Seth Godin read my mind. Again.

Seth knows how important it is for me to force myself to ship, to put whatever is in my head out into the world where people have a chance to love it or make fun of it or ignore it. He knows it’s the shipping that’s really the point–it’s not about how people react to it, but whether I put it out there. He knows courage is about what I do, not what you think about what I do.

So in today’s post, he called me out.

Oh, he didn’t use my name. He never does. But I know he’s talking to me.

Seven posts in seven days. That’s the challenge. It’s going to be hard. I’m already thinking of excuses why I can’t do it–which is exactly why I need to.

How do I know he’s talking to me? Because one of my goals for 2015 is to post here 100 times. And I’m already behind. Posting seven articles next week will get me caught up, and maybe give me a little momentum to keep going.

Want to know something else I don’t want to do? Post my goals here. Make them public, so I have to hold myself accountable for them.

That’s how I know I need to do it.

So here they are, all three of them:

• On December 13, I will run the Dallas Marathon.
• By December 31, I will complete the sequel to A Square Foot of Calfskin and have it ready to publish.
• By December 31, I will post here 100 times.

There are a lot fewer this year than I’ve made the last few years. I’ve discovered the whole “aim for the stars and hit the moon” concept doesn’t work very well for me; in my mind, failing to reach a near-impossible goal is failure, however much the trying helped me improve, and an excuse to beat myself up. So this year, I’m keeping it simple.

And I’ll be using this space to hold myself accountable. Each time I post, I’ll share where I am on each of the above goals.

Here’s today’s status:

• Marathon: On Track. Monday and yesterday, I ran the first two workouts of Cool Running’s Couch to 5K program. Tomorrow I’ll run the third (but it doesn’t count until I’ve actually done it).
• Sequel (Working title: Two Square Yards of Earth): Behind Schedule. The outline is nearly complete, but I haven’t worked on it yet this year.
• 100 Posts: Behind Schedule. By now, I should have posted seven articles here. This is my first for the year.

It’s a lot less than other bloggers do, but these goals–on top of being a middle-aged, middle-class fat guy trying to be a great dad and a good husband and do my new job well–will keep me busy for the year.

If watching people accomplish impossible goals is what gets you fired up, I recommend you follow Joel Runyon and Kyle Maynard. The stuff those guys accomplish is incredible.

But if you find inspiration in a middle-aged, middle-class fat guy trying to find his courage, and maybe help a few other people in the process–well, maybe we can learn something from each other.

Better yet, if you want to share your goals below so we can hold each other accountable, let’s do that!