Hi Reader

How are you doing?

I know. I know. It's been a while since I shared the newsletter with you.

I was only doing one thing for the past few months. And of course, I was also helping my coaching clients.

This 'one thing' started as one but ended up with many.

The one thing I'm referring to is editing (re-editing) my fiction book. I thought I had finished it and even sent it out in an earlier newsletter (a while ago!).

Then, what happened?

This is what happened. Shout out to my coaching client for telling me about the movie Inside Out from where I got the below idea.

Here's my inside-out story.

INSIDE:

Joy: This is cool, Rama! You finally completed 'Perfect Promotion'! Now, you can call it a day.

Fear: I am nervous. I'm scared to publish. This is my first fiction...

Sad: Oh no, nobody is going to like it. Why publish anyway?.

Anger: Did you just waste your time, money, and energy working on something and not sure what to do next?

Disgust: This is disgusting.

Joy: Nothing is disgusting Disgust. Why are you even speaking?

Disgust: I'm disgust. I can get disgusting anytime I want. You can't ask me questions...

Fear: I'm scared. What if the reader snores after reading the first page?

Anger: Just put your ass out on a chair and make sure you have written a goddamn book that your readers can't put down.

Sad: I'm really sad. Should I do all the work again? Should I sit for countless hours looking at the same pages again and again?

Disgust: This is disgusting.

Joy: Disgust...You are...Nothing... ok. I am not going to say anything.

Fear: I've to do the work. Otherwise, I can't publish it...How will I market it? Oh no... (sob! sob!).

Joy: Alright, guys... Just calm down. Take a break. Time out.

So what happened?

I sat on the chair (following Anger's instructions) and started reading the book (the soon-be-published) with an open mind like a reader would do.

The first thing I felt was that there were many places where I could do a better job of making it more entertaining and fine-tuning the storytelling elements.

One thing led to another, and I went under a rock to spend countless more hours reading, re-reading, and editing it every day.

For some weird reason, I started enjoying this process. (Inside: Joy is screaming and saying "Yay" every day). There were so many connections that are seen now that I'm sure I couldn't or wouldn't be able to see earlier. I got a great kick out of this.

I got so much kick that I went and started editing my earlier books related to public speaking. (I know, we do crazy things sometimes!). Then, I was nervous (Fear pushed Joy away) to read the books I published years ago. Why?

What if I don't agree with the ideas that I published a few years ago?

Thankfully, I did not feel like changing any ideas.

I felt the 'how' could be slightly nuanced, which I changed during the editing. However, I was still happy with the 'what' part.

But I'm happy that I did this.

I want the work to reflect my current opinion. I'm getting older and soon to hit 40 years in Dec. My wife kept reminding me of this fact for the last 2 years. So yeah, I'm not hitting any mid-life crises! And if you are anywhere near this age, "Don't worry. You are just getting started"!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed today's newsletter. As always, thanks for being awesome!

Rama