365 Days With Self-Discipline: 365 Life-Altering Thoughts on Self-Control, Mental Resilience, and Success

Day 69: On Climbing Steep Hills

To climb steep hills

Requires slow pace at first.

—William Shakespeare

 

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If  you  think  of  your  goal  as  a  steep  hill,  imagine  how  ridiculous  it

would be to stop midway just because you’re slowly scrambling up instead

of  sprinting  all  the  way  to  the  top.  That’s  precisely  what  many  people  do

when they start working on a new goal and realize that the journey will take

longer than they expected.

What  difference  does  it  make  that  reaching  a  goal  takes  you  longer

than you planned? If you want to climb a steep hill, will you stop climbing

it because you can’t climb it in two hours, but can in three? Will you retreat

to  the  bottom  of  the  hill  and  forever  stare  at  its  peak,  frustrated  by  the

dissatisfying pace of the climb?

Another  mistake  is  the  assumption  that  if  something  is  slow  in  the

beginning, it will stay that way.

When  I  started  my  career  as  a  self-published  author,  I  tried  several

different genres. Things were going slow at the beginning because I needed

to  figure  out  which  genre  and  style  fitted  me  best.  Once  I  established  the

proper  direction,  I  released  my  first  bestseller,  then  the  second,  and  soon

there was a snowball effect. How wise would it have been to give up during

the first several months, frustrated by the slow pace?

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