Ken Fite

October 2021

Hello from Orlando! And Happy Halloween!

Well, this morning I finished the first draft of the next Blake Jordan thriller.

Before you get too excited, I still have a long way to go. I have to write a second draft, then I’ll print the manuscript and I’ll go through it again with a red pen marking it up, then I’ll hand it over to my wife, Missy, who is my first reader to give me her feedback.

Then the manuscript will go to my editor who will work her magic over the course of about a week. If all goes well, I’ll have Blake Jordan #8 to you to read by December.

Sometimes when I get to the end of the first draft of a new story, I feel like there is very little editing I’ll need to do for the second draft. Sometimes, like with this story, there’s so much I’ll need to change to make the story work, it can feel a little overwhelming…

But it’s important to finish what you start.

Because anyone can start. Many have. Starting is easy. But very few finish.

Why is that? I think it’s because many are afraid. Afraid it won’t be any good. Afraid nobody will like it. Afraid they will get burned out, tired, or get stuck and they’ll give up.

Or they’re afraid of putting something out into the world, something that will no longer belong to them, the creator. Something that can and will be judged by other people. 

If you have a big dream, get started and keep going…

Don’t stop when you’re afraid.

Don’t stop when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

And don’t stop when you’re tired. Stop when you’re done. When you’ve given it your all.

If nothing else, don’t stop because, seeing something you’ve dreamed about become a reality teaches you that you can trust yourself to finish whatever it is you set out to do.

It teaches you that you’re not just a starter. You’re a finisher.

The theme of my new story is trust. It’s fitting, because the truth is, if you want to see your dreams come true, you have to trust in yourself. Because you’re braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you could ever imagine.

It’s been a long journey writing this one. It took longer than I wanted. But what’s important is I’m not giving up. I’ll get there. Because I always finish what I start. -Ken

September 2021

Hello from Orlando!

Well, I’m just getting settled back at home after spending a week at St. Pete Beach here in Florida for the annual writer’s conference I go to called NINC (Novelists, Inc.). The conference has kind of become a tradition, not just for me, but for my family, too. It’s about a two-hour drive from Orlando, so I go over on Wednesday and my family meets up with me on Friday after the kids get out of school. By noon on Saturday, most of the conference shenanigans are over and I can spend a little time with the boys out on the beach. This year, we went swimming, played on a floating raft out in the ocean, and ate snow cones by the pool while watching old men compete for the best bellyflop in hopes of winning drinks and an appetizer at the tiki bar. I really love this annual trip…

But this year was different than most.

Because this year, while eating lunch with a friend I had made a few years earlier, I got a rather ominous text message from someone at the day job. It simply said: “Call me.”

I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say, the times, they are a-changin’. I returned to the table and stared at my plate and told my friend all about it. He looked straight at me and said, “This is a sign, man. I think you’re supposed to do this writing thing full-time.”

I shook my head and looked away and said, “I don’t know, I’m not ready yet.”

“Think about it,” he added. “You get this call today? While you’re at this conference?”

I told him all of the reasons why I can’t do this full-time right now. I told him about the insurance, and the 401k, and the income. “I just can’t do it,” I said. “Not yet, at least.”

My friend said he’d pray for me and hustled to the next presentation at the conference while I went upstairs to call my wife to tell her about the changes that were happening.

Twenty minutes later, I went down to the presentation, but I’ll be honest… the rest of the conference felt very different. No longer was I watching the presenters up on the stage. Instead, I was looking around the large conference room at all of the successful writers, each of them following their dreams in their own way, learning, networking, doing something with their lives, something that matters to them.. and maybe to others.

I listened to the lectures, but I wasn’t really listening. Instead, I was thinking about a quote I’d heard: That which we’re most destined to do in life we’re most often afraid of.

The quote hits home… because I believe it, yet I know most won’t do anything about it.

Why is it that we tend to gravitate toward things that are safe, knowing full well that nothing is ever really safe? And if it is, it’s only for a little while? At what age do we stop pursuing our dreams with everything we’ve got, like there is no Plan B to fall back on?

Is it when we move out from our parent’s house and have to get a job to pay the rent? Or when we go to college? Is it when we get married? Have kids? Or get a mortgage?

Is it when we hit a certain age? When we become jaded with life? When is it, exactly?

When our kids tell us their dreams and what they want to be when they grow up, why do we tell them, You can be anything you want to be, if we don’t believe it ourselves?

