“To some people, I am a kind of Merlin who takes lots of crazy chances, but rarely makes mistakes. I’ve made some bad ones, but fortunately, the successes have come along fast enough to cover up the mistakes. When you go to bat as many times as I do, you’re bound to get a good average.” Walt Disney

Walt had his share of flops along the way to building his dream, but like the great Babe Ruth, he never let his strikeouts discourage him. What mattered was getting up to bat again because every at bat held the promise of something wonderful — a stunning success.

As writers, our field of play is the page. And we have our hits and our misses. But the misses don’t matter and the hits only come our way if we’re up at the plate and swinging. We’re at bat when we:

Start writing even when we don’t feel like it — we push past our feelings and find the gold on the other side.

Keep writing even when we feel like quitting — pushing ourselves to write one more word, one more sentence, one more paragraph or page.

Keep submitting, even when we’re rejected — it’s tough having our work passed on, but resubmitting increases our chances of success.

Keep improving our craft — doing whatever it takes to push our writing to the next level, knowing that better writing leads to better results.

Whenever Babe Ruth got up to bat, he gave a full effort. Whether the crowd cheered him or jeered him, he kept on swinging, always aiming for a home run. He once told a reporter, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” Let’s remember his words as we all write on!