Patience + Persistence = Progress

This is how you get from where you are to where you want to be

We’ve all read articles about writers who made it big quickly. While it’s good to aspire to greatness, most of us may never make it into the gazillion-dollar category. Yes, we can make a good living, but only a very few can buy ranches in Wyoming or a summer house on Lake Como. Does this mean we shouldn’t try? Hell, no.

Today I was catching up on reading and responding to articles and was inspired to write this article from an article by Tom Kuegler — The Most Brutal Writing Advice You’ll Ever Hear From Me.

Patience

Patience is the writer’s best friend, which is somewhat ironic since I’m known for being a highly impatient person. But I have learned that the profession of writing is on an upward trajectory with flatlines in places. The flatlines are like the doldrums at sea — days and nights of no wind. Just drifting and slowly going crazy. Making very little or no progress.

When this happens, patience can help us. It’s our ability to lean into where we are and what is happening with equanimity. It’s acceptance, so we wait, knowing that the wind will come up, and we’ll move forward again. Interestingly, as I think back to when things flatlined in my business, the wind for my sails came back with a roar that propelled me forward much faster than I could have expected.

”Patience is not the ability to wait. Patience is to be calm no matter what happens, constantly take action to turn it to positive growth opportunities, and have faith to believe that it will all work out in the end while you are waiting.” — Roy T. Bennett

Persistence

When things flatline, we are tempted to slack off or even give up; this is the time when we need to redouble our efforts. Persistence is having the stamina and confidence to keep going no matter what. We stay the course and keep our eyes fixed on our goal, our reason for doing the work.

We objectively assess what we’re doing and how we’re doing it and then decide how we can be better. We experiment and play with different approaches, styles, types of writing and expand beyond the familiar into new topics and forms.

No one becomes as good as is possible; everyone can do better, be better, learn more, become more. All we need is to improve just 1% and then another 1%, and before long we’ll have made a 100% improvement. Just because we haven’t made it yet doesn’t mean we won’t make it.

“You never know what’s around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain.” — Tom Hiddleston

Progress

Progress is the sum of our patience and persistence; it’s how we build a professional writing/editing business. As long as we’re making progress, as long as we’re moving forward, albeit slowly, we gain momentum, and the journey becomes easier. But the journey never ends. Sometimes, we’re up; sometimes, we’re down; sometimes, we’re upside-down. But we always keep on going, growing, and gaining ground.

Like the Möbius strip, our journey as a writer/editor never ends.

Thanks for reading, Patricia

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