A while back, I responded to a post by Seth Godin where he asks some questions.  As several readers of this blog know, Seth is a big influence on my work.  

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when he posts a blog post with questions, I like to respond

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Specifically his mentality of ‘ship now’ is hugely influential in this and my long form writing project. So as an exercise, when he posts a blog post with questions, I like to respond. It helps me stay focused. I’m sure i’m not the only one who does this but I’m going to respond like it was directly asked of me. So without further adieu, Seth Asked me for a progress report. Here it is:

I’m not sure we need to see a checklist of what you got done last week. What we really need:

1. the difficult questions that remain unanswered

Is this really going to be worth my time? – Don’t know, but I’m not giving up. Not yet.  

How much will it cost out of pocket to get the product done? I’ve got to keep reaching out and put aside some money or time to really professionalize this blog.  

How will I approach traditional publishers with my work?  

1. the long-term goals where you don’t feel like progress is being made

I don’t feel like the quality of the blog and book is where it needs to be. I’m definitely creating content, but every single day when I see the reader numbers I think to myself; I really need a better presentation and a better way to be searched online.  

I’m also not making much progress on leveraging the content I’ve already created into multiple formats. For example, I haven’t purchased a green screen and camera. I haven’t purchased a portable audio studio.  

1. risky, generous acts that worked

I don’t know that I’ve had any risky generous acts. I’m still plugging away at the blog. I don’t have a lot of readers yet. I suspect that I’ll offer some form of classroom study guide and free copies for teachers and students. But that’s in the future.  

Even more important: All the things that aren’t on your list, but could be.

Yowza. I don’t even know how to answer this one. I think the key here is that there are uncounted things on my list, and I’m keeping them off on purpose. The goal here is to eliminate distractions, to stay focused on two things; the best blog I can have, and the best book I can write, and everything else needs to feed both of those things.  

Interestingly enough, I’m still trying to figure out of the blog is a distraction to the book or vice versa. Or if the two really are as complementary as I intended.  

I guess I’ll just have to try and make some progress on figuring that one out.  

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/11/your-progress-report.html