Sometimes life takes a turn for the worse. Sometimes an indisputably ugly reality punches you in the face and breaks your bloody nose.
Your first instinct might be to break down, to give in to all those intense emotions that flash over you. To just shout fuck all this, and get fucked up. Flush out the pain life inflicted on you with your own pain of choice.
Maybe it’s good to give in to that. Just for the sake of having gone through the experience. But eventually, after so many times, you’ll have the wisdom to realize that nothing good comes out of it.
Of course, rationally you know this already. In your head, this is already obvious to you. You can say the words and believe them to be true. But some truths we need to feel before we can actually live them.
So if the thing you want to do is write, keep writing. Pour everything you’ve got into it. Don’t go off track. Don’t slow down. Don’t stop.
Yeah, you’ll write poorly when you’re in the midst of an emotional thunderstorm. You’ll make dumb, embarrassing mistakes if you’re in a life crisis and your head is a mess. But if you keep writing, you’ll hone that muscle even further. You’re paying your dues to the muse.
This doesn’t mean that life will fix itself magically. The gods won’t suddenly conspire in your favor. That kind of pollyannaish thinking will only worsen the mess you’re in.
But if you focus on what you can control, and keep inching toward your goal, you stick towards your practice, at least you’re moving in the right direction, however slow it may be.
Remember that old Japanese saying? Fall down seven times, get up eight.
It’s that simple. Hard, but simple.
Sometimes life asks you to do hard things. Do them.