Endurance in the Little Things

Endurance: the ability to withstand hardship or adversity.

Endurance: the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity.

Endurance: the act or an instance of enduring.

When we think of endurance, we think of running a marathon, climbing a mountain, or getting through a workout challenge. We think of something difficult to achieve. Endurance literally means to endure through hardship. But that hard thing doesn’t have to be climbing a mountain, it’s also writing a novel.

When we think of endurance, all we think about is the end goal. We forget the tiny steps it takes to get there. It take one word to make a sentence. One sentence to make a paragraph. One paragraph to make a page. And one page to make a chapter. Each of those chapters add up and turn into a novel—your masterpiece.

In order to run a marathon, you first have to condition yourself. One step at a time, one mile at a time. You can’t simply wake up one day and decide you’re going to do it.

Same with climbing a mountain. Same with completing a workout challenge. Same with any other tough thing you decide to do. Same with writing a novel.

It’s by taking it one step at a time, one word at a time, that we endure and that is how we reach our end goal.

Why is it then that when we sit down to write, we expect to be perfect? Why do we think writing a novel would be easy when we’ve never written a word? Why do we beat ourselves up about having a bad writing day when that’s all a part of conditioning ourselves?

I’m speaking to myself here just as much as you guys. I forget that endurance means to press on even through the hard days. Yes, even when you want to give up.

Because endurance isn’t just about that end goal, it’s about the first step you took to run that marathon. That first upward lift you took up that mountain. The first push up you did in that workout challenge. And, yes, the first word you wrote for your novel.

It’s through the little things that you achieve great things.

Because, just as you couldn’t run a marathon without taking it one step at a time, you can’t write a novel without taking it one word at a time.

You can’t expect perfectionism when no one is perfect. You can’t expect to be the best when no one can claim that title. And you can’t expect to see your end goal if you don’t endure through the hard times.

So next time you sit down to write and feel as though you can’t get one more word out, remember: endurance is in the little things, and it’s through them that beauty shines.

Your turn!

What do you think endurance is? When have you had to endure through something hard? Do you endure even when writing is hard?

Blessings, Allyson

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