Have you ever experienced low energy?  Have you suffered from low stamina?  Have you struggled with low morale?  Haven’t we all?  Have you dealt with those energy drains just when you planned on writing?

In a classic I Love Lucy episode, Lucy asks television viewers if they are tired, run down, or listless.  Lucy’s solution, she explains to TV Land, is to take a spoonful of Vitameatavegamin.  Your solution, instead, is to read this blog post which contains the words of famous writers that have come before us.

The best thing about being bloggers, and writers in general, is that many have taken our journey.  Let’s let their insights inspire us when our energy level is low, but our desire to write is high.

• Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. – John Wayne

What does this have to do with blogging? you may ask.  It takes a lot of courage to put oneself out there.  It’s not like you’re writing in a private diary or journal.  More than two million people use the Internet.  Putting yourself out there in front of potentially two million people definitely takes guts.

• This is how you do it: You sit down at the keyboard, and you put one word after another until it’s done.  It’s that easy, and that hard. – Neil Gaiman

Could Gaiman be agreeing with John Wayne’s quote that it takes courage to write, or is he referring to the dreaded writer’s block?

• I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn. – Anne Frank

Anne Frank’s quote puts the doldrums in perspective.  If Anne Frank can be uplifted through writing while growing up in the midst of Nazi terror, anyone can find writing uplifting.

• If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.  – Margaret Atwood
  

Your blog doesn’t have to be perfect to have worth.  Inform, entertain if you can, and enjoy the ride.

• Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. – William Wordsworth.

Whether you feel, as many do, that your soul is in your blog posts, or you feel, like Wordsworth does, that your beating heart is in your writing, Wordsworth got it right.

• …the writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always master–something that at times strangely wills and works for itself. – Charlotte Bronte

Most of us are not getting paid for our writing.  Why are we so driven?  What is the beast within that drives us?  Perhaps it is what Bronte describes in her quote.  You must be obsessed, or you won’t be focused enough to write.

• Many people hear voices when no one is there.  Some of them are called ‘mad’ and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day.  Others are called ‘writers’… – Ray Bradbury
  

Go ahead, listen to the voices.  Just make sure you’re listening to your

inner sweetheart that gives you the confidence and courage to keep writing.

• A person is a fool to become a writer.  His only compensation is absolute freedom.  He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it. – Roald Dahl

Again, most of us are not getting paid for our writing.  Dahl describes a different reward–perhaps, a greater reward.

• Talent is cheap.  What really matters is discipline.

Writing takes discipline since it takes focus and commitment.  Otherwise, it falls by the wayside.  I’ve read people often abandon their blogs after three months.  Three months is the “honeymoon period” for new relationships.  Is it the same for blogging?

• You know you’re a writer when… you understand you don’t ‘find’ the time to write.  You have to make the time.

People who are committed to an exercise regimen can be focused because they are disciplined.  You have to be committed, or you won’t find time to do the writing.

• Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission. – Zig Ziglar

Look at how many writers talk about focus, discipline, and commitment.  How focused can you be to make your blog succeed?  There’s a fine line between obsession and mission.

• Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.  You need to start somewhere. – Anne Lamott

Don’t be hard on yourself when you’re a beginning blogger.  Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint.  Envision yourself where you want to be, and you will get there.

• Nothing worth having comes easy.

According to blogging guru Matt Banner, “Blogging, just as anything else in this world that is worth doing, takes TIME and hard work.”

The introduction to How to Network Even if You’re Not an Extrovert explained that blogging takes as much time as a full-time job.  However, as the quote explains, if a blog is worth having, and I assume that’s why you are blogging, it is worth putting in the effort and time to try to grow.

• If you can’t fly run, if you can’t run walk, if you can’t walk crawl, but by all means, keep moving. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Despite my writing about the importance of posting often to increase your blog traffic, King’s quote reminds you of the necessity of writing.  No matter how often you write, keep writing, keep trying to grow your blog.  The pace is less important than the effort.

• Go ahead tell me that I’m not good enough; tell me I can’t do it because I will show you over and over again that I can.

In my post 6 Ways Bloggers Can Stay Focused, I explained that we each have inside us an inner sweetheart and an inner critic.  Don’t listen to your inner critic.  Your inner sweetheart will give you the confidence you need to persist.

•  Success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.

Don’t blog for the advertising dollars.  Your readers might feel used for monetary gain.  Blog because your information is making your readers’ world a better place now and in the future.

• Be the reason someone smiles today. 

When readers write to thank you for your information, there is no greater reward than knowing you helped others.  At the end of the day, in the long and short of it, isn’t that one of the reasons we write?

When this year started, my blogging friends wrote to say, “Happy New Year.”  A new reader wrote to say a different three words.  He wrote, “Keep writing, Janice.”  His words inspired me.  I hope the words of these great writers have inspired you.

If you feel these quotes can inspire others, please share.

Readers, did I miss any quotes that motivate you?  Please comment.  Did you find any of the quotes more relatable than the others?  Which ones?  Are there any you disagree with?  If you disagree with my interpretation of them, I’d love to know that too.  I look forward to your views.