Stamina

On the attributes one requires to be a good writer, Murakami writes the following:

Whether you write novels or short stories, to maintain creativity over a long period of time you need the kind of staying power that makes this process possible.

Well, then, what do you need to do to acquire that kind of stamina?

I have but one answer, and a very simple one: you have to become physically fit. You need to become robust and physically strong. And make your body your ally

I’ve recently taken it upon myself to step up into a more senior role. Among other things, I’ve concretised it as being more generally decisive (I’m not good at this yet), mentoring, but most of all, taking meetings.

I haven’t been in many long meetings at work lately, most of them have been standups; at most, I had an hour long chat with a colleague as he explained something we were both interested in. Generally, the meetings I attend have a clear outcome, and I thought that the increase in the meetings I was having meant that I was getting to be more senior.

I sit on a stool with no back. I was brought in last minute. No clear reason¹.

The meeting ran for just under 2 hours on a Friday afternoon. The Murakami quote struck me just as the meeting drew to a close when one of the attendees—an executive of some sort—mentioned that they liked the session and that we should do it more often. A few other attendees muttered in assent.

Did they like this? Was the enjoyment of long, winding, semi-unstructured meetings a prerequisite for corporate success in an environment like this?

This is anecdata—you can’t take one position seriously—but in that moment, I thought that this executive must have had the stamina that Murakami speaks of.

Footnotes