A wise person once told me that something that is hard is something that is worth doing.

As a writer and an academic I face this every day. Many days it’s hard to write. It’s hard to bring the ideas, the feelings, to the surface, and to let them flow almost mindlessly onto a keyboard. Apprehension, fear, doubt, and lack of confidence in my own abilities often stonewall me into neglecting the art of free writing.

But many times there is a little whisper in the back of my mind that nudges me to put words down. It forces me to draw on it, to learn from it as it replays all of my past successes in writing, and in life in general.

It’s my persistence.

There is something to be said for persistence.

It’s what spurred me through my bachelor of arts at a lightening fast pace, allowing me to complete it almost a year early. Did I mention that I did my entire undergrad through distance education?

It was my persistence that made me break out of my comfort zone during journalism school. Talking to random strangers about themselves is an amazingly hard thing to get used to.

It’s my persistence that has sustained me as I’ve transitioned from the military into civilian life, from one career to the next.

My persistence has been my driving force all my life. It has allowed me to persevere where others may have quite. Sometimes it was without any definable goal other than making it through the next minute, day, week, or year, but it was always there.

Maybe it’s more akin to stubbornness, of my unwillingness to cease moving forward, but on the days when it’s hard to get out of bed, let alone write, persistence is my creed.

So to get back to the idea that a hard task is one worth doing, well then I greet every obstacle, every closed door, every rejection, every failure with the utmost optimism.