Are we there yet?

It's been something of a frustrating week - one of those weeks where lots of cool things happened and then the inner critic appeared and tried to kick sand in my face.

On Tuesday I received the proof copy of my novel. It was seriously, seriously cool. Nothing quite beats holding a hard, bound copy of your book. I wanted it to be a surprise for Nyani and T so didn't reveal the book until T's birthday on Thursday (a bit of subterfuge that meant I had to retreat to my office to dance quietly all by myself). It was worth the wait though, as they were suitably surprised and impressed.

I'm so excited to be this close to having a hard copy for sale and yet also incredibly frustrated that it's not there yet. Just to keep it real I had one of those - why bother? - moments yesterday. (If I see another typo....) Fortunately my outburst was short lived, but it was a classic moment of being frustrated that I'm not further ahead, that it's not all sorted and aligned and done yet.

And then I read a great quote in a blog post this morning titled 'Why you're not where you want to be (and why it doesn't matter)' that made me laugh. In it Johnny B Truant says:

Instead, ask yourself: Am I closer to my ideal life or goal than I was last year? Last month? Last week? Hell: yesterday?

And if the answer is “yes” most of the time, then you’re doing well.

Let's see...this time last year I hadn't even started replotting the novel. I had four or five chapters that I hadn't looked at in about three years and I didn't even know how the story ended. A month ago I had just released the e-book and I was thinking that I'd be lucky to have a hard copy by July and I had zero reviews. Last week? I was still talking to the designer about why the cover graphic wouldn't upload. So, am I closer to my goals? OK, fine, maybe I'm a bit closer...

So yeah, I still have BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) and maybe I'm not quite there yet, but I think it's fair to say I'm making progress!

Photo credit: anankkml