How I Found the Courage to Continue After Losing 3 Years of Work

This was five years ago:

I feel the last of my creative energy pouring out of my body.

It’s time to close the laptop and move on with my day.

Wait, what just happened?

Where did it go?

Where’s my manuscript?

It vanished.

It’s gone.

What the hell did I do?

My heart sinks to my stomach as my skin crawls with chills from the panic embodying me.

3 years of work down the drain. 3 years of suffering for nothing.

Half a million words vanished in a second.

My heart’s racing as I fight back the tears. I have to regain composure.

Think, Craig, think.

Panic isn’t helping. Take a step back and think logically.

It’s in Evernote, Evernote syncs to the cloud, and I have the Evernote app loaded on my phone.

There’s a significant lag between the devices syncing.

The manuscript will be on my phone, and I’ll save it from there.

A wave of relief washes over me as I reach for my phone; everything will be ok…