It’s December 2, and I recently completed National Novel Writing Month. I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo every year since 2008. Of those years, I’ve “won” thirteen times. To “win” doesn’t mean anything more than the completion of writing 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30. There is no monetary prize, guaranteed contract or trophy. Mostly, the reward is the writing itself. This year, I was way behind and had plenty of excuses why I couldn’t finish, but in the last week I decided to do it anyway.
The best way to learn to do anything is to do it anyway
Time and again, it comes back to this. If you want to become a good writer, you must write and write. If you want to become a fast runner, you must run and run. If you want to get better at something, you do it, and do it, and do it, and eventually it stands to reason, you’ll probably get good at it. Some say it takes 10,000 hours to master something, so if you give up before that, you aren’t giving yourself a fair chance. When you’re sick of trying or it looks hard, that’s when it’s most important to do it anyway.
As the year closes, choose something hard and do it anyway
Give yourself permission in 2024 to commit to a long-held dream or goal. It’s not the things that come easy that are the ones the give us joy in the end. It’s the hard fought battle, the uphill struggle. I was only at 25,000 words with about four days to go, but I chose to do it anyway, and I’m glad I did. Whatever, it is that lights your fire, go for it, and when it gets hard, that’s your opportunity to do it anyway!