If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you." — Fred DeVito
I'd been running for five and a half hours through the rural countryside surrounding Xenia, Ohio. My tired legs were intermittently cramping and the bottoms of my feet ached. I'd run out of catchy songs to sing to myself and all the mantras I'd been chanting sounded stale. The trees lining the rails to trails which had looked beautiful earlier that morning were now closing in and I thought I might suffocate. I was right on schedule, twenty-three miles into my third full marathon. "I really want this to be over," I thought. "But it's not and I still have to get back to the car."
My next thought made me laugh, "This is just like trying to get a book published!"
Throwing in the towel would be a relief - for a while. I could simply stop at the next water station and ask the EMTs to haul me back to town. I could simply start fresh on a new, more interesting, more marketable writing project. That's what I've done with every other book I've begun. I never called it quitting, but I never saw those books to fruition either.
While I still don't have a publisher for my memoir, Twenty-Six Point Freaking Two, I have some great prospects. And even if none of those pan out, I can still self-publish. It is exhausting, but also exciting - just like the final miles of a very long race. It's no time to quit even though I'm really really tired and everything hurts.
So I remember what I know how to do: continue. Just now. Just here. This moment. Feel your feet (even if they hurt). Do one thing and then the next. Right foot. Left foot. With writing, prepare the newsletter. Send it out. Wait to hear back from publishers. With running, just keep going.
I finished that marathon and I will finish this book. You have my promise.
What is your marathon? I want to cheer you to the finish.
Labels: Fred DeVito, marathon, perseverance, publishers, publishing, running, Twentysixpointfreakingtwo, Write Now Newsletter, Xenia