I’ve had a lot of dreams in my life. And I did a lot of things people told me I couldn’t do. My guidance counselor in high school said I’d never make it in college. I wonder what he’d think about me not only graduating, but also going on to get an MBA. In 1996, the program director at the local rock station told me he’d never hire me as an on-air DJ. Four years later, he did… and I showed him I could not only do the job, but do it well.

I love proving people wrong. I bet you do, too. But at what point do we stop pursuing our dreams with reckless abandon? Why do we eventually stop believing in ourselves?

I always learn a lot when I go to these conferences.

But the biggest thing I learned this year, which I already knew but had somehow forgotten, is that we only have one life. One chance to be who we were destined to be.

Sometimes life nudges you in the direction you’re too afraid to go in on your own. But the truth is, we’re not alone. There’s always a community of people doing what you want to do. But only you can decide to walk down that path to see where it might lead.

I guess there’s another thing I learned this year:

I still believe in myself. -Ken

August 2021

Hello from Orlando!

One of my friends posted on Facebook yesterday morning, “There are only sixteen more Mondays until Christmas.” I had to think about that for a minute, knowing how quickly each week seems to be passing by, as I realized they were right—sixteen more Mondays until Christmas (which means seventeen weeks until the end of the year).

I think this is around the time, before the holidays hit, when people tend to give up on their year. Goals we put off until the summer ended and the kids got back to school will be pushed off again until after the holidays and we get to the start of a brand new year.

I hate the feeling of watching the year slipping through my fingers and the thought that I’m running out of time to make my big goal of writing another Blake Jordan novel become a reality. So over the last few weeks, I’ve gotten back to basics. I’ve given myself a daily word count goal of writing 1,000 words a day, every day, rain or shine, whether the words end up being good or not (they’re almost always fine just the way they are). I don’t want to jinx myself, but let’s just say, things are going really well…

I’ve heard it said that we tend to underestimate how much we can get done on a daily basis and overestimate how much we can do in a year. There’s so much truth in that.

Because while we all made lofty goals on December 31st, it’s so easy to lose sight of what matters and squander the days we’re blessed with… between TV, our phones, social media, and the little things we waste time doing, it’s so easy to fill our days with unimportant things. Things that don’t make a difference. Things that don’t really matter.

That doesn’t mean we all need to become productivity gurus, trying to cram our days to the max. And it doesn’t mean there isn’t value in vegging out, here and there. I just know, for me, without a plan, I don’t live my days intentionally and I have nothing at the end to show for it. I don’t want to wake up one day and realize I’ve buried the little talent I’ve been trusted with and I didn’t turn the raw materials into something special.

There’s so much I want to do… and I haven’t given up on this year yet.

I want to get in shape. I want to get organized. I want to get this new book written!

I’m sure you have your own list of things you’ve already given up on doing this year. But it’s not too late. Figure out what your “thousand words a day” goal is to get there.

Don’t give up. Keep pressing forward.

Don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do today.

We can still do something awesome this year and create something that’s special. -Ken

July 2021

Hello from Orlando!

It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over and the kids are going back to school soon. I’ll admit it’s been hard to concentrate with the boys home all day long. As the countdown continues to the day they go back, I’m reminded of those funny memes of depressed kids standing around on the first day of school with their parents in the background, jumping in the air, clicking their heels, happy to be getting their lives back.

That will totally be me, taking “first day of 4th and 7th grade” pictures, out on the lawn, waving goodbye, then skipping back into a quiet, tranquil home where I can finally focus on doing quality work. So it’s really made me think a lot about how happy I’ll be when they go back to school. Because for those who know me well know I’m not really that happy unless I’m getting words down on a daily basis and I’m in my groove writing the next book. Because of the craziness at home and not being able to focus on writing, I’ve been spending my days finalizing my paperbacks. But the craziness has also made me think a lot about a quote I came across a while back about happiness:

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time to be served, or a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” -Alfred D. Souza.

These paperback files I’ve been procrastinating on for all these years have been taking up so much time to finish. And while I’m glad to finally be getting them done so I can get back to writing once the boys are gone, that quote really struck a chord with me…

Because how often have I thought lately:

“If I could just finish these files, then I’ll be happy.” Or…

“If I could just get back to working on my novel I’ll be happy.” And…

“If these kids could just get back to school I’ll be able to focus and then I’ll happy.”

