Slow Down…

…even if you are going to lose. Learning how to overcome loss is more valuable than a win.

Take your hits, get up, and get hit again. After a while, you’ll learn how to avoid the hits.

This outlook applies well to writing and art in general. Our beginnings are fraught with errors and these can be discouraging. But we all have to make them. We all have to go through it. Those of us who manage to stick to it, take the hits to our ego, and come back for more will be stronger for it.

It is not an easy path. The steps hurt.

Artists are impatient for success, for some affirmation that they are doing good work. We must work understanding that such gratification may never come.

We are not going for success. We are going for growth — and nothing helps you grow more than a nice black eye.