“Gold medals aren’t really made of gold, they’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.” Dan Gable

“To be a consistent winner means preparing not just one day, one month, or even one year, but for a lifetime.” Bill Rodgers

“To do anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” Steve Prefontaine

Gold Medals are made of sweat, determination, and guts — I love this! Who knows better than elite athletes what it takes to excel, to make a mark, to beat the odds?

I just heard an amazing statistic: For every 20 minutes a professional athlete spends performing on a court or on the field, he or she spends 20 hours practicing and training.

Isn’t that incredible? Think about the number of hours it takes an athlete to get to the top — it’s mind-boggling. All that practice when no one is watching — even when they’ve earned their success and when there are dozens of other ways to spend their time.

And what about us? As writers, our field of play is the page. How much time are we willing to put in to improve our craft? How much focused, deliberate practice are we going to commit to get better at what we do?

It’s easy to think that any writer we admire arrived at their style and success easily because, like any pro, they make mastery look easy. And yet, how many pages of theirs lie on the cutting-room floor and how many projects they lavished time and attention on never saw the light of day or found their way into the hands of readers?

So when we feel low or discouraged, let’s remember what gold medals are made of: sweat, determination, and guts. These are all available to us, every day, all the time. We have all these to give our work — more than enough of them, I’m sure. Write on!