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Posts Tagged ‘persistence’

“Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.”

— Earl Nightingale

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Photo by Arturo Castaneyra on Unsplash

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A lot of my work relies on habit. Be it the day job, chores, calling the parental units, these daily posts or other creative work, I made space for everything in my week. When the time came, I’d do the thing. Easy and good, a puzzle with all the pieces in place.

The problem with a system like that? Change. When one of those pieces breaks, is lost, grows in size, or (running out of puzzle-related associations, but you get the idea) otherwise shifts in ways that alter the system, the associated habits can break too.

For a long time, my habit was to spend an hour or so writing with breakfast, then shift over to the day job. But when my work schedule changed, my dedicated writing time disappeared too. 

In sum: I’m not writing enough. Grr.

Time to get back to basics and rebuild my schedule. 

Step one? Remember that urgency isn’t everything. Make time for what’s important.

“Everything is habit-forming, so make sure what you do is what you want to be doing.”

— Wilt Chamberlain

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Photo by Elena Koycheva on Unsplash

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“A word after a word after a word is power.”

— Margaret Atwood

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Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

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“Beginning is underrated. Merely beginning. With inadequate preparation, because you will never be fully prepared. With imperfect odds of success, because the odds are never perfect. Begin. With the humility of someone who’s not sure, and the excitement of someone who knows that it’s possible.”

— Seth Godin

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Photo by shawnanggg on Unsplash

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“You’ve got to make the big time where you are.”

— Matt Lynch, University of South Carolina Salkehatchie Men’s Basketball Coach

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Photo by Sam Mathews on Unsplash

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“Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.”

― Steve Martin

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Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

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For anyone facing a challenge today, two quotes:

“…very often a risk is worth taking simply for the sake of taking it. There is something enlivening about expanding our self-definition, and a risk does exactly that. Selecting a challenge and meeting it creates a sense of self-empowerment that becomes the ground for further successful challenges.”

— Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

“So do it. If you win, you win, and if you lose, you win.”

— Jake La Motta, Raging Bull

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Photo by Wesley Eland on Unsplash

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I recently had an article featured in the Winter 2024 edition of Review Tales. (I’d share the essay but unfortunately it’s not freely available.) If you click through the magazine links, you’ll see my article highlighted in the bottom right-hand corner of the cover. I’m writing about something with which I am all too familiar! “When the Muse Takes a Holiday.”

* Find Review Tales at Amazon and B&N.

I will say that the promotional elements of creative work can be a little challenging. I’ve never been that comfortable talking about myself. 

It’s not about me, I want to say. Art is about us, and the world we create together. 

“It can seem like it’s about, Look at me! Like me! Approve of me!’, but I think it’s really about finding your people. It’s about connections, especially when you grow up feeling different and like you don’t have a community. Through art, you’re able to find that community, which is a wonderful thing.”

Maya Erskine, on why she’s drawn to acting despite “a childhood in which she desperately wanted to blend in”

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Photo by Barry Weatherall on Unsplash

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“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don‘t give up.”

— Anne Lamott

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Photo by peace world 🌎 on Unsplash

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“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

— Thomas Edison

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Photo by Sebastian Knoll on Unsplash

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