I recently shared news about a significant (to me) achievement – publishing a book* I’ve been working on for a while.

I was stunned at the number of people who congratulated me; it was a lovely surprise. I was also shocked, though, at the number of people who said things like, “I don’t know how you do it all,” “Is there anything you can’t do,” “I’m so impressed with this accomplishment,” and the like.

I don’t mean to downplay the achievement, but really…anyone can do it. Anyone who has enough perseverance and persistence, that is.

Because there were a few days of “glory” – people celebrating the moment with me, which I absolutely love, but there weren’t that many people who were doing the same the 600+ days the project was in the works. Very few people saw the early mornings, late nights, weekends of paper and red pens; the grind of it all wasn’t glorious. It was mundane. And boring. And painful. And stressful.

Yet, it was worth it. Because there is no glory without the grind, and the grind makes the glory-moment pretty spectacular. So much so that it completely took me off-guard with surprise emotions.

There’s no glory in the grind.

Grind, grind anyway.

* The book mentioned is Your Guide to Cancer Prevention, which was written by oncology nurses as an extension of care to the general public. 25-50% of all cancers are preventable; see what the evidence says about the strategies and the myths related to modifiable and non-modifiable cancer risk factors.