Day 30 of the 30-Day Challenge: Creative Movement:
Task: To manually make the necessary revisions to my book, Playground Instruction for the Growing Adult, and to upload the revised manuscript to the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) website, where my current version of the book is housed.
Reason for Task: This is just a repeat from day 19, but I need to update my book. I know some changes are needed and it’s time to get ’em done. So, I’m moving this goal out of “Procrastination Station” and into the “Creative Movement” goal-setting space. Also, I already started revising my book so I need to see it through until the end (just like I did with this 30-day challenge).
Duration of Task: This task will take me (at least) 1 more day and that’s being optimistic. (I should probably give myself 2 more days to finish). Either way, I won’t have this task completed before the 30-day challenge ends. And that’s okay. I have quite a few goals that will start after the challenge or be finished up after the challenge.
Outcome of Task: There are several steps to this task, and they are as follows:
- research what I need to do in order to get my updated book onto the KDP website,
- reread the entire book and note all the changes that I come across,
- decide which of those changes actually need to be made or are just some round-about way in which I’m trying to rewrite my book,
- retrieve a copy of my current online manuscript for the paperback as well as ebook formats of the book,
- physically make the necessary changes to the current electronic (paperback and ebook) formats of the book, and
- upload the revised manuscript (in both formats) onto the KDP website.
Well, I got through step one, which was pretty simple. It just required a few minutes of my time to read through the section on KDP, entitled “Book Updates”. And then, I honed in on the sub-section, entitled “Update Your Manuscript”. And that’s really all I needed to review to get the technical directions for taking my book revisions and making them official on KDP. I needed a quick task to do today; after all, it was Father’s Day and I was pretty much busy all day long giving the special Fathers in my life some extra attention.
Truthfully, I don’t need a special day to recognize my parents, because I honor them continuously throughout the year. But I see no harm in taking a day and doing a little extra than the norm to let a loved know how much he or she is loved and valued (not only on a special recognition day but every day of the year). My parents have done so much for me (biological, step, and in-law), so I count it a privilege to do a little extra on their days of recognition. So, the short and to-the-quick task was what I needed today.
I had actually completed step 2 on a previous day during this challenge. Oh, I might as well refer you to it right now (in case you missed it, that is). If you check out Day 19: Creative Movement 30-Day Challenge and Day 20: Creative Movement 30-Day Challenge, then you’ll have the scoop on what went down for step 2 of this task.
Steps 3 through 6 will be completed over the course of the next 2 days. I should be able to get them done with no problem (I hope). We’ll see. I think the most challenging of the remaining steps will be number 3. Step 3 is the dilemma for a lot of authors out there. It’s that point in the editing process of your book where you keep revising things — finding better ways of saying things than the time before. And you can literally spin your wheels indefinitely with that process if you don’t cut it off at some point and just publish the book.
So, falling back into the snare of rewriting my book was one of the reasons I didn’t relish the rereading of my book in the first place. I knew I’d fall into that snare. And I found quite a few ways I could restate something or tidy something up a bit. However, I’ve decided not to rewrite the book. I’m keeping the editing process simple. I’m not looking for a version #2 of my book. I just want to make the little grammatical and formatting corrections that clean up the book (not change the content, or meat, of it).
Practical Application of Day 30 for Your Life: I can’t believe it’s finally here. The end of the “Creative Movement Goal-Setting Challenge”. It feels good to have seen it through. All in all, I count this experience as a success. I definitely got a lot done. I really did. I still have so much more to go, but that was to be expected. My list of to-dos was waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy too much to cover in 30 day’s time. There was just no way. But completing the challenge forced me to do some tasks that I never would have gotten to if it wasn’t for the challenge. I put myself out there and held myself accountable.
Although, I’ll admit that there was a price to pay for participating in this challenge, which is why I won’t extend it and won’t participate in a brand-new challenge for some time. This type of commitment will take a lot out of a person who’s already saturated with routine daily challenges. And adding new ones to the mix ultimately takes away from some part of you. For example, I did without the kind of sleep/rest a person truly needs to function at a highly productive and healthy state, my walking routine went by the wayside (really it’s never been very consistent if I’m to be honest with you), my household chores also dwindled down to the have-to-dos which means I’m forced to make up for lost time now that the challenge is over, and I had to forgo quite a bit of “me” time (fun-filled recreation).
If nothing else, this challenge has taught me about the importance of balance and self-discipline in one’s life. I’m going to write about the following topics in one (or several) “Blogging Truths Be Told” posts, but balance and self-discipline are some of the keys to a content creator’s/entrepreneur’s success. You have to have them both to stick with your ongoing goals long-term.
Longevity. Hmmmm. 30-day goal challenges are not designed for the long-term perspective. They set you up to get a bunch of things done in a short amount of time, not necessarily establish the lifestyle changes that create long-term strategies for managing your ongoing goals. And the likelihood of relapsing is oh-so high, because the lifelong strategies for successfully managing goal setting and achievement haven’t been established. Kind of reminds me of fad diets that might help you to lose weight fast over a short period of time, but don’t equip you with healthy lifestyle habits for keeping the weight off long-term.
Short-term strategies, such as the 30-day challenge, have their place; but they’re not meant to be engaged in for long periods of time. When you get right down to it, they’re just not healthy. They create imbalances and don’t teach you much about longevity in life balance or self-discipline. So, find yourself engaging more in the activities that positively impact your life over the length of your life instead of continuously looking for quick fixes that might give you some temporary satisfaction but don’t set you up with the tools you need to keep you successfully-functioning over your lifetime.
degreesofmaternity.com 