Destination? Publication!

Are we there yet? Just about every parent in the world has heard this plaintive cry from the back seat when on a road trip. Or even on a jaunt to the grocery store. Stock answers are things like We'll be there when we get there. Or If you ask one more time, I'm going to pull this car to the side of the road and.... Or I don't want to hear that question again! 

We are an impatient lot, no matter whether the children in the back seat fighting boredom as they wait to arrive at the destination or the parent who is quick to lose patience when children repeat the same question again and again. What happens then is that we get grumpy, even angry. That We'll be there when we get there. says a lot to me. The bare truth is laid out in those few words. 

It's the same with the path to publishing or to publishing more and in better publications. Seems to me that all humans come packaged with an impatience gene. We don't want to take our time to reach a goal or that desired destination. Make it happen fast is the attitude far too many of us have had when starting out in our writing life.

We don't have any parent in the front seat driving us to the destination. Nope. We're on our own. We are the ones who must make it happen. Remember the Aesop's Fable about the tortoise and the hare. The lesson gleaned from that ancient, beloved story is that slow and steady wins the race. I have written numberous posts on the subject of patience and I'll most likely continue to do so. 

Don't be in such a hurry to reach the mountaintop. Take your time and absorb knowledge and expertise along the way that is going to help you grow as a writer. You can't handle it all in one fell swoop. A little at a time means you'll retain what you learned. Master one area, then proceed to the next. The more you learn, the more you grow and the closer to your destination.

It might behoove all of us to make a sign with only one word on it. PATIENCE and place it near our working area. Every day, as soon as you see it, smile and nod your head, then proceed with the day.