulty, stating that his work was to democratize music for all.

Fair enough, the work is hard. Making music more accessible is a worthwhile goal. More people having access to the tools of expression is beautiful. But in the rush to remove barriers, we miss an important point: the struggle is where the growth is. The challenge of learning a new piece of music develops grit, persistence, and love—practice is a dojo for so many virtues.

The joy is in the journey. When we make a piece of art, it's not only the inspiration but the process that becomes part of its story.

Founder friend, you are playing into a misguided capitalist narrative. It will get you funding, sure. Congratulations on exiting the game. But you are spreading a message that diverts people from a basic wisdom: doing hard things, struggling in making a piece of art, is the way to develop your character and your soul. This is not something we should deprive ourselves of. It is something we should embrace.

The heat of the fire purifies and shapes the metal. So too do challenges in life refine us.

This is not modern thought. It is ancient wisdom.

Here's my invitation: when you find yourself swept up in the day-to-day, ask yourself, "What is my practice?" If you already have a practice—whether meditation, exercise, music—take a moment to be with that. If you are still finding a practice, try one out for a few days. Just start and see how it feels to do something consistently, even for just a short while.

You may be pleasantly surprised by what you find in even that short journey. More than that, you may find that struggle itself—the very act of pushing forward despite resistance—is not a barrier to creativity, but the gateway to mastery and meaning.