In The Practice Seth talks about how he’s taught a lot of people to juggle, and the lesson is that in order to learn to juggle, one needs to ignore the outcome, that (perhaps counterintuitively) catching the ball isn’t the most important part of learning to juggle.
Reading the passage, it strikes me that learning to juggle might also be a good metaphor for “shiny things”, those attractive ideas or opportunities that might cause us to drop the important things.
I’m going to quote the revelant passage from The Practice about learning to juggle along with some [paraphrasing] to illustrate the ‘shiny things’ idea I saw in it…
“People who fail to learn to [do X] always fail because they’re lunging to catch the next [shiny thing]. But once you lunge for a [shiny thing], you’re out of position for the next [piece of work], and the thing falls apart.
Instead we begin with just one [piece of work]. And there’s no catching: throw/drop, throw/drop, throw drop…
Practicing how to [do the work]. Getting good at [doing the work]. If you get good enough at [doing the work], the [outcome] takes care of itself.
It turns out that all this dropping is the hardest part for some-one who is leaning to [do the work]. If makes them really uncomfortable to [put a piece of work into the world] and then stand there as it drops to the ground.
…
For those who persist, the process quickly gathers momentum…. There’s no problem, because the throws are where they should be, rehearsed and consistent… Our work is about throwing. The catching can take care of itself.
Seth Godin, The Practice, with some [paraphrasing].
My thanks and appreciation to Seth Godin for his very generous work.