We’ve all got them, but we don’t always tell them.

In our over filtered world, where people take hundreds of photos to post one, we tend to emphasize the finished product far too much. After all, the perfect story — the one that is the most compelling to tell and hear — is never perfect.

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I think that’s why we’re so drawn to stories. All of us have a God-given desire to overcome, and so we relate to the struggles that the characters in those stories face. When we can relate to their struggle, it gives us hope that we, too, can overcome ours.

Of course, God knew this. He sent His Son to be a suffering Savior. If we find Jesus hard to relate to, perhaps it’s because we haven’t seen the real Jesus. He was tempted like us, betrayed like us, and He hurt like us — all for us. His scars — the scars that won’t fade (see Revelation 5:6) — tell the eternal story of how He has overcome.

Your scars tell a story, too. They paint a picture of survival and strength. They tell others that you once faced something that caused you pain but didn’t cause you to quit.

Revelation 12:11 tells us that believers overcome because of the sacrifice of Jesus (His scars) and the testimony of the believers (our stories). His blood will never lose its power. Let’s make sure that our stories never stop being told.

Don’t fall for the trap that progress is linear.

We don’t always move forward by stepping forward.

Sometimes, the necessary step is to the right or the left or even, gulp, backwards.

The point is to remember the goal — the place that we are moving toward — and not lose sight of that as we navigate the opportunities and obstacles that often present themselves in real time.

So whether your next step is straight ahead or in some other direction so that you can eventually resume moving straight ahead, stop and ask yourself if you’re taking the necessary step.

If you are, step boldly even if you aren’t stepping ahead.

Slow and steady really can win the race.

We are so enamored with the big and spectacular that we overlook how the big and spectacular usually happen.

You guessed it. In slow, steady, and unspectacular ways.

Consistent and persistent pay off. Survivor got it right when they included outlast in their slogan.

A simple commitment to daily writing without concern for how much (or how little) I write has resulted in writing more in 7 weeks than I did in 2018 and 2019 combined. I’ll probably exceed my 2020 writing by the end of this month.

Do you have a big goal? Stop taking big bites and big swings at it. Start doing less at a time but do less more times, and you’ll see big dividends.

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Need an example? I could write one 1,000-word blog post every week and end up with 52,000 words in a year.

I could write a third less than that (300 words) more often than that (7 days a week vs. 1 day a week) and I’d end up with twice the number of words (300 × 365 = 109,500).

Get less dramatic and you’ll probably be more productive.

Do less more.