Stephen King was so appalled by his draft outline of Carrie that he scrunched up the pages and threw them in the trash, resolving to give up on the story of a tormented high school girl with telekinesis powers.
When he returned from his day job as a schoolteacher the following day, King found the Carrie pages laid out on the kitchen table. His wife had spotted the crumpled balls of paper in the bin, unfolded them, and read the outline. She wanted to know the end of the story—so she told her husband to keep going.
Thank goodness she did.
Carrie became a global best-selling novel, netting King $200,000 for the paperback rights alone (for context, it was the early 70s, and his teacher salary was $6,400 a year). More importantly, it launched a prolific career with novels and movie adaptations such as The Shining, It, The Green Mile, and The Shawshank Redemption.
Reflecting on what Carrie taught him, King said: “Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on even when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you are doing good work when it feels like all you are managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.”
King is talking about perseverance. It’s a term you have no doubt heard plenty—keep at it, don’t give up, stay the course, push through.
But persevering is hard. In fact, staying committed to a goal can be very hard.
Beyond the practical challenges and obstacles, such as your aspirations not paying the bills, there are also psychological barriers. Doubts, uncertainty, “Am I good enough?”, “Do I have what it takes?”, “Am I wasting my time—or worse—other people’s time?”
So, how do we give ourselves the best chance of persevering with our goals in the face of these barriers? We remind ourselves why we are trying to persevere in the first place.
The most potent why tends to be the psychological benefits. They provide a force field against losing hope or giving in to negative self-talk.
A writer might feel a sense of freedom when they write, an entrepreneur the satisfaction of autonomy in running their own business, a scientist the intellectual stimulation, an educator the fulfilment in helping others grow…the list goes on.
These intrinsic psychological drivers trump material whys like money, status or power.
Perseverance is undoubtedly an important factor in reaching our goals. But to give yourself the ability to persevere, recognise what you gain psychologically from your pursuits. Go write them down on a Post-It and stick them on your wall.
This way, when you feel like throwing your dreams in the trash, you can remind yourself why they are worth fighting for and get back to work.
Part of Short Tales of Psychology—a series about interesting humans and the psychological lessons we can apply to enhance our mental wellbeing and optimise performance.
