Of all the many skills and traits that are worth developing as someone looking to make a difference through the work you create, emotional stamina might be the most important.

Despite what the American Dream would have you believe, pursuing a life of creating something new — even if that something new makes like better for everyone who engages with it — runs counter to many of the systems that guide our culture.

Because of this, you’ll face countless roadblocks, challenges, questions, doubt and likely even ridicule, sometimes from the people you care about most.

These reactions don’t inherently mean you’re wrong, or that your work is flawed, but if you believe in the work you do and you plan on persisting with it, you’re going to need the emotional stamina to weather the storm.

You can prepare yourself by recognizing from the outset that you’re going to face setbacks, doubters and non-believers and steeling yourself against them.

But the only way to build your emotional stamina is by facing down criticism and failure, picking yourself up, and carrying onward.

This is part of the process of creating.

Understand that anyone who ever created something great achieved it not just because of their innate talent, masterful skill, or perfect timing, but because they possessed the emotional stamina to persist through the resistance, doubt, and failures to eventually land on something that stuck.

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Want to hear more about building an audience around work that matters? I think you might enjoy these reads.

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