Almost half way into February, my goals are beginning to take shape for the rest of the year. Or at least the next few months.
More importantly, I’m beginning to make progress on those goals. Tiny steps, maybe – but at least it’s some progress.
Pounding the Pavement
Mel and I have signed up for our first half-marathon – the Edinburgh Rock n Roll Half Marathon in April.
We’ve already started training using Hal Higdon‘s Novice 1 programme. The result is that I’m running more each week in 2013 so far than I did in an entire month in 2012.
The programme is working really well so far, with small increases in distance each week. It’s a good feeling to be able to manage the slightly longer runs.
We ran farther along a particular road last week than we ever had before, and I really felt like I was ‘claiming new ground’ by running there for the first time. I’m not sure I would have felt the same way if I’d walked there, and we have in fact driven past there a few times. Running though, it felt more primal. Territory claimed.
As we were passing, Mel and I even got invited inside the local boxing club to have a look around!
Rocky fantasies #fitness #boxing #running vine.co/v/bnTduQp13ba
— Milo McLaughlin (@milomclaughlin) February 7, 2013
Branching Out
Claiming new ground creatively is a great feeling too. One of my other goals for the first half of the year is to finish the 3 ‘missing’ micro-guides from the Career Masterplan for Mad Geniuses.
I’ve started writing and researching for those for 20 minutes a day as part of Michael Nobbs’ Month of Tiny Steps. It’s not a lot of work each day, but it’s better than nothing (which is what I’ve been doing on that particular project for the last month or so).
I also want to start spreading the word about this blog and publishing more content. It would be great if I could start making some money from my efforts here in the future.
Clear-Minded Classics Volume 1: Ten Essential Books for Dissatisfied Creative Types
So as a test in that direction I’ve compiled my reviews of the first ten Clear-Minded Classics I’ve covered on this blog and made them available on Kindle.
The formatting isn’t perfect, the cover is ultra-basic, but, hey – I’ve got something published on Amazon! (New ground claimed!)
As a thank you for supporting Clear-Minded Creative you can get the book for free today and tomorrow only (13th and 14th February).
If you find this blog at all helpful, you’ll really be supporting my efforts here by buying it, sharing it and reviewing it on Amazon. More importantly though, I hope you read it and find it useful.
As I say in the introduction:
I spent a lot of time ‘lost at sea’ over the last 15 years, and these books have gradually helped me steer a course to the shore – but it took a lot of time just to discover they were out there. It took a lot of trial and error to put these ideas into place. Therefore I hope this guide can save you a lot of time spent searching for answers and enable you to get to work on your creative projects even sooner!
Get the book on Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Amazon.de Amazon.fr (it’s available on other Amazon stores also)
Click to share the book on Twitter (thanks!)
(Please note that at present I have no plans to publish this book on other platforms such as the iBookstore and Nook but I may look into this in the future.)
Clear-Minded Creative 
12 replies on “Claiming New Ground”
Congratulations on the book Milo – that’s very impressive! Just ordered it for the Kindle.
Good luck with the running – how are you finding the training? I’m doing Rome Marathon on St Patrick’s Day but have been struggling to fit the training in with work and other commitments.
Other things to do in 2013: read more, go back to Ireland more, travel more, brew my own beer…
Numbers one and three are going well so far, hope to address the other two in the Spring!
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Cheers Finbarr!
I’m enjoying the training, the only difficulty is fitting other things in around it – as you say. Only up to around 6 mile mark at the moment so a half-marathon still seems a bit of a distant dream – not to mention a marathon – top marks for that!
Excellent goals to have. How was Russia?
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downloaded 🙂
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Thanks Yamile! Let me know what you think 🙂
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Congratulations!
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Cheers Michael!
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Congrats for claiming new ground, Milo! Looking forward to read the book!
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Why thank you sir!
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One of the (perhaps slightly weirder) pleasures I get from running is sitting in front of Google Maps and planning different routes along new roads, or round different circuits.
Sometimes it’s rather annoying when some grand route turns out to be half the distance you hoped for, and sometimes I end up down flooded roads getting wet feet, but when you get the balance right it’s tremendously satisfying!
Keep claiming new ground, Milo! Congratulations on getting the book out there, looking forward to reading it 🙂
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We run through a nearby industrial estate that leads to the sea so it’s a good route. Combines Rocky-esque gritty realism with scenic seaviews. Although the wind can be a killer once you do reach the shore!
& thanks Paul 🙂
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Milo – so glad to see you making it happen! Keep up the great work and the small steps which will no doubt take you to new heights.
You would think this book was written by some nutty creative type who never got things done but just the fact your exists is proof that your advice has value to other creatives. if you can publish, they can too. that’s not a sethism – i refuse to play by that contest.
why are you turning into Rocky by the way? are you going to be boxing along the half-marathon route! haha keep up the great work Milo.
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Cheers Mr V. Sometimes I do feel like a nutty creative type who never gets things done – perhaps this was the exception to the rule?
I’m also training for a fight with Mr T.
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