Motivational Quote #15

"The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The above quotation comes from Longfellow's poem titled The Ladder of St. Augustine. In St. Augustine's De doctrina Christiana, literally "On Christian Doctrine", he explains how to read and interpret Sacred Scripture, providing seven steps on approaching Scripture and seven rules on understanding Scripture.*

While I won't go into the details of St. Augustine's Ladder, in this poem, Longfellow seems to be echoing the moral sentiments of St. Augustine's work.

Sometimes we read or hear stories of breakout authors who wrote a novel, sent it off to an agent who pitched it to a major publishing house, had it accepted with a nice advance, won movie rights, and is now sitting in the Bahamas working on her next novel.

But that's not the norm and as aspiring authors we shouldn't set our hopes on goals like that. Unrealistic goals are a surefire way to ensure discontent.

The aspiring author can use Longfellow's words to encourage him to keep working. "But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night." As we read in our last motivational quote by Jefferson, who spoke of hard work, we also hear from Longfellow that it will take nights of toil in order to reach the great heights we are seeking to achieve.

Don't let that hard work scare you. If you want it bad enough, you can make it happen.

As we come closer to the end of 2008 and the exciting start of the New Year, take a moment to discover where those nuggets of time are hiding that you can spend toiling away at your writing career. You have the power to make your dreams come true!


* The information about St. Augustine and his work was taken from http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2007/sfilippo_augustine_apr07.asp

Motivational Quote #14

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."- Thomas Jefferson

I did not perform research to discover the origin of this Jefferson quote. Gasp! I know, but a motivational quote without research is better than no motivational quote at all.

Writing is hard work...unless you're not a writer and you have this dillusion that being a writer is easy. I believe Jefferson's quote is not only helpful to the aspiring author, but also to any writer who is having a difficult time moving forward.

It is easy to find all the excuses in the world not to write. It's easy to make to-do lists and not use them. It is also easy to blame everyone but yourself when your work isn't accepted.

But it's hard to stay committed to your writing. It's hard to make the time to write. It's hard to stay focused and not let distractions and interruptions invade your writing time. It's hard to accept rejection and still keep submitting your work.

But Jefferson says that it has been his experience that the harder he works, the more luck he seems to have. While I don't think luck has anything to with it, I do believe that the harder we work and the more committed we are to our writing careers, the better results we'll get.

Take out a peice of paper and write down what stopped you in 2008 from working hard toward becoming a published author, what you can change in 2009 that will make a difference, and how you can stay focused on your writing so that your "luck" will change.

You have the power to make your dreams come true. Use it!