Practice, Not Performance
“On the first day of class, Jerry Uelsmann, a professor at the University of Florida, divided his film photography students into two groups.
Everyone on the left side of the classroom, he explained, would be in the “quantity” group. They would be graded solely on the amount of work they produced. On the final day of class, he would tally the number of photos submitted by each student. One hundred photos would rate an A, ninety photos a B, eighty photos a C, and so on.
Meanwhile, everyone on the right side of the room would be in the “quality” group. They would be graded only on the excellence of their work. They would only need to produce one photo during the semester, but to get an A, it had to be a nearly perfect image.
At the end of the term, he was surprised to find that all the best photos were produced by the quantity group. During the semester, these students were busy taking photos, experimenting with composition and lighting, testing out various methods in the darkroom, and learning from their mistakes. In the process of creating hundreds of photos, they honed their skills.
Meanwhile, the quality group sat around speculating about perfection. In the end, they had little to show for their efforts other than unverified theories and one mediocre photo.
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This anecdote perfectly encapsulates what I like to call the practice vs. performance mentalities.
A practice mentality is one that consistently explores creative new ideas and learns from each experience. A performance mentality is focused on the appearance of skill.
The quantity group focused solely on practicing their craft and benefited greatly from it. On the other hand, the quality group focused on performing at a certain level and ended up improving very little.
I’ve learned that when I can implement a practice mentality in my life, every experience is enriching. In time, I can create and achieve beyond what I expected. When I get caught in a performance mentality, I find myself distracted by the focus on appearances and limited in what I can achieve.
With a practice mentality, every experience is meaningful. Setbacks and successes are both creative explorations, loaded with opportunities to grow. With a performance mentality, setbacks are disheartening, and even successes are less fulfilling.
These two differing approaches can stem from opposing views on the nature of ability: a growth mindset vs. a static mindset.
A growth mindset believes that ability can be improved through effort and practice. A static mindset believes ability is more static and largely due to natural talent.
A growth mindset facilitates a practice mentality while a static mindset can lead to a performance mentality. When ability is viewed as static, the focus isn’t on improving but on proving that ability exists.
I find a static mindset to be very limiting. There are setbacks in every endeavor, no matter how talented a person is. A growth mindset has the tools to work through these setbacks and be stronger from them while a static mindset tends to lead to the desire to give up.
In addition, research on the brain supports a growth mindset as a more accurate representation of the brain—due to neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to form and reorganize synaptic connections—essentially, it’s the brain’s ability to develop and change as we learn.
More and more, neuroscientists are discovering the brain is far more neuroplastic than initially thought. We aren’t limited by our brain’s current physical form. In fact, our brains change physically based on learning and practice.
For me, the point of this blog is to apply a practice mentality to my writing and the process of sharing it. I hope to become a better writer and understand readers more by exploring ideas and trying out different writing styles and building from each experience.
With each piece I write, I’m likely to see how it could’ve been a bit better and hopefully I’ll be able to bring that forward into the next one. With each idea I explore, I’ll likely see areas where I have more to learn.
I get nervous as I write these posts in ways that I don’t when I work on my novel. My novel is in the first draft stage. I know I’ll likely make plenty more edits because I have to worry about another soul considering what I’ve written. With these posts, I can feel the eyes that are going to be reading these words in hours or even minutes.
When I really think about it, I feel a tension in my wrists, my fingers getting a little shaky at the keyboard, and my mind getting a little blurry in nervousness. Odd as it sounds, that’s the point. This is me at the edges of my comfort zone as a writer, learning to push through–so that when it comes time to share my novel and all the other pieces of writing I’m hoping to create in the future, I’ll be ready.
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