{"id":21717,"date":"2013-12-18T12:17:07","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T17:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nomeatathlete.com\/?p=21717"},"modified":"2019-11-13T16:35:24","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T21:35:24","slug":"on-turning-pro-one-year-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nomeatathlete.com\/on-turning-pro-one-year-later\/","title":{"rendered":"On Turning Pro — One Year Later"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a year.<\/p>\n

On January 4th, 2013, I wrote a post called On Turning Pro<\/a>, about my plans to overcome debilitating anxiety by “growing up and turning pro” in just about every area of my life.<\/p>\n

I was not in a good place, coming off the most worried and powerless six months I had ever experienced. But the new year had brought me the first glimmer of light at the end of that dark tunnel, and in this post I wrote about my plans to navigate the rest of the way out.<\/p>\n

Here’s the last paragraph<\/a>:<\/p>\n

January 1st has passed. Another year of your life is gone. And before you know it, this one will be over too. My challenge to you \u2014 before another day goes by \u2014 is to find the place where you need to grow up and turn pro. And then do it.<\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019ll join me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fast forward 10 months from when I wrote that post …<\/h3>\n

It’s October 30th and I’m in San Francisco, sharing a stage at Samovar Tea Lounge with Jesse Jacobs<\/a>, the owner and founder of Samovar, and Leo Babauta<\/a>, author of Zen Habits and one of my personal heroes.<\/p>\n

It’s a sold-out event, with blogging superstars Corbett Barr<\/a> and Scott Dinsmore<\/a> in the audience. Bright lights, cameras, and lapel mics. For two hours we talk, on the topics of changes, goals, and fear. It’s the most special event of the book tour for me, because from across the country, I’ve watched so many inspiring interviews and presentations with Leo and Jesse (including my favorite, featuring Tim Ferriss<\/a>), filmed in this very room. To actually be here is almost surreal.<\/p>\n

After we wrap up, a woman named Krista Stryker comes up and introduces herself. We chat a bit about her site, 12 Minute Athlete<\/a>. She’s friendly and enthusiastic, not unlike dozens of other entrepreneurs I’ve met on this tour.<\/p>\n

Why am I telling you this?<\/h3>\n

A few days ago, I reread my On Turning Pro post for the first time. The first comment? From Krista Stryker, who I knew only as someone who had commented a few times on my blog.<\/p>\n

How incredible it would have been — what a sense of certainty and security I would have been filled with — if I could have somehow known, as I read that first comment in my hopefully but apprehensive state, that in less than a year I’d meet Krista in person. Across the country. Having driven there<\/em> on a self-financed, self-planned, self-created<\/em> book tour. And after presenting on stage, with such amazing company, at a venue that had produced so much inspiration for me.<\/p>\n

What changed?<\/h3>\n

For some people, to plan their own book tour with all of the risks involved, to commit to speaking to 40 audiences and being the focus of attention for so many nights, and to leave behind their family (including a four month-old daughter) would have been a snap.<\/p>\n

For me, being somewhat introverted and considering my state at the beginning of the year, it was anything but.<\/p>\n

And yet.<\/p>\n

And yet when out on a run in June, training for my 100-miler and listening to an interview of Chris Guillebeau<\/a> on The Good Life Project<\/a> about his own do-it-yourself book tour, I couldn’t let the idea go … maybe, I thought, such a challenge is exactly what I need.<\/p>\n

I’ve asked myself what the difference was between the “me” that made that decision and the one who just six months earlier was so powerless over anxiety:<\/p>\n