Don’t Let What Was Once a Miracle Become Common to You

When my first book, Interview Intervention, was getting ready to be released, my publisher shipped me the author proof copies. 

These were the actual formatted books, hardcover and paperback, I needed to review before they went into full production. 

I remember the UPS delivery arriving. 

My favorite UPS guy of all time, Dave, said, “Hey Andy, got a package for you.” 

He handed it to me. 

I knew what it was.

Sat it down on my desk. 

Opened the box. 

Pulled out the books. 

And there they were. 

My first book. 

In my hands. 

One might think I’d have been overjoyed. 

Hardly. 

I felt next to nothing. 

I basically examined the books clinically, like a doctor looking over a patient to make sure everything was in perfectly good health. 

Hmm. Cover looks right. Solid binding. Pages look good. Check. 

I’m laughing (bordering on crying) as I write this because … 

…this was my first book! 

Something I’d never done before. 

Something I’d created from nothing but an idea, my experience, and a whole lot of words (33,000 give or take as a matter of fact). 

I was inspecting it like somebody had just handed me the final deliverable for a project at work. 

The strange part is, I didn’t think writing the book was difficult. 

I had a process. 

I knew what I wanted to say. 

I sat down each day and wrote. 

I kept writing until it was finished. 

Then it went through the publishing process. 

So, when I finally held the finished product in my hands, I connected how I felt about the accomplishment to how difficult the process had felt to me. 

I’d worked the system. 

The book was done. 

What I didn’t understand at that very moment was that I was measuring the wrong thing.

I was measuring the effort required to create it. 

I wasn’t measuring the value of what I had created. 

Because there was no possible way for me to know that yet. 

Interview Intervention has since made its way into more than 250,000 people’s hands. 

People would use it to prepare for interviews. 

Get jobs. Change careers. Earn more money. 

Some would write to me and tell me what happened. 

Most have not.

Most never will. 

There are people I’ll never meet whose lives were affected by words I wrote sitting alone at my desk. 

There are conversations that book changed that I’ve never heard. 

Families who benefited from someone getting a better job because they interviewed differently. 

There are copies sitting on bookshelves in homes I’ll never visit. 

This is the part I couldn’t foresee when the UPS box arrived.

And that was the miracle. 

Not that I’d written a book. 

Not that I’d figured out how to get one published. 

The miracle was what happened after the book left my hands. 

Fast-forward 14 years. 

A few days ago, I drove over to the warehouse in McHenry, Illinois, where all my books have been stored for the last 10 years. 

I went there to sign copies of Signal Strength. 

Number five. 

As I sat there looking at the books spread across the table waiting for my signature, I thought about that UPS box. 

Because five books later, this could easily feel ordinary. 

I know how books get made now. 

I know what a manuscript looks like before it becomes one. 

I know the editing process. 

I know what boxes of books look like. 

I’ve done this before. 

And that’s THE danger. 

It’s easy to let what was once a miracle become common to you. 

The more capable you become, the easier it is to undervalue what you do day in and day out. 

You look at your “finished” products and think, Of course. 

But there is someone out there who benefits from what you do, what you make, and the magic that rolls off your fingers via your automated thoughts. 

They don’t experience your process. 

They experience the result. 

That’s true whether you write books, lead people, raise children, teach, build businesses, solve problems, help customers, or simply make somebody’s day a little better. 

You will likely never see the entire ripple. 

I know I don’t. 

I have no idea where Signal Strength will travel. 

I don’t know who will read it. 

I don’t know which sentence someone will underline. 

I don’t know when something I wrote will help somebody say exactly what they needed to say at exactly the moment they needed to say it. 

But I understand something today that I didn’t understand when that UPS box arrived 14 years ago. 

The accomplishment isn’t the miracle. 

The value that echoes from it is. 

So, when something you’ve worked for starts feeling ordinary because you’ve become good at doing it, remember this… 

It might feel ordinary to you. 

That doesn’t make what it does for someone else ordinary. 

Don’t let that miracle become common to you. 

I recorded a short video while I was at the warehouse signing the books. If you’d like to come behind the scenes with me.

Speaking of Signal Strength, we’re officially one week away.

I’m kicking things off with two live shows to help you put the lessons into practice.

Celebrate with me on October 13 with a workshop on Mastering Your Communication Skills. I’ll teach you some of the most important lessons from Signal Strength and how to immediately improve the way you communicate.

Then, on October 15, we’re back for How to Practice Your Communication Skills. I’ll show you exactly how I practice these skills and how you can build them into your own life because communication isn’t something you know. It’s something you practice.

And if you haven’t ordered Signal Strength yet, you still have time to preorder and collect all the bonuses.

📘 Preorder here.
👉 Email the receipt to us at support@milewalk.com.