Q – What do getting a massage, reading about Newt Gingrich and pottery have in common?

A – A seed for a blog post planted, watered by an article in the NY Times and then fertilized by an analogy for both.

I received a wonderful massage yesterday afternoon from a young woman in Black Rock. As we were chatting afterwards, she mentioned two things. One, that she and her husband were planning a four-month sabbatical to India. Possibly six months. And, two, what did I think of the idea of her starting an improvisational dance program between now and then. BTW, she has a successful and growing massage practice.

I told her about a lesson I learned from reading The Work of Craft. It’s about a person who loves doing things with her hands. This person takes up pottery and masters centering clay on the wheel in about a week. She begins to raise the walls of the pot and creates many bowls and vases for friends and family; maybe even sells a bunch. Then it begins to get harder. To create those beautiful thin-walled pots and vases is difficult. It may takes months or years to perfect this, so why not take up macrame or weaving where the learning curve to competence will again be fast?

It’s the staying in the learning times that brings mastery. It’s easy and rewarding to jump ship and try something else. You can say, “I know how to throw pots and warp a loom.” But what do you really want? My massage therapist friend got it immediately. “It’s a distraction, isn’t it?”

This morning, reading about Newt Gingrich and his departed band of strategists I saw these quotes:

“[They’re – referring to Mr. and Mrs. Gingrich] not doing enough to dedicate themselves to the hard work and the unglamorous aspects  [of the campaign]”

and

His strategists demanded that he “curtail distractions like screenings of his documentaries.”

It’s the dailiness of entrepreneurship (and life) and sticking to it no matter what that gets the big results. Do you have any unglamorous aspects to attend to today? I wish you a distraction-free day.