Last week we talked about our passage “through the wilderness” being imbued with meaning, i.e. not random, not absurd, not shameful, not meaningless.

The artist’s work, like the migrant laborer’s, requires intention. It requires will. The artist must want to achieve her end.

It took me seven years to finish my first book. (I wrote about this in The War of Art.) I couldn’t sell it. Couldn’t find a buyer. In fact it would be twenty-one more years before a novel of mine actually saw the light of publication.

We were talking last week about the writer or artist’s need for training.

We were talking a couple of weeks ago about the artist’s or warrior’s “willing embrace of chaos.”

I gave a talk a few weeks ago at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. The title of the talk was “The Warrior Mindset.”

John Naber won four swimming gold medals at the ’76 Olympic Games in Montreal, each in world-record time. He said something in an interview once that sticks with me to this day. A reporter asked Naber, “What’s the difference between a good swimmer and a great swimmer?” Here’s how Naber answered (I’m paraphrasing from memory): The thing about competitive swimming is that the instant you hit the water, you enter the Pain Zone. Your heart is hammering, your lungs are on fire, your muscles are straining to their maximum. It’s hell. The difference between a good swimmer and a great…

Do you know the word “operational?” I didn’t. 

Let’s get back to our “fighter pilot wisdom” series.

Picking up from last week’s post in our series on Fighter Pilot Wisdom, here’s more from fighter ace Ran Ronen: