Whatever you want to get better at, stick with it.

I remember this – almost daily – with my writing.

See, most successful writers begin writing in high school or college. They work for the school paper and get a degree in Journalism or English.

At 22 they get a job as a reporter or staff writer somewhere. They start blogs or become editors and, at some point, eventually get a book deal or work their way into a syndicated column.

Most of this “success” happens between the age of 40 and 50.

My point is this: Most successful writers have been steadily writing for over 20 years!

So why beat myself up over something I have been doing, consistently, for less than five years?

You don’t get down on yourself either.

Most people successful at anything have been doing it for over 10 years.

Because the truth is that getting better takes time.

This is true for agriculture, and for our theology.

So don’t quit.

Because prodigy is a myth. And because Benjamin Franklin and 50 Cent agree.

You can quit tomorrow maybe, but not today. Ok?

Don’t quit today.

If I were learning to play the piano, I wouldn’t denigrate myself if I wasn’t any good at it when I started. Even after five or six years of practice, I’d be getting better but would be nowhere near as good as someone who had been working at it for more than ten years. That would be expected. So why did I quickly shame myself and feel awful because I wasn’t already a master at business and writing? These were learned skills too. This revelation switched my entire attitude toward my work. My job was to stick with it and keep going . . . to use duct tape and chewing gum if necessary to keep my shoes together . . . to do whatever was necessary to just keep crawling in the direction I was heading.

-Tim Grahl, Running Down A Dream