"I can't do this!" —— that's what my mind was telling me. I was running on the beach when that thought popped up in my head. It was pitch perfect weather. Morning. A vail of a cloud slightly blocking the full radiation of the sun. However, if meditation has taught me one thing, is help me catch my thoughts and observe them from the outside.  This particular thought was odd, because I wasn't tired, my breathing was perfect, the sun wasn't hitting me directly on any part of my body. In other words I was doing incredibly well. And luckily I immediately realized what what happening: I was bored! Realizing that, mobilized me to find ways to make it more fun and enjoyable by focusing on how I am running, how I am placing each step on the sand, trying to errect my body even taller which helped with getting re–energized, because the brain is super dumb and believes anything its master tells it (you!). Also, fooling myself into thinking I'm running for a crowd that's cheering for me made all the difference.  After a while, I did get tired and started to slow down, but realized something bigger in the process that I wanted to actually tell my son later on. When we feel we can't do something (school, business, excercise), the first thing to check is if we're simply bored with the activity on hand. And not immediately think that we're not capable or tired. If boredom is indeed the culprit, the first thing we can do is to try and make it fun and helpful. Asking —— "what do I love most about myself when doing this activity?" —— can help tremendously in re–centering our intent. The worst part about boredom is that it can lead to mini dissapointments that can turn into a full blown burnout. Going forwad I want to have more fun by focusing on the little things in the activity I'm doing and actually enjoy myself while dancing around it. In other words, not worry so much about goals and their deceptive nature, as I have already observed, but rather focus on this exact moment, as my fingers finalize this very last paragraph in this article.

I was walking on the beach. Hadn't walked on a beach in a while. Was loving it. The sea breeze. The waveless sea surface in the morning. After a while, maybe out of boredom, I started placing goals. Rather, my mind started placing goals: "I'll walk up to that grove" or "I'll walk up to that dock and then make my way back". I quickly caught my brain doing this. What happend with me just enjoying the walk? Putting one step in front of the other. Marveling at the scenery. Why do I have to burden myself with goals? After all, goals are limiting! What if you could go way father than your mind's goals? And in business too. Goals as an end of it all, are detrimental. Goals as values is where it all should stand —— I enjoy helping clients daily I enjoy making a sale I enjoy people discovering BlogMaker These are value based goals which will get us way farther than limiting goals that makes us enjoy less the steps in between. At the end of my walk, I reached the dock my mind set as a goal. And that was good. But, since I was aware of this goal that "my own mind" was chasing, I made sure to enjoy my steps up to there. I looked at the fishermen. Stared at the never ending liquid horizon. Thought about how a beautiful grove along the way could have been way better if someone cleaned it up a bit. We can't escape our minds, but in the middle of it all, we can make sure we're enjoying the little steps that make it all valuable.

I always think that I’ll be happy when everything is running smoothly. When X visitors are flowing in, conversions are steady, the app works flawlessly, and revenue is predictable. But that’s not life. And nor is business. Life is messy. And there’s no such thing as perfect. At least, not the version of "perfect" I have in my head. Messy is the perfection. Every chaotic piece, every moving part, somehow coming together to make it work. Look at our bodies: an intricate mess of cells, signals, and systems, all in constant motion, working toward a common goal. What's more, nothing runs in a chronological order. That's only our perception. Things are constantly out of sync. Dancing in the background. Building our simple reality. I want to embrace this more. The unpredictability, the imperfection. The beautiful and disorderly relentless mess of it all. I don't want inbox zero. I don't want to have my life in order.  I want to let go more. Not hold the beautiful bird on my hand every so tightly that I squeeze the bejesus out of it. Do more. Do less. Whatever. Live as it comes. PS: I wish I lived more like my writing above.

