Sterling Terrell

smart ideas from books

Continued To Write

Continued To Write

This quote is a complete allegory about why writers that have continued to write win out over those that quit.

Stop writing today – and I guarantee what will happen. Keep going – and the possibilities are endless.

Which will you choose?

Understand: Persistence is not a cliche theme, it’s nearly everything.

If anyone is wondering, the answer is yes.

I am still writing.

Always.

Twenty-five years later, by chance, I won a Pulitzer Prize for Lonesome Dove, after which my times with Ken were never quite the same. In time, if he had continued to write, he probably would have won a Pulitzer too. I now think that the wrinkle in our friendship had been there before my Pulitzer, and had to do with the fact that I had kept writing and he had (mainly) stopped. Once I asked him directly if he intended to write any more novels and he sort of shrugged. “If you’ve made two fairly high mountains why make a third?” he said.

-Larry McMurtry, Literary Life

Hard Work And Discipline

Hard Work And Discipline

I don’t want to write a post about hard work and discipline.

You know why?

Because nobody wants to hear it. I don’t relish in it either.

It sucks.

We want the hack, the shortcut, the cheat.

I mean, who wants to hear that the only way to build or do anything meaningful is to consistently work your face off over a long period of time.

Don’t get me wrong. You can inherit money, or have a friend give you a job, or win the lottery. But all those things are people giving you something.

I am talking about starting with nothing and creating something yourself.

  • You get better at pull-ups by working hard at pull-ups for a summer or two.
  • You learn to walk by falling down over and over.
  • And you build a blog by posting everyday for a decade or two.

Understand: The grit of it all will get you a long way down the road.

Franklin, 50, and Zen Master Hakuin all agree.

“No problem, Marc. And I want you to remember something: This isn’t just about pull-ups. You know what else this is about?” I wasn’t quite sure. “I don’t know.” Uncle Jake grabbed me by both shoulders and looked me straight in the eyes and said gravely, “This is about everything. Everything. Just think, two months ago, you couldn’t do any pull-ups. At all. Zero. Now you can do TEN. All it took was a good plan and the discipline to execute the plan. To DO IT. That’s what it takes. And you can apply that to just about anything. If you are willing to do the work—you can make things happen. And like I told you, no one else is going to do the work for you. Sure, you might get some help along the way. But you might not. Who knows? What we do know is this: Hard work and discipline are how you achieve things. You have to make things happen. And that is exactly what you did here, and what you can do with almost anything in life. Remember that.”

-Jocko Willink, The Way Of The Warrior Kid