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Edmond's avatar

I really needed to read this. So timely, thank you.

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Isabel's avatar

Love this. Especially: "I think it’s critical to show up when you’re feeling imperfect. The way you do one thing is the way you do everything. And it’s important to calibrate yourself toward genuine effort. Penning the first few words. Performing a full concert to an empty room. Putting in the work when every cell in your body professes I am really tired and I do not want to."

When I used to do competitive gymnastics, our coaches made it a point to emphasize how important it was to train hard on the days you were sore, in pain, and didn't want to come in. Whether you could do everything or not, it was *critical* that you showed up. When we would fall or hurt ourselves on a skill, we got right back up and had to do the skill 3 more times until we knew we weren't scared of it, so that we wouldn't resent it forever. This was a critical lesson for me: show up, push through, even when (especially when!) you really do not want to. That is when the craft gets honed. Not because that is necessarily when you'll produce your best work, but because to produce your best work, you need to be consistent, and indifferent to how you feel about the act of doing the work. The pen needs to hit the page for the ideas to flow through it.

I've always believed excellence is mostly about persistence, and this piece articulates why quite well. Thank you for writing it <3

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