The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it. —Roman Saying, quoted in Charles de Lint, Dreams Underfoot, 1993
Yesterday I met a goal six months in the making–my podcast buddy James Buchanan and I “soft launched” Gifted Underachievers, a podcast for midlevel creatives with delusional ambitions. We “gentle launched” it. One might say we did an almost secret launch.That was our goal, and we made it.
Yesterday, I felt that happy fizziness that comes when you achieve something you’ve been aiming for.
So I was chagrined to find myself awake in the night and feeling disappointed in two aspects of our first episode:
1) audio quality and
2) a duplication of text in our subscriber email.
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After I woke up this morning and HAD A COFFEE, chagrin turned to acceptance. Early days! We’re okay! Our subscriber list is small, and we did a soft launch because we knew there’d be bugs! We’re on a learning curve!
***
Then I worked on my novel for a bit. When I was done with that, ambivalence crept over me. Is this podcast worth listening to? Are we being solipsistic?! What are we trying to do, here? And,
Getting Episode 1 together was a lot of work. Can I sustain spending that much time on it?
***
I’m glad to report that as I write this postcard I’m veering back to curiosity, which is the internal state I like best.
We started this project because it made us laugh. We are investigating something dear to both of us: the business of being a creative person.
By business I don’t mean just money–I mean everything businesses bring with them: skill development, growth, satisfaction, and yes, money.
I conclude that something happens when you put your stuff out into the ether. It gets a lot more real. There will be feelings. If you don’t acknowledge them and pay attention to what they’re telling you, there will be problems bigger than tech issues, and you might quit the project too soon.
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What’s your experience with setting and reaching a goal? Like, say, finishing a novel, or running a course. Do you feel unmitigated joy, accomplishment, satisfaction…?
Cheers,
Pat
Early-Bird Deadline!
Register by August 2nd, 2024 to get early-bird pricing for the International 3-day Novel Contest, now in its 47th year!!!
The winner gets cash, publication, and 10 free books. Not bad for 72 hours of work!
If you want to know what a novel written in 72 hours looks like, check out mine–The Tenants–by clicking the image below.
Book Bag
Steering the Craft
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998
This book is helping me write my novel. It takes a different approach than I’ve been using for the last 2-3 books, and I find it EXTREMELY helpful.
Icing on the cake: Ursula K. Le Guin is extremely funny.