Have you ever sat and wondered what's between where you are now and where you want to be in life? Maybe it's not about having the right training, skills or resources. Maybe it's that you haven't put in the work yet.
In his work, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King discusses the path to becoming a professional writer.
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
Whether or not you're a fan of Mr. King, he's successfully penned 82 published works, so It's clear he has some insight on honing a craft since he's the only author to have had more than 30 reach #1 on the bestseller list. If he were to sit around and wait for inspiration, do you think he would have reached such heights in his career?
And this piece of wisdom extends far beyond the craft of writing. If we sat around and waited for an inspired track to pursue, we wouldn't be where we are today.
In our case, we saw a need in the community we lived in and decided to take action. It didn't happen overnight. We've progressed slowly and steadily as we put in the time and effort to identify the areas that need shoring-up in our business plan.
If we waited until we felt inspired, we'd likely still be captive to the restraints and limitations of our employers. We hold no ill-will towards them as the opportunities to work with them enabled us to provide for our family until our entrepreneurial passion could be harnessed into what we are today. However, in our case, by taking the path we've chosen, there wasn't room to remain forever on the same track set by the leaders in our employment.
The path won't be the same for all of us, sometimes following a passion means putting in the work in 2 or 3 jobs simultaneously as you strive to collect the resources needed. Whether you desire to write memoirs or musical scores or build an entrepreneurial dream or an online brand, it all starts with putting in the work.