But wasn’t I going to be happy when the last school year was over and I wouldn’t have to worry over grades anymore? Wasn’t I going to be happy when I finished the last novel I was working on? Will I be happy when the paperbacks are done? What about the hardcovers? What about the large print editions? And what about the audiobooks?

I’m not alone. I think a lot of us believe we’ll be happy when the ‘next’ thing happens.

But the truth is, those things we struggle through as we wait to live our best life… those things are life itself. One day, my kids won’t ask me to watch a movie with them. One day, they won’t want to show me every lego creation they’ve made. One day, they’ll want to spend time with their friends instead of me. One day, they’ll grow up. And one sad day, I’ll look around, and they won’t be here anymore. I’ll wake up and they’ll be gone. And then I’ll be sitting here thinking, I’ll be happy when I hear their voice again… I’ll be happy when they take time from their busy life with their own families to visit their dad. They’ll stop by to see me, and I’ll be happy for a while. Then they’ll be gone again.

And then this house I waited for so long to be quiet and serene will be the very house I’ll wish was once again full of noise and laughter, with loud movies, with the smell of popcorn, running outside on Wednesdays to catch the ice cream truck, the nagging to take them to the pool, the painful legos scattered all over the carpet for me to step on.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still gonna be out there on the lawn clicking my heels their first day back at school. And that day I’m probably going to crank out three amazing chapters once I have some peace and quiet and I can focus on writing my silly book.

But deep down, I know there will always be that small, soft voice telling me the lie… that there will always be something else I’m supposed to wait for in order to be happy.

At last it dawned on me that these obstacles are my life.

So as I wait out these last few days of summer until I can finally get back to my writing, I’ll try to be happy in the moment with where my crazy life is, right here, and right now.

Because life is too short to be anything but happy. And because one day, I’ll miss this.

June 2021

Hello from Orlando!

After spending most of May working on paperback files, in June I got back into writing Blake Jordan #8 as my cover designer needed a few more weeks to complete the paperback versions of the covers. He should have them all done this week, so I’m hoping to have Blake Jordan paperbacks available really soon.

I’ve also started reading more paperbacks myself, starting with Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series (if you’re looking for another series to read, definitely try this one). I love my Kindle but when I find a great series, there’s nothing like holding the physical book. I may even start a small library of my favorites to keep in my office. What do you think… would you be interested in getting my books as paperbacks? Let me know!

I’m on chapter 17 of Blake Jordan #8. This is right around when I start thinking of the perfect title for the novel. It’s also when I start having doubts about how good it is…

This is the stage when most people give up. They think, this isn’t very good. It’d be better to start over with another idea. They throw away whatever work they’ve done so far or set it aside indefinitely. How many people start over instead of just finishing?

For me, at least, I can attest that I’ve felt these same feelings for every book I’ve done. Not some books. Not most books. EVERY book. That doesn’t mean this story won’t be any good. And it doesn’t mean it’ll be a bestseller, either. It just means having doubts is typical. And being unsure if the book will be good enough is normal.

In fact, when doing any kind of creative work, it’s expected.

When I think about all of those other stories I’ve written, I shudder at the thought that if I had listened to my self-doubt and given up at this point, those stories wouldn’t exist.

What I have to keep reminding myself is that I’m a finisher. Not a perpetual starter.

I’ve heard lots of stories of authors with countless half-written manuscripts, collecting dust somewhere, stacked high inside a desk drawer. And I have to wonder… what if they hadn’t given up? Would their stories have been my favorite? How many authors never shared what they have with the world because they couldn’t push forward and finish it, good or not? Even the late Vince Flynn, who struggled with dyslexia, pushed through his difficulty and got the words written. If he’d given up when things got tough, I wouldn’t be reading his amazing series now. It’s sad if you think about it. Because it’s not just authors who struggle when things get tough. It’s all of us. We’ve all been there.

So I’m moving forward, whether it’s good or not, to see where the story leads me… knowing when I get to the end, I’ll not only have the perfect title, I’ll look back and see the journey wasn’t that bad… and the story is exactly what it’s supposed to be. -Ken

May 2021

Hello from Orlando.

I hope you’re doing well on this Memorial Day as we honor the fallen, those who gave their lives in service to their country and paid the ultimate cost for our freedom. I’m reminded of the unattributed quote:

“Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you—Jesus Christ and the American soldier. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.”

Thank them both today.

