DAY 45: This Quest Could Technically Be Over/The Yellow Brick Road

DAY 45: This Quest Could Technically Be Over/The Yellow Brick Road

March 30, 2011
8:25 am

It’s a technicality, but if I really wanted to spin this the right way, my Quest is over and I could conceivably be declared the winner! Yesterday I has given an in-kind service worth almost 20% of my goal. When I look at the unexpected investment which was cashed, the in-kind services and the committed income I know I’ll be making through one of my programs I realized when added all up the amount has exceeded the annual income that I’ve ever made in a fiscal year. It’s a debatable win, but it gives me a psychological edge going into the last 15 days of the Quest. My Quest was to have a “committed” income of a certain amount which represented an annual income (but in reality this figure was significantly more than any annual income I’ve ever made in the past.)

Now that I can allow myself to accept that I’ve won this game, I’d like to make this an indisputable win!
Today I’m working on building my website, designing a one-sheet for a big event which will happen on DAY 60, and feverishly producing the video I intend to release next week.

I shall continue the “Question Council” activity by addressing my fourth question:

MIKE: “What will I do to release my book and audio programs by June 15, 2011?”

Let’s see…let’s make today’s council characters from the Wizard of Oz story.

FIRST LAYER/FIRST QUESTION:

DOROTHY: You will need to revise your book one final time before releasing it as an eBook through your website. Call your friend and see if you can secure an editor. If you aren’t able to secure an editor, release it anyway with a disclosure statement that the book is still a “work in progress” but at least it can be circulated.

Not bad advice for a little girl from Kansas, huh?

Your audios will be completed on scheduled, simply continue to commit to one recording a day. To release them by June 15, you should commit to editing and launching one volume per week between April 15 and June 15.

(1^st Layer Question.) How will you keep your sanity through all of this and continue to be productive with all this work ahead of you?

(Mike continues with Dorothy down the Yellow Brick Road.)

SECOND LAYER/SECOND QUESTION:

SCARECROW: You’ve already set aside two hours everyday to write this book and make your audio recordings. Now that you’ve trained yourself to do this, take the time you normally use to write this blog for editing the final draft. Take the time you would typically use to make your audios to edit and launch the audios. You’ve developed a lifestyle now based on productive habits, Mike, you’re merely replacing one activity for another.

(2^nd Layer Question.) How does this line of questioning work in with all the other lines of questioning from the Wizanagamot and the Jedi Council?

THIRD LAYER/THIRD QUESTION:

TIN MAN: All of these questions come back to completing the Quest in the most time efficient manner possible. By the time Mike is finished with the books and the audios, we will have a website from which to market them. My heart tells me that all the questions deepen Mike’s commitment to the Quest and gives him the psychological edge this phase of the journey promises. Mike feels that all of this week’s questions are not diverting him, but rather intensifying his focus and increasing his confidence!

(3^rd Layer Question.) How does Mike now become psychologically centered in the COMPETION of this book?

FOURTH LAYER/FOURTH QUESTION:

LION: It takes courage, to be sure. The ending of things are always scary. Mike now has to realize the ending of his first book is the beginning of this second book which he’s composing right now. It’s time to let it go and realize he wrote the book to get a message out - not for it to become the “perfect work of literature”. If he stays centered on this fact, the criticisms and even his own errors will haunt him less. Those who have ears will hear and appreciate the message in the spirit from which the first book was written.

(4^th Layer Question.) What does Mike need to understand to have the courage to call his editor friend?

FIFTH LAYER/FIFTH QUESTION:

WIZARD: Acknowledging this question was the greatest start. That’s really all it took. Right before Mike finished writing my words he already called and left a message. Many times unpremeditated action is the best course of action.

(5^th Layer Question.) Are there really any more questions necessary since Mike took action and got the ball rolling?

SIXTH LAYER/SIXTH QUESTION:

GLINDA: There are not more questions except for the fact that consulting with this council is fun for Mike. So he will continue to the seventh layer as planned but advise others that when they feel compete and would like to stop, that is always their cherished option.

(6^th Layer Question.) What is the question burning most in your heart right now, Mike?

SEVENTH LAYER/SEVENTH QUESTION:

MIKE: How do I communicate to people that I’m not looking to be perfect? How do I communicate that I know my writing is inferior and hurried and less than Pulitzer Prize winning but there’s a message burning within me? Part of that message is STOP TRYING TO BE PERFECT and just do the thing!

Hmm. I think I just did that.

Back to my original question: What will I do to release my book and audio programs by June 15, 2011?


The Answer: I’ve already contacted my editor friend. I will continue what I’m doing throughout this 60 Day
Quest and replace editing duties with writing duties upon the Quest’s conclusion.

Michael Shoeman
Ready to Come Back to Kansas