I persist until I succeed.

Manuscripts get sent out sixty times before somebody says yes, and the sixtieth submission isn't braver than the fifth. It's just later. Persistence has less to do with grit than with lowering the cost of each attempt. Make the next try cheap enough — twenty minutes, one email, one more go — and continuing stops requiring a heroic decision every time.

Rest counts as well. Stopping for a day to sleep is part of persisting. Only stopping permanently isn't.

Whatever you're forty attempts into, the next one doesn't have to be your best. It only has to happen.