The Right Things, Not Everything

I had to give up a lot to write this book. I couldn’t juggle everything I fit in to my normal pre-book life; I had to make hard choices about what was most important to me. I stopped watching TV and movies. I’m at least a full year behind on any subject related to popular culture. During this period, I relied completely on The Week Magazine to deliver all of the important national and international news to me; I simply couldn’t keep up with it on a daily basis. This proved to be a bit problematic when I moved to New York and had to wait for my forwarded mail to arrive from California. It meant I was receiving The Week (and therefore important news) about three weeks behind schedule. Typical conversation at the time:

Me: Gaddafi is dead?!

Companion (giving me a hard stare): Seriously? Where have you been?

I managed to continue exercising, but I did downgrade my goal of completing a Half Ironman to entering an Olympic distance triathlon. By exercising, I was able to keep up my energy, so doing it was important, even when it felt like it took precious time out of my days.

At work, I focused strictly on the most important projects, and didn’t overreach in an attempt to do everything. This was extraordinarily hard for me, since my weakness is to take on too much and do too many things at once, but the book taught me to prioritize ruthlessly.

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