I knew this day would come. I did, I did.
Other folks, though? Um … I'm not so sure they did.
In-between kid's birthday parties, celebrating my sister-in-law getting her PhD, and cheering on Emilie Wapnick for nailing her TED Talk about multipotentialites, I'd did some rejoicing myself.
“Joel. You're just going to lay it on me, right?”
Fine. Alright, alright. But just this one time. 🙂
Experience Curating is now in print and audiobook formats. And I won't blame you if you want to skip the upcoming story and just click here to get your copy.
It's been almost seventeen months since I published the Amazon-only eBook version and I've been duking it out with technical, logistical, and priority challenges ever since.
I've also been battling a resurgence of Perfectionist Joel. You know … the one who obsesses over optimal print margins and embedded cover art in digital files? Yeahhhh, that guy's a piece of work.
I know where my internal push to be “comprehensive” (the word I use to flatter myself and explain my detailed attention to detail) comes from, though.
You see, I only planned to write one book and I never want to do it again. But because it was painful – because it was so time-consuming – I wanted to go all-out and have something to be damn proud of.
Writing, editing, and publishing the eBook was my intellectual and mental equivalent of summiting Mt. Blanc, Europe's tallest peak. It took a ton of prep, a lot of effort, and the right teammates.
But getting the book into print, even with the “ease” of print-on-demand vendors in our self-publishing age, was my K2. And I'd only reach the top of my mental Mt. Everest after recording, editing, and publishing the audiobook myself as well.
None of this makes me a hero. Other people do it every day – faster and better than I did. But I don't care to compare right now. It's still one hell of a view from here.
And for My Next Act …
I've planted my scholarly flag, left something behind for others to discover, and can finally move on to other challenges that have been waiting for me.
From your perspective, that means more and higher quality Smart and Simple Matters episodes when we hit our first Patreon milestone. I can also now fully take on what could be the legacy project of my 30s: helping to build small communities around the world, all steeped in the principles of simple living (a.k.a. SimpleREV Local Gatherings).
Going back to the book, have you ever done something with all of your might … but only part of your heart? Have you ever felt compelled to keep taking the next step up … constantly wanting to move sideways or go back to the fulfilling things you left at base camp?
Thankfully, Experience Curating is done. And I'd be grateful if you used it to learn how to spend 0.1% of your time adding value to the other 99.9%.
Don't worry, though. I'm not done with The Experience Curator series or talking about spreadsheets. It just means I have time and space again for podcasting, event organizing, community-building, my groovy family and friends, or writing better stuff for you.
So now that you know what's swimming around in my dome, I want to know what's swirling through your head. When have you plodded along because you knew you had to, even if you often didn't want to? And what are you trying to make time and space for right now?
Your partner in curating (and with gratitude for having my back up the mountain),
Joel
P.S. I hope you dig my version of “perfect” and “comprehensive” on the new Experience Curating landing page. Whether you want it from Amazon, Audible, CreateSpace, or outer space … I gotcha covered (well, maybe not that last one).