A baseball story: “Rabbit” Maranville was a shortstop for the Boston Braves in the early twentieth century. Early in a disastrous season, he and his major-league team lost an exhibition game to minor-league players — a stunning, stinging defeat. After the loss, Rabbit threw his glove against his locker and said, “I can play better than this!” Then he turned to a teammate and asked, “How about you?” One by one his teammates all admitted that they could play better than they’d been playing and right then and there, they decided to do exactly that.

Fired up by their fiery shortstop, the team went on to have an amazing season and beat a legendary rival team in all four games of a series — an amazing feat.*

What’s our takeaway here? The power of one person, one idea, or one goal to start an inner fire — to motivate a major shift by deciding to do more — to put in more effort.

“I can play better than this!” Can we say the same about our writing?

Can we bring more energy, more effort, and more heart to the page? Can we bring a winning attitude to our work?

Energy, effort, and a can-do attitude — all these are within our power. All these are qualities we can cultivate. And when we bring them to our writing, who knows what we can accomplish!

“When you have the attitude and effort, the skill is not far behind.” I keep a piece of paper with this written on it where I see it every day.

Attitude + Effort = Skill. What a simple recipe for success! Let’s remember it today as we all write on.

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*This story comes to us via Dr. Rob Gilbert’s motivational daily pep talk. Check it out at “The Success Hotline Podcast.”