When Your Best Efforts Fall Short
I stared at my computer screen, scratching my head in confusion. The tutorial for the new publishing software had seemed straightforward enough: Import your manuscript, format the chapters, add the front matter, and voilà – a perfectly formatted book would emerge. Yet here I sat, staring at a mess of misaligned text and wonky page numbers that looked nothing like the polished example in the tutorial video.
"I followed every step!" I muttered to myself, replaying the tutorial for the dozenth time. But something was clearly missing, and my frustration level was rising faster than bread dough in a warm kitchen.
It reminded me of so many areas in life where we diligently follow the "instruction manual" but still end up scratching our heads at the results.
Mismatched Pieces
A few days ago, Jason pulled a pair of socks out of his drawer. As he unrolled the socks, he immediately noticed an issue—they weren’t the same. I know we’ve all mismatched a blue and black sock or two socks of the same color, but that was not the case here. No, these two socks were as different as could be. One was a medium-weight black crew sock; the other was a heavy-weight tan, tall sock. They weren’t the same color, length, style, or weight. Yet, somehow, I had paired the two together and placed them in his drawer. Wow! Just wow!