I was going to title this article “When Everything Goes Wrong,” but that’s the dramatic side of me coming through. It is true though. I have a half a dozen tasks juggling in the air and not a one of them is one hundred percent right. 

I realize that writing, self-publishing to be more exact, is a solitary hobby (or career if you’re so lucky). Never have I felt this more than I do now. Sure, there are people who can help me, but I am striving to learn every step of the process to become an expert in this field. And even when I’ve paid for help, the end product still isn’t up to the standard.

It’s easy to be frustrated when both Amazon KDP and Draft2Digital my EIN, especially when I’m staring at the certificate from the IRS. In order to help combat this, at the end of the day I have been asking myself:  Am I consistently working toward your goal? Am I making progress, no matter how slow? Obviously, if zero time is spent working toward the end product, then nothing will get done. Conversely, if I pick away at my goal, eventually it will lead to success.

I struggle with wanting everything to be done right now. I spend hours a day, doing my best to make progress, only to find that when I’m within reach of being done, roadblocks and hurdles keep me from checking the task from my list. 

The other day I was able to make progress on several of my tasks, but none of them were one hundred percent done. I would start something only to hit a wall. I was formatting my book and couldn’t for the life of me make the header and footer disappear on the chapter pages. Once my formatting was nearly complete, I realized that my book is going to be close to 400 pages instead of the 300 I told my cover designer (which means the spine portion of my cover art will need to be adjusted). I attempted to change the blurb on the back of my book cover when I realized I’m not as savvy in Adobe as I thought. And, I’ve already shared my EIN debacle.

So, what happens when things don’t go the way you want them to or as expected? Yes, I want to jump to the end and have everything set up and perfectly formatted. I would love to put a band-aid over everything and magically have it fixed. 

Neither of those options are viable for me.

I don’t want to slap something together for the sake of being done. I want to know that when my books are out in the world that I put my best efforts into it. So, I push through these struggles. Yes, everything is taking longer than expected. Yes, now I have to go to the IRS office because they won’t answer the phone. And yes, I’m having to spend extra time researching how to get the desired format. 

What do I do when frustration hovers over me as I have these minor setbacks? First of all, I give myself a pat on the back for not crying and giving up! I take a step back. I enjoy my family, go camping, sit at a beautiful lake … and try again! Gaining the satisfaction of pushing through to my end goal is going to be worth the effort. Am I going to celebrate in a few short weeks when the book I’ve worked so hard on to publish? You bet!