Maine State Grange

www: Webmaster Walter Writes

I have several pieces of big news this month… that might at first seem a bit self-serving. The first is that my book–Small People – Big Brains– is published and has been released! (There’s more information on my “brain leaks” blog and it’s available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.) My other big news is that I learned some powerful lessons during the course of the publishing experience.

Getting the book to market included a very stark reminder I faced of how easy it is to focus on all the wrong things. I’m a fairly detail-oriented person and have learned that “the devil is in the details” in more ways than one. The common interpretation of the quote is that it’s often easy to come up with an idea, but getting the idea implemented requires details–what seems easy at first glance, becomes difficult in the doing. My experience was ultimately something of the opposite. I found myself often getting bogged down in the details–sometimes to the point of procrastinating over some minor point, making things harder than necessary, dreading the details and the decisions.

One memorable example was getting drawn into a friendly debate with several author colleagues over the “best” font to use in the book. Fortunately, I didn’t invest a lot of time in that particular topic, but I could have. I ended up observing to my colleagues that “a published book with a less than perfect font choice (which is ultimately a matter of opinion anyway) will probably outsell an unpublished book with a perfect font choice.”

Fortunately I remembered that my goal was to get my book finished, published and on the market. My goal was not to become a typesetting or publishing expert. Once I focused on the goal, the details became fairly easy.

I’ve occasionally joked that one thing technology accomplishes is allowing us to do the wrong things faster. If anything, technology can encourage a loss of focus simply because there are seemingly endless opportunities to explore, learn, discuss, and create. Pick just about any idea you have and enter a few words in Google or the search engine of your choice. I guarantee you won’t find it difficult to spend hours doing just that. In the meantime, you’ll forget what you set out to do in the first place. And, if you’re not careful, you’ll end up getting discouraged and distracted. The devil is in the details.

And it’s not just about technology. How many times have you (or your Grange) thought of something–an idea for a program, an improvement to your hall, a way to gain members or recognition by the community–only to find yourself thinking, “Wait, what about…” One of my favorite sayings is, “Jet pilots don’t use rear view mirrors.” When you’re travelling that fast, you probably don’t want to spend much time looking at what’s going on behind you. Keep your eye on the prize and your hand on the controls!

Our website is about communication, news and events. If you find yourself delaying sending information because it’s not complete or perfect, consider that you may be yielding to the devil of the details. While it’s important to be accurate and as complete as possible, some communication is better than none.

Last month this site had nearly 1900 views–representing people looking for information–and that doesn’t include those who are getting the information by subscribing to the site. In looking at recent activity, nearly half the searches centered on events. Have you submitted yours?

Let’s get this plane–and the Grange–moving!