It's New Year's Eve, six months from tonight. You're ebullient, incredibly proud of yourself for making the time these past six months to follow through on a dream you've had for years. Though you tell everyone it was quite challenging, you secretly admit to yourself that it wasn't so hard once you got started.
And now you believe the statistics because you've seen the impact in your own life—engaging in creative tasks like storytelling lowers cortisol, reduces anxiety, and pulls you out of the doomscroll of the 24-hour news cycle.
You had it printed and bound the other day because you wanted to feel its weight, symbolic of what's been lifted now that you've gotten the story out into the world.
People take your writing seriously now. Your friends and family are wildly impressed (though 1 or 2 of them let slip that they never thought you'd really do it at the holiday party last week). More important than what anyone else thinks, YOU take yourself seriously now. You have proven to yourself that you have a voice that matters, that you've tapped into a reader who needs your words, and that you can do the thing.
As Steven Pressfield says, you've gone pro, become the person who does the thing even when it's easier not to—and now you get the glory.
Bask in it. Take the night off. Know that there will be work tomorrow and the day after and feel OK about it because you've opened the floodgates and realize that your legacy is too important, the readers waiting are too important, and you've got a lot more to say. But for now—celebrate. You made the most of the second half of the year. You didn't sit on excuses, you matured to know there is never more time, less travel, less stress. All we've got is right now, and you made the most of it.
You've joined the elite.
This, my friends, is what it feels like to finish and what your NYE 2027 can feel like. All you have to bring is yourself, your authentic voice and vision, and your story.