Finding Confidence in the Long Game

A few days ago, I had the incredible experience of seeing my husband’s first painting displayed in a public location. It was one of those moments where time slows just a little—the kind that makes you step back and truly appreciate someone else’s triumph. Watching him stand there, looking at his work on display, I could see the quiet pride settling in, the kind that comes not from external validation but from realizing that his talent, his effort, and his persistence had led to something tangible.

It was a beautiful reminder of something I often forget: growth isn’t about what happens in the moment, but about the journey that gets us there.

As a writer just starting out, it’s easy to feel disheartened. Right now, my newsletter has exactly seven subscribers—all of whom are close friends (which is also a humbling reminder of how few I have, but that’s a blog post for another day). My engagement on social media is nearly nonexistent. The updates I share about my work in progress float into the void, met with silence. It would be so easy to look at all of this and think, “What’s the point?”

But then I think about my husband’s painting. This one—the one that now hangs for strangers to see—wasn’t the first piece he ever created. It wasn’t the first time he put a brush to canvas or wrestled with self-doubt over whether his work was good enough. It was simply the first piece that had its moment.

And that’s what I need to remember about writing.

The words I write today, the blog posts that don’t get comments, the social media updates that go unnoticed—none of them are for nothing. They’re part of the long game. Right now, I’m in the quiet phase, the place where the work happens before the recognition comes. And that’s okay. Because the only thing that really matters is that I keep going.

One day, my finished novel will be on a shelf, just like my husband’s painting is now on display. And when that day comes, it won’t matter how many people saw the process—it’ll only matter that I believed in the work enough to see it through.

For anyone else feeling stuck in that quiet phase, wondering if your work is worth it—keep going. Your moment is coming, too.