Part of the reason creative people jump from project to project might be because they haven’t found the thing they love yet. But a more likely explanation is that they have unrealistic expectations for their work.

As a younger creator, this would be all I could have daydreamed about. My favorite living author reshared my work. Now that I have more experience, I realize this is just another day.

“I don’t believe in draining the reservoir, do you see? I believe in getting up from the typewriter, away from it, while I still have things to say.”

This is something I started telling myself when I realized I couldn’t be everything for everybody.

We say we want to direct films, write novels, and perform on stage, but we don’t put in the work to get there.

“The Self-Confidence Jar (SCJ) concept is simple,” Hickman says. “Every time you make a promise to yourself and keep it, you are adding a ball to the SCJ. Every time you make a promise to yourself and break it, you are taking out a ball from the SCJ.” 

I have a lot of motivational tricks to keep me writing. But at the heart of those tricks is love. They wouldn’t work if I didn’t love it.

I’m not turning down millions of dollars by any stretch, but taking time off work to write my book has been its own challenge.

“[The professional] respects the resistance. He knows if he caves in today, no matter how plausible the pretext, he’ll be twice as likely to cave in tomorrow.”

When I really don’t want to write my daily blog (or train for this marathon, or write my book, or create content) I’ve started telling myself something…

Beloved golfer Rory McIlroy blew a 1-shot lead with three holes to go in the US Open by missing two putts under 3 feet. He absolutely choked. In his caption, Ben Rector wrote how it crushed him to see Rory so close but then crumble on national television. 

I’m encountering a new kind of resistance with this project. This week so far has felt a little lonely.

“You have to finish everything you said you're going to do. Following through is important.”

“If I can dissuade you from doing it, you wouldn’t have been successful anyway.”

Just ask God. He lost a lot to do it, but he had to do it, right?

It’s easy to be envious in this business. As creatives, our work is so visible, our clients are status symbols, and our lifestyles are showcased to prove we’re legit.

Maybe what I’m making today isn’t a masterpiece. But I’m still making it today. Maybe it won’t lead me to anything magnificent down the road. But maybe it will.

He didn’t play 2,632 games in a row because he never got hurt, or because he was in perfect shape, or because he was always the best player on the field.

You know that you’ve tried to be consistent in the past, but failed. Understanding why that happened, and what you might need to do to avoid failure in the future is what leads to success.

My legs don’t start to hurt until the last lap. That’s where all the gains lie. I just have to run for two hours before I get them.