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aggyrun's review against another edition
4.0
Like many other things I've been reading lately really pushes meditation. I thought it was pretty cool where they talked about the minds of Asia archers and how they focused on the process of drawing the bow and releasing it rather than the end result. And how western minds focus more on hitting the bullseye, yet the Asians were the ones winning.
brendanford's review against another edition
2.0
Sage advice expounded far more eloquently and effectively by other authors. Read the stoics instead.
michael_taylor's review against another edition
4.0
The Practicing Mind is probably the closest a self help book is going to come to being tailor made for me. The author uses his life of practicing music to inform the writing of this book. The examples are very clear cut and in plain language. No room for misinterpretation here - be in the present moment and enjoy the process of practice. That's it. If you can do that then then everything else flows from that. I liked that he used examples from different areas of study to highlight his points (I'm not a golfer, but I understood what he was trying to communicate).
I was already following most of his advice regarding practicing an art form (keep a journal, being present in the moment) but I liked how he discussed applying that mind set to all aspects of life. If you think about everything as something to be practiced suddenly they aren't monotonous tasks anymore.
I only have two complaints. One is the nature of self help books. They can become repetitive fast. Especially in this case where the author tells you "Hey listen, I'm not re inventing the wheel here. Just do what I do". The second complaint is due to the format I listed to this in (audio book). The author does his own narration. And while he isn't terrible he also has a very calm, monotone voice. He sounds like the voice you used to hear on instructional video tapes on VHS in the 80 & 90s. You can become so present in his calm, droning voice that you catch yourself falling asleep while driving listening to this. Stay alive! Be present while READING this book in a quiet room that isn't flying down the highway.
I was already following most of his advice regarding practicing an art form (keep a journal, being present in the moment) but I liked how he discussed applying that mind set to all aspects of life. If you think about everything as something to be practiced suddenly they aren't monotonous tasks anymore.
I only have two complaints. One is the nature of self help books. They can become repetitive fast. Especially in this case where the author tells you "Hey listen, I'm not re inventing the wheel here. Just do what I do". The second complaint is due to the format I listed to this in (audio book). The author does his own narration. And while he isn't terrible he also has a very calm, monotone voice. He sounds like the voice you used to hear on instructional video tapes on VHS in the 80 & 90s. You can become so present in his calm, droning voice that you catch yourself falling asleep while driving listening to this. Stay alive! Be present while READING this book in a quiet room that isn't flying down the highway.
s_books's review against another edition
3.0
A paradox of life: The problem with patience and discipline is that developing each of them requires both of them.This is a good, not very long book about...well, I guess technically it would be some sort of mindfulness but about letting go of focusing on the effect/someday and only putting your attention on the now, truly being in the moment. Most of the book is about why you should try to live your life this way and only towards the end does Sterner get into the how of doing so. Sterner states in the book that he wanted people to be able to pick up the book and start reading from anywhere but sense there's no bullet points or anything and most of the how is towards the end, I'm not sure that goal was fully accomplished. Probably a good book to read if you find yourself impatient with the process of something and just wanting to skip towards the end which (spoiler alert) either doesn't actually exist or will not give you as much satisfaction as you expect.
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