For a personal update, I have good news and I have bad news. The bad news is I didn’t work too much on Blake Jordan #8 this month other than adding another chapter or two. One reason is we did a lot of traveling in May, including driving up to the small town of Slade, Kentucky for my sister-in-law’s wedding which took place against a backdrop of waterfalls, cliffs, a lush forest, and yes… was just as amazing as it sounds.

I’d planned on waking up early and getting some writing done while out of state but the cabin we stayed in had really squeaky floorboards so I’d wake my boys up whenever I tried to write. So I gave it up after the second day. And at the hotels we stayed at, I got a little bit of writing done, but with 15 hours of driving each way, I didn’t have much time to spend as we had to hightail it out of there and get on the road as quickly as possible.

Now for the good news. The other reason why I didn’t get much writing done is I had an opportunity to work on creating paperbacks for my series so I spent most of my time on that. I tend to focus on one thing at a time until it’s done, so I figured it’s now or never. My cover designer is still working on the paperback covers, but as soon as he’s done, it shouldn’t be much longer before I can have proofs shipped to me to check out.

One of my goals this year, other than writing another novel, is to broaden my footprint. For the past five years, I’ve only sold Kindle books in the US. But what about paperbacks? Hardcovers? Audiobooks? What about the UK? Canada and Australia? I’ve done amazingly well in the US, but this morning as I was pouring over the stats during my monthly review, I found that less than 1% of sales come from those countries. Not because my books don’t do well there. I’ve just never focused on them.

But what you focus on you get more of…

I have to remind myself that, yes, I am a creative, but I’m also an MBA. And I’m realizing that this is a business. Something I’ve always known, but never embraced. The truth is smart businesses focus on growth. They offer new formats. They enter new markets. Yes, they come up with new products (in my case writing new stories) but they’re either growing or dying. I want my stories available wherever and however my readers want them. But the struggle will be balancing this with writing new books.

So I’m going to start slow and focus on adding one thing at a time as I continue working on the new story which I know you’re going to love. I’ll keep you posted. -Ken

April 2021

Hello from Orlando!

Just a quick update on Blake Jordan #8. I’ve started writing. Finally! And I’ve made great progress. I try not to share too much about how things are going during the writing process. Especially when the words are flowing like they are now. I tend to be overly cautious. I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious and I don’t want to jinx things. Just know the new book is coming along and I’m very happy with it so far.

I always try to get the story perfect before I start. And of course, it never is. I plan my work. I work my plan. But when I dive in, when the words get written and the story begins to takes shape, the direction it goes in is often very different from what I had planned. You need an idea to get started… but that idea isn’t always what the story ends up being about. It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings for getting started:

Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.

The truth is, I’m never ready to start writing a new story. My idea is never perfect. And there are always excuses to delay. Life’s too crazy to start this right now. I’ll wait until things get back to normal. I’ll sleep in and start tomorrow (my personal favorite).

But I don’t want to sleep my life away.

I don’t want to sit around watching life pass me by, wondering what I should do with it.

I don’t want to delay and squander whatever little talent God has loaned me.

Talent we all have, in one form or another, but not everyone will do something with…

If I’m completely honest, I think what keeps me going and helps me fight the good fight and to add, as I tell myself, ‘just one more page’ to the manuscript each day is… when it’s all said and done, I want to leave a dent in this world. A big, massive dent.

Don’t you?

I checked this morning and, across the Blake Jordan series, you’ve left 5,250 reviews. For a relatively unknown writer, that’s a lot! Whenever I read them, I’m left speechless. The stories have meant something to you. Enough to write a few words so others know about it. Enough to remind me when my alarm goes off, I need to get up and work on my craft. Because someone, somewhere, is counting on me to share it with them…

Just like someone, somewhere, is counting on you to share your talent with them, too.

So here’s to working on that dent… and for adding ‘just one more page’ each day, knowing that if we’re bold and if we’re brave, mighty forces will come to our aid. -Ken

March 2021

Hello from Orlando!

Just a quick update on Blake Jordan #8. I’ve loosely plotted the story and met with my developmental editor last week. Later today, I’ll be having a follow up meeting with her. This is going to be a great story! I’m excited to start writing it tomorrow (no foolin’!).

It always amazes me how these stories develop and take shape. Usually it starts with months of procrastination, just sitting around watching cat videos, waiting for the ‘perfect’ idea to come to me… and it ends with me getting frustrated with myself and scheduling a meeting with my editor to force myself to come up with something—anything—just an idea to work with to bring to the meeting with her. Mostly it’s a trick I play on myself. Because I don’t want to show up empty-handed, and to get past the procrastination phase, I schedule the meeting so there’s a deadline to have an idea by.

