Our single greatest vulnerability in the climb to success is getting in our own way. It's the voice that we hear in our heads that tells us that we've done enough, that taking a break might be what we need (even though we haven't earned a break yet)...
Getting out of your own way isn't about just working super hard until you drop to the ground exhausted. It's about doing what you know is right.
Only you know how much you need to work and only you know how hard you need to fight. If you don't put in enough work and enough of the hard work, then you know that you're not doing what it takes to succeed.
Failure isn't something you should take lightly either. Failure is a lesson. Every time you fail at something, you have in front of you some hard evidence about how to succeed the next time.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”-Thomas A. Edison
As the old saying goes: if you don't succeed then try again.
What makes stories about heroes so good is that they fail at first. If the hero just succeeded the first try every single time they chased the bad guy, then it wouldn't be exciting, challenging or intriguing.
It wouldn't be worth it if the pursuit wasn't hard in and of itself.
I love to do things that are hard and that require me to fail at first and then work hard to improve so that I can succeed in the future.
Using the mistakes of the past is an essential skill in your climb to success. Every rung of the ladder that you misstep is an opportunity to learn how to make the step the next time. Never forget that.
Writing is a tough discipline. I'd say that when I sit down to write, I actually don't want to write at least 50% of the time. I have no desire to write anything at all. I'd rather do just about anything else.
Each day though I have cultivated this habit of writing no matter what. No matter what happens in my life, no matter how sick or how tired I feel, I always keep that habit of just sitting down 1 more time to write.
That's how I approach each day: try your hardest just 1 more time. And then the next day: try your hardest 1 more time.
