Mike Bloomfield said: “I practiced guitar in my bedroom for four hours a day, every single day, from the time I was seven to the time I was thirteen, and every single day I sucked. Then, one day when I was fourteen…I got great.” Wayne Dyer said: “I ran 8 miles every single day for over 20 years and never missed a day.”
If you’re spending “most” of your energy working the numbers, battling personal circumstances, and “sweating the small stuff” you may have fallen off the path that matters—the path that will actually take you there. The only way to get the numbers up is to get the greatness up. And the only way to get the greatness up is to lock yourself in your creative space, your office (or your bedroom) and do the work. The deliberate work, the committed work, the focused work, the intentional work, the repetitious boring work, the work that you resist doing, the work that scares the hell out of you, the work that allows you to maintain the “uncertain” lifestyle of a crazy artist, entrepreneur. It’s so easy to allow the distraction of numbers or personal circumstances to rob your focus and thwart your best intentions. However, to the degree that you at least chip away at the work that really matters, EVERY SINGLE DAY, the chances are good that one day you’ll wake up and find yourself living your impossible dream.
“I hated every minute of training, but I thought, ‘‘don’t quit—suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” —Muhammad Ali