“Some days you’ll get one song, and some days you’ll get five. And the moral to the story is, all that matters is that you keep doing it.”

Dolly Parton is one of the most prolific, if not THE most prolific, songwriters to ever grace the face of this earth. She’s written so many songs that rumor has it there are more than four thousand that have not yet been performed or recorded. And that’s on top of the more than one thousand that have been recorded! ?It almost seems statistically impossible that she ever has a day that she only gets one song…? But then again, most writers NEVER get a song every single day. So even on her “bad” days, she’s an overachiever!? But I digress…? not the point of this article.

We all have those days where it seems like we simply can’t get anything done. We start off with a great head of steam, dig in to the first thing on our to do list, and… crickets. Or chaos. Or swirl. Or any number of things that are the opposite of progress. Feels like banging your head against a brick wall. But, whatever you do, don’t give up!

If you’re learning something new, the only way you’ll become able to do it is to keep trying. And if you’re already good at something that just happens to be hard today, you’re still building the muscles and the know how to make it that much easier next time. You’re also modeling resilience and persistence to those around you – who will take their “don’t give up” cue from you. Neither Dolly nor I are saying you can’t take a break to clear your head or to change up some things to help your creative energy flow easier or differently, but we are whispering in your ear, “You CAN do this!”

Be like Dolly. Keep doing it.