Taking action, at last
On August 12 2005, while in Miyajima Japan, I wrote in my journal that I would love to create a book of pictures, entries and tidbits accumulated during my World Tour. While I was not very optimistic about it at first, the idea stuck with me and never left the back of my mind. It was always a dream - a dream to find the time, the patience, the software, the will - to tally everything, retype my journal, analyze the data and create a glossy, bounded account of my journey.
I never got around to it. I never even started. I kept hoping that time would just appear out of nowhere. That things would just fall in place easily. But achieving your dreams is never something easy - otherwise, it wouldn't be as satisfactory.
A previous coworker of mine recently became the first Canadian with Type 1 diabetes to summit Mount Everest. He worked hard to get there, and after over 7 years of devotion managed to turn his dream into a reality. This was just one of many things that made me feel ridiculous for letting trivial things get in the way of my dream. Clearly what he accomplished was a lot harder to do that what I was hoping to do.
After his incredible feat, he came to speak to us at work. Throughout his talk, I felt inspired by him, by what he did. How can you not? But what struck me the most was the end of the talk. He asked what we were doing to turn our dreams into projects. And you know what? I felt proud that I had already started working on my dreams - on my projects.
In fact, about a month ago, I resolved to actually create my book, and publish it. Not in a way to earn money, and not from a big publishing company - I just want my pages printed and bound.
My discovery of Blurb was most likely the catalyst for the whole thing. They are affordable, stylistic and provide their own publishing software that actually works very well. It is so accessible that I could not pass it by. It actually eliminated a lot of the perceived obstacles that I had. There were no more excuses.
And so, I have begun to type my journal. I have started a spreadsheet to tally pictures, journal entries, blog entries and so forth by date. I have started experimenting with the software. There is so much data - I will have to edit everything down by quite a lot to get it all to fit. If not, it might turn into a 7-tome epic. But things are on heir way.
It will take a long time; I anticipate that this is at least a 6-month project. But it will be worth it.
I never got around to it. I never even started. I kept hoping that time would just appear out of nowhere. That things would just fall in place easily. But achieving your dreams is never something easy - otherwise, it wouldn't be as satisfactory.
A previous coworker of mine recently became the first Canadian with Type 1 diabetes to summit Mount Everest. He worked hard to get there, and after over 7 years of devotion managed to turn his dream into a reality. This was just one of many things that made me feel ridiculous for letting trivial things get in the way of my dream. Clearly what he accomplished was a lot harder to do that what I was hoping to do.
After his incredible feat, he came to speak to us at work. Throughout his talk, I felt inspired by him, by what he did. How can you not? But what struck me the most was the end of the talk. He asked what we were doing to turn our dreams into projects. And you know what? I felt proud that I had already started working on my dreams - on my projects.
In fact, about a month ago, I resolved to actually create my book, and publish it. Not in a way to earn money, and not from a big publishing company - I just want my pages printed and bound.
My discovery of Blurb was most likely the catalyst for the whole thing. They are affordable, stylistic and provide their own publishing software that actually works very well. It is so accessible that I could not pass it by. It actually eliminated a lot of the perceived obstacles that I had. There were no more excuses.
And so, I have begun to type my journal. I have started a spreadsheet to tally pictures, journal entries, blog entries and so forth by date. I have started experimenting with the software. There is so much data - I will have to edit everything down by quite a lot to get it all to fit. If not, it might turn into a 7-tome epic. But things are on heir way.
It will take a long time; I anticipate that this is at least a 6-month project. But it will be worth it.
posted by Magalie at 6:55 p.m.
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