Meta-post: a post about the previous posts so far

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I finished reading Daniel Goleman’s Focus (2013) and I’ve started Contagious (2013) by J. Berger. It opens with praise, the first of which belongs to Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit (2014).

This morning, I listened to Lewis Howes’s interview of author James Clear, interview titled, Success Habits: The Proven Way to Achieve Your Dreams (2018). Lewis Howes leads a YouTube channel titled The School of Greatness. James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits (2018). James Clear has cited Charles Duhigg’s work. Great talk. Recommend.

I’ve listened to other talks by James Clear. His speech titled The Surprising Power of Small Habits (2015) along with several smaller videos with Seth Godin one morning, got me started on my now-daily writing habit. Will anyone read this? Yes. Me, in the future, at least.

TURNING HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS INTO A BOOK

Later in life, I plan to pursue (more accurately, re-pursue) an MBA. Not because I care about the degree, but because I want to turn my homework assignments into published articles. If I filter and compile the writing projects I produced for my degrees in philosophy or legal studies or the work for my economics courses (the subjects that interested me the most in school), I’d have published several books by now – especially now that I’ve played with the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) plug-in for Microsoft Word.

Would anyone buy the books? Probably one or two people. This isn’t my side hustle but I do feel passionately about it. On writing, I do so more to develop than to sell anything. Maybe later in the future (after I’ve retired from the military and achieved enough success in mobile app development to confidently say that I own my time), I’ll e-commerce-it-up with some website swag, introduce banner ads or pop-ups, and affiliate link my references to books I read… but eh, until then…

THE BOOKS I’M WRITING

What themes do I enjoy exploring? Looking back at my posts, I created seven categories when I first started this blog. And, they’re stuff I like. I think if I had to write a book, I’d choose the following themes, which fall within my experience and my passions:

• Fallacies of the common senses; leadership, philosophy

• Libertarianism as a form of ethics; leadership, philosophy, entrepreneurship, innovation

• Job satisfaction; leadership, innovation, military, fitness, and having to deal with lots and lots of bullshit

Looking back at my previous posts, that’s what I’m writing about. It almost falls neatly into Daniel Goleman’s illustrations of inner focus, outer focus, and other focus.

I wrote one book already, an e-book that I titled Fitness for Working Adults (2017), which I created as part of learning about digital publishing and e-mail marketing. About 12,000 people downloaded a copy. I’ll mark my calendar to publish that to KDP.

Publishing e-books is really quite easy, especially when combining PLR (private licensing rights), freelancer sites to edit content and design a cover, and DIY publishing tools like KDP to upload to Amazon. I know this, yet, I haven’t done any of it. Not yet.

I started a book titled Shamurai, a Comedy: The 17 For-Real Rules of Military Officership and Extreme Mediocrity for the Disgruntled Everyday Man Juggling Alcohol, Car Problems, Child Support, Divorce, Money Problems, Suicide, and Women. It’s a compilation of the lots and lots of bullshit I’ve observed during my adventure in the military.

WRITING MAKES ONE A BETTER SPEAKER

In the interview with James Clear that I listened to this morning, I noticed how smoothly and confidently he responded to Lewis Howes’s questions. Maybe James received the questions ahead of time and maybe he even rehearsed. Maybe not. If he didn’t, how he spoke came out really well.

James, by the way, mentions that his three of his habits include exercise, reading, and writing. Those are mine, too, which I chose independent of him… I think. At least, I don’t remember hearing those three habits in particular mentioned directly by any of my favorite authors or leaders.

Well, I’ve noticed too in my conversations that how I communicate feels noticeably improved now that what I intend to communicate appears more clearly to me. It’s because I practiced the thought, in writing.