The secret no one tells you…

When you start chasing a dream, it’s new, it’s fresh. You feel inspired.

You decide on a focus. You set a schedule. Word counts, posting goals. You tweet. You write.

You watch as your traffic grows and you celebrate your tenth subscriber.

There are hard times, too. There are days when you really just want to stay in bed, but you get up and you slog it out. There are days when the words don’t come easy. You get in the ring, lace up your gloves, and come out battered and bloody with maybe only a couple hundred words to show for it.

You’re ready for that too.

You get back up and you keep doing it, just because it’s hard. You’re a pro, and that’s what pros do.

But there’s a little secret:

There are days that you just can’t do it at all.

Those are the days that no one tells you about.

All of the inspiration in the world won’t make a difference when you haven’t slept in a week and you finally have been asleep for four hours in a row and the alarm rings. Sorry. Dreams are important, but falling asleep at the wheel of a car or while stirring a pot of mac and cheese because it’s the only thing you can motivate yourself to throw on the stove to get food down the throats of the little birds chirping at the table?

Some things truly come first.

And even at your weakest, you find that you won’t admit it. You won’t ask for help. You won’t take an intentional break.

You practice writing in the second person.

* * *

For over a year, I’ve been getting up early, rocking out words, sharing some of the best (and some of the not-as-great) ones here.

I’ve made friends, I’ve grown a bit as a writer. I’ve met a Zombie named Zach who has earned some friends of his own.

But if you’ve been paying attention, you might have noticed that it’s gotten a little bit inconsistent. I’ve missed deadlines. I’ve posted late. I’ve skipped posts entirely.

I’m on the edge of a huge change (stay tuned for more on Monday), and recently, it’s just gotten overwhelming.

I remember over a year ago at the very first Quitter Conference, a guy named Bryan shared a story about an alien. (Bryan became a full-time Quitter just last week…leaving his day job to focus on his dream, Killer Tribes. Click the badge over the on right to discover more….)

He (the alien, not Bryan) lands on earth in the middle of an amusement park (let’s make it Cedar Point, because we all know that’s the best coaster park in the world. truly. but that’s not what the story is about…).

So the alien gets on the roller coaster, but he’s never seen one before. He doesn’t know how these things work.

So they strap him in and then it starts going up kinda slow and he’s like “uh, hm?” and he looks around and he’s all like “This is pretty cool.”

But then it clears the top of the hill and plunges down toward the ground and he thinks he’s gonna die. At the last minute, it pulls up hard and yanks him around a curve at top speed and then climbs up high again. Cool, but now he doesn’t really trust it…

You get the idea. Bryan’s point was to not be like that alien. To be ready for the low spots. To be ready for the twists and turns. And to know that there will be another hill.

There will be another up.

I just need to hang on.

What’s hard for you right now? Leave a comment…

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