The Ladder of Achievement -

…has a slide.

Too often it’s missing from the graphic. There are plenty of images only showing the ladder as if it’s the most important thing. As if it’s the only thing.

It’s not. It’s a nice thought. It makes a great metaphor. You climb past ‘I won’t’ and ‘I don’t know how’ your corresponding efforts go past 0% and 20%.

Beautiful. You finally reach 100% and can say ‘I did it’.

But then what?

You celebrate.

And then what?

You tell people, show people.

And then what?

You’ve got to face the slide.

This is where many people freeze. The slide scares them.

So they polish a manuscript for years.

Or they make sure to write the same story over and over again.

They don’t learn new skills or try new techniques.

They stay stuck at the top of the ladder.

They plateau.

And they can stay there for years surviving on a past achievement.

However, those who jump onto the slide, the ones who understand the ladder’s slide is a feature not a bug? Those are the ones having fun.

vector image of a figure going down a slide

The slide is fun because the slide is the point.

The slide let’s you feel the breeze as you curve and zip to the beginning, letting you see how far you’ve come and once you reach the bottom you get to climb the ladder all over again.

Because that’s the point.

That’s the secret to a long career in the arts. Especially in writing.

The chance to do it again. To finish one story and write another.

To finish one novel, play, script, poem and to write another one.

Climb, slide, climb, slide. Like a kid on a playground. The bigger the ladder, the longer the rush as you slide down again.

When you know that the slide is part of the equation it won’t be something to fear.