Advice from the Greatest of All Time

Erica here,

If you know me at all, you know I am OBSESSED with rugby. Not just any rugby, but Rugby Union...the game they play in heaven. :)  And not just any Rugby Union, but the New Zealand All Blacks, the greatest sports team in history.  (They have a winning record against every team they have ever played, beginning in 1903.)

My All Blacks performing the haka at Twickenham Stadium before
the 2018 match against the Barbarians. (Barbarians are a side made up of
international all stars invited to participate. A fun spectacle for fans!)

The most capped (a cap is an appearance in an official test match between national teams) All Black is the great Richie McCaw (148 test caps, 110 as captain of the side.) Three times named World Rugby Player of the Year, two time world champion, most capped test rugby player of all time, and destined for the Rugby Hall of Fame, Richie McCaw rose to the top of his field and stayed there for an unequaled length of time.

Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash

So, when he spoke of his three tips for achieving excellence, I certainly was interested...and I saw the parallels between becoming an excellent rugby player and becoming an excellent writer.

Here are Richie's tips, with my own thoughts after each one:



Tip 1:


"The first one that I really live by is that you can't go past hard work, if you think it's going to be easy, if you achieve it when it's easy you're probably not going to get the satisfaction of what it's all about."

Writing is hard work. Writing well is harder work. Even if you LOVE writing, (and who doesn't?) at least part of the time, it is going to be difficult. You're not going to feel like it. You are going to be rejected, criticized, and told your work isn't good enough.

Are you willing to work? Not dabble, not daydream about writing, but actually buckle down and do the work of writing? Are you willing to study and try and fail? Are you willing to invest your time, your heart, and your money? As Richie says, you can't go past hard work.

Tip 2:


"Attention to detail, understanding of what it takes as not everyone knows, asking for advice or asking for help from people around you who can see things from a different way."

Great writers aren't born, they're made. You can have raw talent, but perfecting and maturing that talent takes time and attention to detail. It takes learning from those who have gone before you and those who are on the journey with you. Nobody has all the answers, but everyone who has achieved what you want to achieve has experience and information.

That's one (of about a bazillion or so) reason that I love Seekerville. For more than a decade, women who have been there and done that freely share their experiences and viewpoints and celebrate the successes of those who reach for their dreams.

Tip 3:


"You got to have that drive. It's not someone telling you that you've got to work hard, you've got to really want to do it yourself and I think the people who have that are the most successful."

The motivation to be great at anything, to stick with it through the less-than-glamorous times, has to come from within. You cannot hope to achieve your dreams without desire and ambition to do so. You can't want to climb this mountain for someone else. You have to want it for yourself, and you have to be driven to do it.


Writing well, like doing anything else well takes hard work, a humble spirit willing to learn, and an inner drive to reach for your dreams. What are you doing this week to implement these tips to move you closer to your goals?

You can watch Richie's interview here:

Best-selling, award-winning author Erica Vetsch loves Jesus, history, romance, and sports. She’s a transplanted Kansan now living in Minnesota, and she is married to her total opposite and soul mate! When she’s not writing fiction, she’s planning her next trip to a history museum and cheering on her Kansas Jayhawks and New Zealand All Blacks. You can connect with her at her website, www.ericavetsch.com where you can read about her books and sign up for her newsletter, and you can find her online at https://www.facebook.com/EricaVetschAuthor/ where she spends way too much time!

Available May 1st!!!! Order your copy now!!!

Dreams of Finding Mr. Right Go Wrong in the Old West

Erica's story:

The Galway Girl by Erica Vetsch
Kansas, 1875
A mail-order mix-up sends Irish lass Maeve O’Reilly to the Swedish community of Lindsborg, Kansas. Will Kaspar Sandberg consider it a happy accident or a disaster to be rectified as soon as possible?
 

You can order your copy HERE.