“By consistently putting in extra effort when you’re ready to quit, you’ll make your second wind second nature.” I have all sorts of little motivational messages to myself scattered around my office. I find them in piles of papers or tacked up on bulletin boards. Just recently, this one caught my eye. I knew I had to share it.

Once again:  “By consistently putting in extra effort when you’re ready to quit, you’ll make your second wind second nature.” Let’s decode this:

“By consistently putting in extra effort” — by making it a point to push ourselves to do more than we think we can on a regular basis …

“when you’re ready to quit” — when we hear that little voice inside saying we’re too tired, or it’s too hard, or we can do it tomorrow ….

“you’ll make your second wind” — that burst of energy that gives us an extra dose of will or inspiration that we can draw on even when the well seems empty …

“second nature” — we will find ourselves taking that extra step — putting in that extra time and creativity — without even thinking about it.

So let’s put it all together: By consistently pushing ourselves to do more even when we feel like stopping and giving up, we’ll train ourselves to tap into that extra dose of energy and creativity so that it becomes a habit. Finding a “second wind” won’t just happen sometimes, it will happen all the time. What a powerful promise.

Can we do this? Can we start putting in a little extra effort whenever we sit down to write?

Can we rewrite a pesky paragraph one more time even though its bedeviling us?

Can we work for 15 minutes more, even though we feel like stopping?

Can we write two more emails about a project we’re working on?

Can we read a few more pages in a craft guide and jot down a few more ideas?

Yes, we can do any and all of these. Make doing a little more a habit and pretty soon, that little more adds up to a lot — and we’re making steady progress. That’s exciting!

Extra effort is a choice we can make. And if we make that choice every day, even in small ways, we’re building a habit that will give us a huge payoff as we all write on.