perseverance

for probably four years now i have been attempting to drag my sleepy self out of bed around 5:00 am to do a writing exercise. the goal is, before i do much of anything else, i hand write three pages of whatever is going on in my mind, getting all the petty, unimportant stuff that i wake up with out so i can spend the rest of my day being as creative as i need to.

there have been periods of time when i have been very faithful at this, and have been astonished at what i've written as a direct result of this discipline.

...and there have been times when i have not been at all faithful, and seriously wondered if i will ever write anything decent again.

growing up, i was not known for my follow-through ability. my parents lamented my super-power of starting a project, getting bored, and leaving it to begin another. the new, the undiscovered always seemed so much more appealing than whatever it was i was working on.

but as i was writing this morning's pages, i was reminded that i have been doing this for going on four, maybe five years, and even though i may not have the consistency thing happening all the time, the fact is, i haven't given up, and i don't intend to.

a far cry from the girl i used to be.

do i want to get up early every morning? definitely not, especially today after staying up well past my bedtime to watch LOST last night. but knowing that this discipline makes me a better writer, a better designer, and—let's face it— a better person, i know that very early tomorrow, my alarm clock will start making its annoying sound, and it all will begin again...

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful
people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is
almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of
educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone
are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and
always will solve the problems of the human race." | Calvin Coolidge