Writing and Perseverance - End of the Semester
Dear Real Academics, I am not a marathon runner, but I know enough about endurance running to compare this time of the academic year to the near end of a race: seeing the finish line in the distance but being near exhaustion. I've heard endurance athletes explain how 80% of finishing a race is mental/psychological. This is how and why athletes in their middle age and beyond can and do often beat athletes in their twenties. In other words, age is an advantage in the mental/psychological arena simply because of maturity and experience, and this psychological advantage trumps age and even natural physiology. As I think about myself as a writer, I can agree how age has certainly helped me psychologically endure more than I used to be able to endure. I am able to handle rejection much better than before and any ego about my perfectionist tendencies that I can never quite achieve is out the window. With that said, these facts do not mean perseverance gets any eas...