Practice.
The art of doing something repeatedly over time, to gain mastery over whatever the craft is, and replicate it with ease.
Based on our last conversation, where we looked at value as the intrinsic indicator for purpose—and the driving force behind why and how we do what we do—it became clear that what you do should come as an expression of who you are, and not the inverse.
If you haven’t yet listened to that episode, the core takeaway is simple: self-discovery should become your priority.
And self-discovery is not the pursuit of feelings or desire. It is the practice of analyzing where you are on all levels—mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially—and understanding how those positions shape your perception, your identity, and how you act.
As you discover who you are, you begin to see your value without the noise of society’s evaluations of your actions.
People often say actions speak louder than words. I think that’s because we don’t sit long enough with people’s words to understand them. We’re more comfortable pre-judging based on deeds—sometimes even before we see the fruit of whatever process they’re engaged in.
So let’s further explore purpose.
Because when you realize that you function from an understanding of your intrinsic value, you become exponentially better at your role. And as you begin to recognize your value outside of the accolades you receive, practice becomes the natural progression.
It is wisdom to practice what you know—because practice solidifies understanding. And practice is easier when it’s grounded in value.
Prolific Obsession
I’ve consumed a considerable amount of content about people who were bold—or crazy—enough to believe they could change the world, shift culture, and become successful doing so. And the consistent theme across these stories is this: they were obsessively prolific with their craft.
To be prolific simply means to produce a lot of similar things, from the same process.
These individuals generate countless iterations of the same ideas, often gathering teams of like-minded people to help scale their vision. And almost every time, only a few of those ideas become the Eureka moments that gradually reshape cultural perspectives and redefine what’s possible.
I’ve come to realize that it is this obsession—a relentless devotion to the process of making, creating, and producing again and again—that transforms ordinary people into historical moments of human achievement.
I recently listened to an autobiography summary on a podcast I’d recommend to anyone interested in studying the minds behind creative giants. The podcast is called Founders. One episode focused on the life of Cristóbal Balenciaga—episode 315, I believe—who was referred to by Christian Dior as “the master of us all.”
What stood out about Balenciaga was his prolific obsession with dressmaking. It went beyond devotion—it bordered on reverence. One writer described it this way: “For Balenciaga, adorning the female body with beautiful and comfortable dresses was a high form of worship.”
He approached fabric the way a sculptor approaches marble—cutting, draping, refining—until the form itself felt divine.
With that level of devotion, it’s almost impossible not to leave an indelible mark on culture. He didn’t just make dresses; he designed a language—one that still echoes in modern fashion today.
And Balenciaga isn’t unique. Across disciplines—aviation with the Wright brothers, basketball with Kobe Bryant—this same theme emerges. What sets these people apart is not luck or talent alone, but a consistent, devoted practice of their craft.
So I’ve come to believe this:
Practice is devoted obsession to whatever you create.
Luck, Favor, and Preparation
This led me to a realization: maybe luck—or chance, or whatever you want to call it—is really just calculated favor.
Maybe luck is the natural byproduct of relentless practice. Maybe fortune really does favor the bold.
Because it’s when all those unseen hours—the repetition, the obsession, the failed iterations—create conditions where favorable outcomes become inevitable.
I don’t think luck is coincidental. I think it’s when preparation meets opportunity—a moment where everything you’ve poured into the process converges with the world.
This gives weight to what Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes: “The race is not to the swift… but time and chance happen to them all.”
Here’s the paradox though—it doesn’t feel earned. It doesn’t feel deserved. What it feels like is necessity. A compulsion to keep practicing, to keep making, because you’ve fallen in love with this expression of yourself. And when favor arrives, it isn’t luck—it’s the echo of obsession manifesting in reality.
Practice as Worship
Let’s come up for air for a moment.
There’s something strange about our time—we seem to have lost the art of worshipping the divine through the work of our hands. Yet in Scripture, one of the earliest instances of people being filled with the Spirit of God is found in craftsmen: Bezalel and Oholiab in Exodus 31.
They worked with their hands. They were artisans. And they must have arrived at mastery through devotion-led practice—likely through obsession.
Here’s what I believe: because we are reflections of who God is, what we do becomes a reflection of what He does. When we practice our craft with devotion, creativity becomes an act of alignment.
There is favor in faithfulness to craft. Not because of outcomes—but because of devotion.
But before you can become obsessively prolific, you must begin with discovery. You must discover who you are. And often, the easiest way to do that is by studying those who’ve gone ahead of you—those who’ve walked paths you desire to explore.
In tracing how they discovered themselves, you begin to discover yourself.
And usually, that path leads back to the source of light.
When you discover the source, you align yourself as a prism—reflecting multiple expressions of that singular light. This is how creativity multiplies meaning.
So practice more. Practice faithfully. Practice obsessively.
Because practice increases mastery—and it can become an expression of worship.
Next episode: show.