Sometimes, we don’t know how far we can rise until we’re asked to. – Mary Murphy, So You Think You Can Dance
To be a better writer, you must never get comfortable. You can’t rest upon past success. You must always look to the next thing and work toward it.
Sometimes, that looking forward requires a push from another person. You need someone to ask you to rise and, in the act of asking, communicate a belief in your ability to do just that. Other times, you need only yourself. You can be the one to push yourself to rise and rise again.
Rest is necessary, of course, but you shouldn’t mistake absence from the writing life as rest. To be absent is to shirk your responsibility. When you do that, you fall into all sorts of trouble. You may even backslide so far that you’re never quite able to recover.
No, you must always press forward even as you take time to be still. The only way to grow is to seek challenges, both those from without and within. You will never know how far you can rise until you’re asked to, so start asking. Rise.
Image: torbakhopper (Creative Commons)