Finally, my book Awaken Your Power! is almost ready to be published. I just sent in the final proofs (galleys) signing off all corrective changes on the book. This means that it is ready for productions. They publisher (Balboa Press) will now send me a hard copy to my house in the next 1-3 weeks. Once I sign off on the final product sent to me, the book will be ready for purchase at http://www.amazon.com/ or at http://www.joerapisarda.com/.
I can't tell you how pleased I am to have this long-term goal finally be coming to a completion. I started writing this book in 2008, but due to my busy work schedule, I never had enough time to consistently make progress writing. In 2010, I took a leave from work to write this book full time. Since then I've been living, eating, and breathing this book. Since this is my first book, I had the pleasure of learning every step of the book writing process while I was also trying to do those steps. This made for some really long detours but ultimately were very good learning experiences.
One day I was discouraged at the lack of progress I was making when I saw a show on TV that talked about a rich developer in the early 1800's that wanted to build a shipping lane canal from the Lake Erie in Great Lakes to New York City. It was to be called The Erie Canal. He dreamed of the great commerce and new towns on the canal that would be supported by this shipping canal. Many people told him that he was crazy, and that he would never complete such a monumental task. He ignored them and became more determined than ever to complete his goal of building this canal system even if he had to do it will shear willpower! Along the way he ran into a major roadblocks. In the way of the canal was a mountain of solid rock. Once again people told him that he should give up. Instead he saw it as a challenge and again found a way around this problem, if I remember correctly, by experimenting with dynamite to blast a path through the mountain. Also he had an elevation problem of 660 ft from Hudson to Lake Erie. To overcome this obstacle he inserted a system of over 50 locks that allowed boats to be raised and lowered to meet the increase in elevation needed for transportation to continue to flow (Today this is widely know to be used in the Panama Canal.). My point in telling this story is that the vision of this man became a reality because he was focused on finding a way to succeed at his vision. I'm sure his method was not the most efficient but nonetheless his willpower allowed him to plow through all obstacles until his vision was a reality.
I used this example I saw on TV, to guide me on my mission to write this book. I'm sure that my path was not the most efficient but each detour was a great learning experience about the writing industry and I felt brought me one step closer to my goal of being a published author.
Now that my goal is almost a reality I can say that writing this book was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life, but it was also one the most liberating and rewarding thing I've ever done as well. So I recommend to anyone who has a book inside of them waiting to be published or just a "lifetime to-do list item" that they haven't gotten around to doing yet, to make it a priority in your life and find a way to make it a reality. That could mean writing a book; it could mean going skydiving; it could mean traveling to South America.
Life is meant to be lived. I've found that it's okay to get older as long as the fun and exciting times in life are still in front of you. If you don't know what you want to do, read my book, Awaken Your Power, for some inspiration. Here to you and the accomplishment in your life!
Positive Thinking,
Joe Rapisarda
http://www.joerapisarda.com/
www.twitter.com/@JoeRapisarda
http://www.linkedin.com/in/joerapisarda
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