Another couple of weeks have gone by and my life continues to find ways to surprise me – something I imagine most of us experience every day. I continue to maintain my journaling practices of having a “plan of the day” every day put together the night before any given day and then documenting what actually happens during the course of the day. This journaling has become more detailed over time and continues to be the basis for my Book 4, which otherwise has little structure as of yet. I enjoy seeing how unpredictable life truly is as I compare my plan with my reality. It is a good exercise mentally and does help provide flexible structure to my busy life.
As far as the book world goes, my first book is now fully available for order on at least Amazon and Barnes and Noble, which includes paperback and hardback versions. I know of at least a few friends and people I have met who have ordered a copy. I won’t know how successful sales will be until I complete marketing, a press release, and other important tasks such as google search engine optimization. And of course, then it is also a function of getting book critiques and waiting for what I can hope will be a word-of-mouth progressive awareness and interest in the book. Patience may not be my strong suit, and yet it certainly will be required in this case. I maintain that I wrote this book for my own purposes, but if it can help anyone else in need that would be an added bonus.
My website is “active” and remains a work in progress. While I have not had a significant amount of traffic as of yet, I hope that marketing and google search engine optimization will change things in short order. Again, time and patience are keys. The possibility of producing an “app” and the creation of social media accounts also hopefully will drive greater interest. From there, I think it is just about having a critical mass of more frequent users to drive usage. Hopefully, in time this will fulfill my vision of being able to communicate with numerous people all over the world for the betterment of all involved.
In my own mental health world, progress remains slow but steady. I am sticking with my medications, psychotherapy, and my own personal hard work. Most notably, I continue to try to expand my social network and social opportunities. I have a couple of solid friends who I see regularly, and an expanding group of casual friends as I frequent a local gym and spend much more time invested in my chess hobby. Notably, I have established a real chess rating and have now participated in a couple of real tournaments. I can’t say I am having tremendous success yet, but my improvement has been noticeable to those with whom I play on a regular basis. The combination of physical exercise, journaling, book writing, socializing, and chess are all positives for my mental health and confidence.
Please do leave suggestions, comments, or questions. I will increasingly check for them and respond to the best of my ability. Thanks to anyone reading this for taking your valuable time to visit my digital world. Until my next post, I say best wishes to all of you, and those with mental health illness or personal struggles in particular.