I run the idea by my editor and we bat it around back and forth. She pokes holes in it. She asks questions I don’t always have the answers to. She asks about motivations and why people, good and bad, would do what they do. Then I take that away and come up with a second, more beefed up version of my story idea and we meet again.

What I’m learning during all of this is that there’s really no such thing as writer’s block.

There’s only procrastinators block. Or maybe it’s really just plain old perfectionism.

But perfection is achieved not when there’s nothing left to add, but when there’s nothing left to take away. Way after a first draft is written… and a second draft and a third. A first draft on any creative project should be fun… with a focus on the journey, not on the outcome. To explore. To follow a trail into the woods to see where it leads.

My youngest son has gotten into legos again. The other night he was totally focused and in the zone. I asked him what he was building. He said he wasn’t really sure… he only knew that when he was done, it’d be awesome. And about an hour later, it was!

I’m starting to understand that this is how the creative process works. You don’t have to know everything… you just need to get started and have fun and see where it all leads.

So tonight, I’ll meet with my editor again and I’ll tell her all of the great ideas I’ve had since last week’s meeting. She’ll give me feedback and she’ll ask more tough questions. Then tomorrow morning, I’ll start writing… not really sure what I’m building.

But knowing when I’m done, it’ll be awesome. -Ken

February 2021

Hello from Orlando!

I’ve spent the last few weeks brainstorming ideas for the next book in the Blake Jordan series… trying to figure out where book #8 should start based on where #7 ended. There are a million directions it could go in. Most are wrong. A few could work. I need just a little more time to plan before I dig in and start writing. But I’m close, don’t worry!

Sometimes I feel guilty about taking time to plan my work before I start working my plan. But planning is important to me. It helps me think through the story before I spend months of my life writing it. I’ve always liked the Lincoln quote about planning:

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Sharpening the axe can mean a lot of things to different people. It can mean getting organized… clearing your desk, getting everything you need before you start work on a new project. It can mean reading up on a topic your project is related to, doing research, learning how things work, making sure you’re ready before you get started.

For writers, it can mean outlining your story before you type the words ‘chapter one.’ After my last book, I realized I don’t need to know every single detail to move forward. And I found that not knowing everything before writing actually made the story more fun for me to write because writing into the dark is a lot like how a reader reads. Still, I like having a general idea of where I’m headed before I start.

For me, sharpening the axe means clearing my mind so I can focus on writing.

Last year for lent, I did a 40 day sugar fast. This year I’m 12 days in to a social media fast which is more than just not logging into Facebook… no, because I’m a glutton for punishment and I tend to take things to the extreme, I took it a step further and cut way back on my daily news consumption, too, which has been torture since I’m such a news junkie and I like to keep up with what’s happening in the world.

It got me thinking: how much would I miss if I disconnected completely for 40 days?

My guess is a lot.

But that might not be a bad thing.

Here’s what I’m realizing a week into my fast: attention is the new currency.

Think about it. How often do you get distracted from doing something you promised yourself you’d do today which you’ll decide to just do tomorrow (which never happens)?

In my case, it’s writing the next book.

But if you’re really honest with yourself, like I’m trying to be, you’ll see how distracted you truly are all of the time. I just checked my daily average usage on my phone over the last week. It was 2 hours and 93 ‘pick ups’ a day (the number of times I picked up my phone and looked at it hoping for a little dopamine rush like a rat finding cheese).

And my total screen time on my phone for the week was 15 hours with 650 pick ups.

Wow!

I know what you’re thinking. That’s ridiculous! And I’d have to agree. But then I’d say, you should check your own screen time stats, too. Because, as the clichéd villain says to the hero in a low, gravely voice, one way or another in pretty much every bad movie, “We’re not that different, you and me…”

But it’s not just our phones. It’s Facebook, it’s YouTube, it’s the news, it’s all of the rabbit trails we allow ourselves to go down that waste so much of our time every day.

It’s our attention that’s suffering.

I watched a really interesting documentary a while back called The Social Dilemma. (And if your easily distracted self just clicked on that link to watch the trailer before reading the rest of this newsletter, you’re in good company, I would’ve, too.)

