As creatives, we must all face, climb, and conquer cringe mountain if we want to be successful in our pursuits. Unfortunately, this is often incredibly painful, and honestly humiliating at times. Even more unfortunately, the only way out of this is through.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about this as I’m faced with another metaphorical crossroads. Life doesn’t stop, not for big choices, not for our fear and certainly not for our comfort. Thinking about all that I want to do, I am a little stumped on how to get there. I’m going to keep stumbling forward to see where it takes me, but for the first time I feel a little aimless.

For so many years, I wanted to be an author. I still do, but this is the first time I’ve really considered that it might not work out—at least, not the way I expect. Technically, I already am an author. I’ve written three books so far, published one, queried another, and am about to publish a third. I’m completed about 85% of a first draft for a fourth, and I’m happy with the progress I’ve made.

Now, I am under no illusions that being traditionally published will solve all my problems. Still, I’d love to have this experience, and get to see my books out there in the world. Like all authors, I dream of my work finding people who will love it, spend time mulling over the characters, drawing amazing fanart and theorising/analysing everything.

For that to happen, my work needs to be good—if not great. I enjoy that challenge, and I like improving my craft. I recently wrote about my experience with a literary agent, and how that helped me hone my work. It also keeps me pretty honest, and humble about the work I’ve already put out there. I know that like any writer, my first few works are going to be okay, but nothing too special. I’m still proud of the effort I made to put something out there. Hopefully in a few years (when I have made it!), we can all look back and see the growth in my writing.

Honestly, there is no way to lose here, which is also a positive reminder. The goal is just to get better by 1% every day. I saw another video online recently about how most people give up on new pursuits so early, that if you stick with it, you’ll just outlast people anyway.

It’s helped looking back on other major success stories, to see their growth too. Beyoncé is a great example of this, moving from a hungry young starlet to one of the greatest vocalists and most respected performers of all time. I love comparing Lady Gaga’s performances from way back where she was a new and kind of strange face on the scene to the massive blowout performances she has now. Everyone had to start somewhere.

Even more important is to remember that it is never too late to start something, or to become the best at it. Vera Wang started designing at 40, Suzanne Collins was 46 when she wrote The Hunger Games (2008), Stan Lee was 40 when he published The Fantastic Four, Toni Morrison published her first novel The Bluest Eye (1970) at 39.

Living each day with this in mind is not so easy, but these reminders are important. Life is the journey.