Take The Plunge - A Running Commentary.

Sometimes you just have to take the plunge, dive into the deep end and start swimming.  Last week I finally did that. At least I did it metaphorically.  For years Chris Russell from Run Run Live has encouraged me to pull my more popular commentaries into a digital book.  For years I have slowly gone through to find the posts that people liked the most.  I have re-written most of them, edited than and formatted them for a digital format.  In March of this year I told friends I thought the book would be ready in two weeks.

Ruled By Fear

That's when the fear set in.  It's not ready.  It's not good enough.  No one will want to read it.  Who would bother buying it?

So it sat there on my flash drive waiting for someone to knock on the door and read it.  But that's not how it works, right?

Working Up The Nerve

Last week I finally worked up the nerve.  The funny thing is that on Sunday night when I opened it up to edit it one more time I began to realize it was complete.  I had written and rewritten, edited and reedited it so many times it was complete.  It really had been fear holding me back.

Testing the Water.

So, being not quite ready, still afraid of failure, I tested the waters.  I created four covers and put them out on several different mediums to see which one people liked the best.  The response was overwhelming.  I received hundreds of votes for a cover.  And suddenly my confidence rose.  Suddenly I worked up the nerve to publish.

Taking the Plunge

On Thursday I published A Running Commentary to Kindle.  Right away my most loyal friends and even a few strangers bought it.  The Infamous David Murphy even left a review.  But once it was out there I realized, it doesn't matter how many people buy it.  It was the risk that I needed to take.  It was the deed that I needed to have done.  I can now say, I have published my book.

The interesting thing is that now, I am excited about doing it again.  I have even started a pulling together a new one on the journey to becoming an Ironman.  Sometimes it is taking the plunge that matters.  The end results are just the icing on the cake.