“The race is not always to the swift but to those who keep on running.”   Author Unknown

Author unknown. Well, whoever he or she is, this person may have been a writer. Surely, we can all do with a reminder that it’s not always swiftness that wins a race — staying power also counts for a lot. In fact, it can make all the difference:

Staying power lets you stay in the game when others have quit. It gives you the drive and tenacity to keep revising, keep submitting, keep improving your work until it shines and sparkles. Until it’s so good they can’t ignore you.

Staying power gives you the second wind that often releases untapped creativity. When you keep going past the point where you feel like quitting, the extra reserves that we all have just waiting for us kick in. You find new energy, new ideas, new approaches in the space between stopping and pushing forward.

Staying power ignites commitment and commitment ignites the will to succeed and persevere. When you commit to something, fully and with all the will power at your command, the universe takes notice and supports you.

Staying power releases energy. When you focus on swiftness, it’s easy to exhaust yourself. You have one good kick at the beginning of a project and then you fizzle out. But when you focus on staying power — on steadily moving forward — your energy feeds on itself, slowly but surely, and you find that the more you use, the more you have

How do we find this kind of staying power? It’s waiting inside all of us. We find it word by word, day by day. We find it by showing up and doing the work. We find it by acting differently than we feel — pushing on when those momentary bouts of wanting to quit hit us. We simply ignore them and keep on going, keep on writing. Write on!!