This takes years of work

Here’s an excerpt from a book written more than 115 years ago, which somehow feels more relevant in our digital age than the era it was written. It’s from Jack London’s Martin Eden. Check it out.

“You see,” she said frankly, “writing must be a trade, like anything else. Not that I know anything about it, of course. I only bring common judgment to bear. You couldn’t hope to be a blacksmith without spending three years at learning the trade—or is it five years! Now writers are so much better paid than blacksmiths that there must be ever so many more men who would like to write, who—try to write.”

“But then, may not I be peculiarly constituted to write?” he queried…

He feels like he’s got it in him. He has a feeling that he’s born to be a writer; that he’s “peculiarly constituted to write.” She brings common sense to the equation. If blacksmithing takes three or five years of apprenticeship to enter, and writing pays better and has more competition, wouldn’t writing take just as long? Or longer? 

In this digital era, we have more knowledge, more access, more tools, and fewer gatekeepers than ever. You literally can be whatever you want to be. With more access to art, we have a greater likelihood of becoming inspired. All of this leads to a more of a chance that we think we “have it in us.” Maybe we do. But with more competition and reward than Jack London could have ever conceived in 1909, isn’t this excerpt more relevant than ever? 

You can be anything you want to be. You can achieve it. To do so, you’ll have to work for three or five or ten or maybe forty years. Set aside the prodigious delusions. Switch off the daydreams. This takes years of work. Better get to it. 

P.S. You can develop your daily creative practice in just 15 days, join the waitlist for the next 15-Day Creative Consistency Challenge here.