One of the most famous episodes of Seinfeld is “The Contest.” In this episode, Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer compete to see who can demonstrate self-control the longest. The one who wins will be known as “master of their domain.”  

What are they refraining from? Well, you’ll just have to watch the episode for yourself… 

The concept of self-mastery is an important one for writers. We spend a lot of our time obsessing over external obstacles, such as frustrations with technology, agents or publishers not giving us a shot, not having enough time to write, interruptions from people, and a million other things. 

But those are all beside the point. If we don’t master ourselves, nothing else matters. Success in writing really just comes down to arranging your life to make writing and publishing a priority. At the end of the day, it’s nothing more and nothing less.  

For thousands of years, the greatest minds from all religions, cultures, and walks of life have emphasized the need for self-mastery. The great artist Leonardo da Vinci said, “One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” 

While attempting to spend all of our time worrying about forces that fight to control us from the outside, we will get much further if we focus on mastering what’s on the inside.