The big life lesson learned from finishing my first book

The plan was to get it done by the end of 2019. Well, actually, I was supposed to get it done two years ago. It wasn’t supposed to take me as long as my entire legal education to write a simple book about the financial fitness program I have taught for years. Did I mention that it’s only about 150 pages long?
 
Anyways, I officially finished it January 31^st, 2020. No one is more disappointed than the person I was on January 31^st, 2019. She would have been beyond pissed to know that I wouldn’t be done before another trip around the sun was complete.
 
But I’m grateful it went the way it did.
 
As a type A who lives by her calendar and is dead serious about deadlines, this experience turned my usual way of being on its head. It affirmed a universal truth and taught me a valuable life lesson that had always remained limited to my intellectual understanding: Be intentional without forcing the outcome. The universe has a better plan than you do. Allow it to unfold.
 
I have no idea how well the book will be received, but I do know that if I had stuck to my original timeline, the finished product would have paled in comparison to what I ended up writing. This book could not have been written by the version of me that existed a year ago. The book needed a period of gestation that I could not dictate. I get it now.
 
So yes, on one hand, let things take their course and understand that everything happens in due time. But where’s the limit on that? Is there one? At what point does, “oh, it’ll happen when it’s meant to be” merely serve as a cover for resistance one has to finishing a project?
 
More relevant here, do you become financially fit when the universe wants you to? Or is it best to accomplish it now? Like when do we push and when do we wait?
 
The answer, as I see it, is somewhere in the middle, or a combination of the two. Even though I let the book unfold naturally, it always remained in my calendar and on my mind. I always knew I was working on it, even only if mentally, while stretches of time passed without any new words emerging on the page. I knew in my heart of hearts that the book was progressing even though there was no outward proof of it. I was constantly making notes of things I would observe or think of and how they would be part of the book even if I didn’t know how yet. I saw the world through the lens of the book. It was top of mind even when it wasn’t at the top of my to-do list.
 
And even though I have never done anything like this before, and was plenty intimidated — not to mention overwhelmed — I knew that I wasn’t avoiding it. I wanted to get it done. I kept at it, slowly but surely.
 
Sometimes though, I would get distracted. However, I knew that the distraction was worth it. New experiences and once in a lifetime events happened along the way, and I would have missed them had I kept myself buried in the book. My work benefited from these momentary hiatuses.
 
Then, when it came to get this baby done, I felt it. I became laser focused and worked on it intensely, day in and day out. I really wanted to finish by the end of the 2010 decade, but alas, that was not to be. It’s okay.
 
This process involved other people, including an editor and a designer, and I had to work around them and the universe’s plan for them too. I was patient but firmly pressed on.  
 
Now it’s done, and I’m so freaking proud of it. I can’t wait to tell you all about it and make it available to you. In due time, of course 🙂
 
For now, I urge you to consider where in your life you are forcing things that shouldn’t be forced, and where are you avoiding things that shouldn’t be avoided?
 
As for your financial fitness, where can you hang back and allow for the universe’s timing? Is there anything that you’re avoiding doing because you’re “waiting for the universe to do its thing,” when in reality, you’re just reluctant (maybe even afraid) to take action?

 
Much love,
Chelsea