Social media companies design their platforms to be addicting. Facebook studies you. They show posts they think will get a reaction out of you. YouTube’s default mode is to play the next video their algorithm thinks will keep you watching (which I’ve turned off). If you don’t, you’ll keep watching the next suggested cat video that that autoplays. Sure, these platforms are free. But if something’s free, it’s because you’re the product.

Think about that…

There’s only one way to stop it: by not allowing our attention to be pickpocketed.

Because attention truly is the new currency. The world no longer goes for your wallet. They want your attention now, first and foremost, more than anything else. Because they’ve figured out that once they have your attention, they have everything.

The truth is, if we want to do work that matters, we have to quiet our mind. We can’t hear our own ideas if our heads are filled with other people’s voices and opinions all the time. And we won’t see our dreams come true without a plan to keep us on track.

There is a balance, of course. Especially now when we’re all more isolated than ever before. If we totally shut ourselves off, we’ll miss out on important things going on in our friends’ lives and news we need to know about (and yes, maybe the occasional cat video to help us get through the day). But taking time to shut down the distractions and take a good, hard look at the things of this world that constantly demand our attention and keep us from creating things that are worthwhile is, I think, a very good thing. -Ken

January 2021

Hello from Orlando!

I’ve started a tradition where in January each year I share with you my what my wall calendar looked like from the year prior. Maybe it’s an accountability thing. Maybe it’s to show you how many blank days there were where I didn’t work on a book. Or maybe it’s to show you that in spite of yourself, you can still reach your goal if you keep trying.

Whatever the reason, here is my calendar.

You’ll notice a lot of white space at the beginning of the year. There are whole months where, no matter how hard I tried, the words didn’t come. January came and went and I didn’t write. Same with February. In March, I got tired of the blank calendar and started “planning” for 7 weeks which included brainstorming story ideas and may or may not have also included watching a bunch of cat videos. I was confusing movement with progress. Just because you’re doing a lot doesn’t mean you’re getting a lot done.

Then I started the book with 4 weeks of solid writing followed by 9 weeks of not writing.

Not a single word.

I got back to it at the end of July but then I quickly ran out of steam again by August.

The good news was my novel was halfway done. The bad news was my novel was only halfway done. I looked up. Saw how much more of the mountain there was still left to climb. I turned to look back down the path and saw how easy it would be to stop.

I think this is the place where most people give up. I know, because I’ve been there.

They set their dreams aside. They tell themselves they tried their best. They move on.

But it’s always darkest just before the dawn. And if you’ve read my last few newsletters, you know the rest of the story. I prayed, I got inspired, and in a burst of writing, I finished the second half of the novel in 9 days and wrote what I think is my best book yet. Without any planning. Just fingers on the keyboard, writing like a reader reads, typing until I was done and coming up with a better story than I ever could’ve planned.

Why am I telling you this?

Because it’s January 31st and once again I haven’t started the next book yet. And because you probably have a goal for the year that you haven’t started yet, either.

Failed January goals never surprise me.

January 1st is when most dreams are born and January 31st is when most dreams die.

But this is what separates those who dream and those who see their dream come true:

They do ‘one more.’ They write one more word. One more sentence. One more paragraph. One more chapter. The athlete takes one more shot, does one more rep.

They wake up and wonder if they’ve reached their peak, if they can outdo themselves again… if they’re destined to live on the plateau or if they can climb another mountain. Then they decide… and they push through the pain, and they do one more, anyway.

I woke up this morning not wanting to write this newsletter. And tomorrow, when I start working on the next book, I know I’ll wake up not wanting to. Because starting is hard.

But without commitment, you’ll never start. And without consistency, you’ll never finish.

I have to remind myself that the days I don’t want to write are the days that count.

Because winners keep going when there’s nothing left in the tank. And because who you want to be tomorrow, you’ve got to start working on becoming today. Every day we’re either preparing or repairing, getting closer to or farther away from our goals.

The truth is, if you have a dream, you will experience some kind of pain.

Because there are two kinds of pain in life: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Jim Rohn taught that discipline weighs ounces… but regret weighs tons. I don’t want to live with regret. I’m willing to bet you don’t, either.

So let’s make a commitment.

Let’s decide today that we’re going to do ‘one more.’

When the inner critic says you can’t, ignore it and push through to the other side.

There’s no passion to be found in playing small and settling for a life that’s less than the one we’re capable of living. Embrace the pain of discipline, and just do one more.

I can’t wait to write my next story, knowing the tough days are the days that count. -Ken