Pros do the work even when they aren’t feeling it

I used to think I had to show up at my best every single day, which is easy for a week, tough for a month, and impossible for a year. Sometimes, you will not have it. You will try everything, but in the end you know it’s not one of your better days. Everything you will get done is below your usual level of quality, and you end the day feeling dirty with yourself.

However, those are the days that separate the pros from the amateurs, because pros know they will have those days, and keep going anything. They know that those horrible days are the reason editing exists, but they also know that editing something horrible is better than not having anything at all.

Amateurs wait for the mood to strike, but pros do the work no matter what, for as long as it takes, every single day.

That is why so many people fall by the wayside because doing the world when you feel dirty isn’t fun. In fact, it’s painful. It’s painful not to do your best work. It’s painful to see something you don’t love on the page.

There will be days when you are sick, or tired. There will be days when your dog dies, or your mom is in the hospital. There will be days when you come back from vacation and you need to shake off the rust. There will be all of those days and more, when you aren’t operating at peak efficiency, because you are not a machine. You are a human.

Weirdly, sometimes magic happens on those horrible days, and sometimes just doing the work leads to a spark of imagination that lights your soul on fire.

Sometimes, some days, it’s a win to just get anything down, even if you hate it, because at least it moves them along. And they know tomorrow is another day, and on that day, everything might come easily. You might even have a breakthrough while you’re not at your best, but only if you do the work.