When I started writing online, I was a terrible writer.
I chewed words.
I mixed up tenses.
My sentences were convoluted.
I made several spelling mistakes.
Once, in a writing workshop, a fellow writer said,
“Had it not been for the story, I would have thrown this submission against the wall for the number of grammatical and spelling errors it has.”
I was in tears that day.
I wanted to quit writing altogether.
I had spent hours editing and re-editing that chapter, and it was still that bad.
Then something happened.
I was surfing the internet, watching mindless videos to numb the pain when I came across the following video by Brene Brown.
The very quote by Theodore Roosevelt that changed Brene Brown’s life changed mine too.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
I sat upright.
My demeanor changed.
I made a decision at that time.
I am going to stay in the arena.
No matter what.
I kept writing.
I kept posting.
I kept creating.
And today I am the author of five books.
And teaching others how to write their books.
Don’t let your critics discourage you.
Don’t let perfection stop you from creating.
Don’t leave the arena because you are not good enough.
Because staying in the arena will be the only thing that will make you better.
Not just better, but unstoppable.