Cozy and well-compensated
Oh, hi friends!
You’re deciding between two options.
The first option keeps you comfortable. Cozy. Maybe well-compensated.
The second option comes with some risk. Unknown variables. But adventure, too.
That’s a lot to consider.
But what if you made your decision based on one factor: Which option will help you grow?
How would that feel?
What would you decide?
“Where the ~~feelings~~ meet the ~~facts~~ here is, I guess, acceptance. YES it is painful to self-promote. NO you will not physically disintegrate into a fine powder upon tweeting about your book. YES your readers want to hear about your work. NO you are not tweeting too much about it. YES it takes a lot of time and effort, which are two scarce resources. You are not alone in these feelings. Everyone has them. You can find the will, the words, and the way to find what works for your books and yourself. I know you can. You wrote a whole book. You can do anything.”
Literary agent Kate McKean is discussing promoting books (subscribe to her A+ newsletter) but this advice can apply to any project you’ve created and want to share with the world.
Remember that people want to hear from you!
(And on that note: After almost three months, Do It For Yourself is *pretty much* back in stock at Amazon! It’ll be back on Bookshop soon as well. This is our fifth (!) printing whaaaat. I would appreciate your support if you were still looking to buy a copy for yourself or as a gift — and if you already have one and feel inclined to rate or leave a review on Amazon, I’d be very grateful.)
Is It Perfect? Does It Need to Be?
I wouldn’t call myself a perfectionist, but I have stopped short of the finish line because I knew the project, story, etc wasn’t where it needed to be. But wait…that might be a sign of perfectionism?! Ha!
Benjamin Hardy makes the case for why getting the execution to 80% is good enough. And I believe him. (Thanks to ultimate collaborator Shoshana Yavneh Shattenkirk for sending this my way!!)
Hardy also includes this line, which is attributed to Paul Gardner: “A painting is never finished - it simply stops in interesting places.”
Here’s to finding your own interesting places today, and knowing that it’s OK to stop.
Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!
You can also support my work by checking out my motivational journal, Do It For Yourself, designed to guide you through your creative and work projects.
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara