Thanks so much, Stu! I didn't win the contest but it was fun to participate and I look forward to making all the stuff I talked about above happen anyway. I definitely plan to put my back into it.

"Your homework this time is simple. I want you to leave a comment below and tell me how you intend to improve your powers of discernment over the next week. Don’t be shy. I’ll do it too."

I'll go first to show you how this might go.

This week, I am going to work on improving my discernment abilities in the area of #8 above - ask for help. I'm going to do all I can to talk to people I know in the blogging world as well as non-blogging family members and friends about what they think of this site and how I might best improve it or build upon it. As I get their help, I think a lot of things they say will teach me and actually make me a better discerner.

Just gotta take courage and not worry about causing anybody an inconvenience.

There, I did it! Your turn. :)

You're welcome, Suzanne! You inspire me too. You work very hard and somehow keep all your blogging ducks in a row. I look forward to seeing you here again soon!

Kellex, yup - with time you should see improvement. There's a snowball effect that often doesn't start to happen until you've been at this for several months at least. Hang in there!

Thanks for coming by this new blog, Grandy! You certainly don't need any help commenting - wow, what an undertaking.

I look forward to many fruitful conversations with you.

Here's my homework report for exercise #3 above:

3. Take a few minutes to create a list of activities that, while enjoyable, may prevent you from reaching your blogging goals. For each activity, decide how to make sure you do not waste any time on it.

a. Twitter - I will take 15 minutes a day to send updates and then switch it off. I will consider leaving it on during a long er time span each day starting next week.

b. StumbleUpon - I will take 10 minutes a day to do my power routine, but otherwise avoid it.

c. Blog/Book research - I will take up to 2 hours/day on this, but no more.

d. Book writing - I will devote as much time as possible to this until both books are available to the public in polished form.

testing 1-2-3