I’ve been writing a weekly blog in this format for about five years.
Each week when I start, at first the writing is really rubbish.
My self-evaluation as I’m writing usually sounds like this:
- This is garbage.
- This is garbage.
- This is garbage.
- This is garbage.
- Well, maybe not all of this is garbage.
- I suppose this part is useful.
- Now it’s coming together.
- Now I’m proud of it.
I used to think this exertion was a sign of my incompetence as a writer. But after reading countless artists, engineers and entrepreneurs describe a similar experience, I realized that this is simply part of the process for doing innovative work. The most important ingredient is persistence.
It’s true for writing, but really it’s true for any endeavor that requires creativity and courage:
- Creating a new product or marketing campaign.
- Stepping into a new leadership position.
- Changing your pricing strategy.
- Selling to a new influential client.
The output doesn’t have to look primitive at the start, but often it just does. Don’t let that be a reason to stop.
Some questions:
- What have you started building that just needs persistence?
- What makes you stop?
- What would it take to keep going a little further?
- What would it mean to you, if this is successful?
When you stop stopping yourself, you become…unstoppable.
