4 Words You Need to Hear Today
It’s safe to say my writing career, my success at my “real job,” or even these words you’re reading right now would not exist if I hadn’t been told the words I’m about to tell you:
You can do it.
Yes, you, with your doubts and your fears and your inadequacy. Yes, you, who up until this point may have been too afraid to try lest you fail, too afraid to leap lest you fall.
Yes, you, human.
You can do it.
The arena is noisier than ever. You will have to cut through a lot of the trash. Artists are appreciated little, and can often be paid even less.
You can do it.
No, you do not have the ability to do it overnight.
No, you will not gain a following in days or months or probably even a year.
No, you do not have enough talent yet.
No, there are not “10 Easy Ways” there.
But you can do it.
There will be people who will doubt you.
There will be people who will mock you.
There will be people who will leave you.
But you can do it.
I read once that there are two types of writers in the world: Those who succeed and those who quit.
You can do it.
Read these words 100 times. Read them every day. Say them to yourself when you are sitting in the pit of self-doubt. Recite them when you feel like a fraud. And you will often feel like a fraud.
You can do it.
When your very biology is crying out that you stop, that you stay safe, that you need more sleep, that you should get a secure job, ignore it and go on.
Because you can do it.
If you promise not to listen to anyone who tells you the route to being an artist is easy, that you are only a couple clicks away from fame and fortune, I will promise to tell you this truth as often as I can:
Being an artist sucks sometimes.
It’s only worth it for the people who were born into the world with the quiet but insistent suspicion they were meant to change it.
You can do it.
It’s not easy. But you can do it.