<p>blogstatic's <a href="https://www.producthunt.com/products/blogstatic#blogstatic" target="_blank">first PH launch</a> (documented&nbsp;<a href="https://valsopi.com/launching-on-product-hunt">here</a>) was in December of 2022, three months after the <a href="https://x.com/valsopi/status/1579798717867122694">rebranding and its public launch</a> and deciding to give blogstatic a <a href="https://valsopi.com/blogstatic-chance" target="_blank">real chance</a>.</p> <p>During its first PH&nbsp;launch, blogstatic&nbsp;finished the day at #6 which did wonders in terms of record-breaking signups and sales. Also, a few publications picked it up and wrote about it, which was great.</p> <p>I've been wanting to re-launch blogstatic in Product&nbsp;Hunt for quite some time but needed a solid reason for it.</p> <p>The launching of <a href="https://blogstatic.io/blog/design-studio">DesignStudio</a> was the perfect opportunity.</p> <p>One thing I wasn't sure about was if I should re-launch blogstatic "the product" or DesignStudio "the feature", so&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/valsopi/status/1783455155414843649" target="_blank">I asked a bit on Twitter</a> and got a few replies.&nbsp;</p> <p>What I decided to do is re-launch blogstatic the "product", but heavily promote DesignStudio as well. Sort of "blogstatic&nbsp;with this-new-thing".<br></p> <figure class="align-center"><a href="https://www.producthunt.com/posts/blogstatic-io" target="_blank"><img src="https://editor.blogstatic.io/web/assets/uploads/763ebbb412b9514a36ae0d816cffd5f5.png" id="/tmp/phpqmkR0I" data-image="/tmp/phpIc7Wz4" alt="The screenshot of the blogstatic's launch page on Product Hunt" height="292" width="700" style="width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"></a><figcaption>blogstatic's launch page on Product Hunt</figcaption></figure> <p>And this was the launch tweet below 👇</p> <figure><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🔥 a HUGE DAY at <a href="https://twitter.com/blogstatic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@blogstatic</a> HQ 🔥<br><br>I still get the jitters when launching on <a href="https://twitter.com/ProductHunt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ProductHunt</a> <br><br>🚀🚀🚀<br><br>✊ The last launch in 2022 made it to #6 ✊<br><br>🍀 Hoping for the Top #5 this time around 🍀<br><br>🤗 Would love your support in any way you can 🤗<a href="https://t.co/SIckUh6Jn5">https://t.co/SIckUh6Jn5</a></p>— Val Sopi 👋 (@valsopi) <a href="https://twitter.com/valsopi/status/1813846673589694690?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 18, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></figure> <h2>The initial goal was achieved! 🏆</h2> <p>Overall, I think the launch went great. It did better this time around by finishing the day inside the Top 5, as intended on my launch tweet. For a product launching for the second time on Product Hunt, this is great.</p> <p><mark></mark>At one point blogstatic was about 40 votes away from grabbing the 3rd position, and I did all I could until I couldn't and had to go to sleep, because I was close to 16 hours in front of my laptop, talking to friends, replying to comments, finding ways to get more support. And at one point I crashed and had to take a much-needed break.</p> <p><b><mark>The other BIG positive is that blogstatic was the only solo-maker product inside the Top 5!</mark></b></p> <figure class="align-center"><a href="https://www.producthunt.com/leaderboard/daily/2024/7/18" target="_blank"><img src="https://editor.blogstatic.io/web/assets/uploads/fa79571a547610c2df6cf955812235e7.png" id="/tmp/phpBPwqKm" data-image="/tmp/phpBPwqKm" height="491" alt="A screenshot of the Top 5 products in Product Hunt for July 18 2024" width="700" style="width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"></a><figcaption>Top 5 of the day</figcaption></figure> <h2>The prep</h2> <p>I was almost going to push the launch for another week because I didn't have a good quick video ready. But, as I was sitting in the car in the parking lot while waiting for my son to finish his tennis practice and doing the screenshots for the launch — I thought to myself, — "Why don't I record the video right now and get it over with." – One take. No edits.</p> <p>And here it is — full of mispronounced words lol.</p> <figure><div class="embed-responsive"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iHly073iA_Q?si=Cez1fUEMx2Rgi3x9" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></figure> <p>Anyway, so I had all those ready — and scheduled everything in Product Hunt for publishing.</p> <h2>The launch day</h2> <p>Right after blogstatic was published on Product Hunt, surprisingly it got a good amount of votes, without me doing any promoting. Around 40 or so.&nbsp;Not sure what would have happened if I had done nothing, since it was the second launch&nbsp;— I was almost tempted not to do anything and just let it ride the day.&nbsp;</p> <p>After all, how would I even ask my network to support the same product, again?!</p> <p>Though, being that I'm so proud of what blogstatic is now, I wasn't going to let this amazing chance slip by.</p> <p>So I&nbsp;went to work and did the following.</p> <p><b>Below is my task list for the day in chronological order:</b></p> <figure class="align-center"><img src="https://editor.blogstatic.io/web/assets/uploads/3a28e78ce1c1357734e6fb41c5611506.png" id="/tmp/phpWXYAQJ" data-image="/tmp/phpWXYAQJ" width="400" height="788" style="width: 400px; max-width: 400px;"><figcaption>Personal PH launch tasks for the day</figcaption></figure> <p>The biggest boost came from my Twitter friends who I could have never gotten to +500 votes and 4th of the day. The amount of comments, replies, and RTs was astounding. I'm forever grateful for the build-in-public/indiehacker/bootstrapper community that we've build. Such an amazing group of people who are relentless in supporting cheering one another without expecting anything in return.</p> <h2>Chasing the #3 spot!</h2> <p>Halfway through the day it felt clear that blogstatic was going to hold on to the #4 position. The 5th seed was trailing behind and it became clearer that they weren't going to catch up. But, you never know.</p> <p>And, as with every human ever born, we want MOAR! So I put my eye on the number #3 spot and wanted to do all I could to see if we could grab it. And when I say "we"&nbsp;I mean all of the build-in-public/indiehacker/bootstrapper community — because the day wasn't mine any longer —&nbsp;but a "Solo maker"'s&nbsp;product against other behemoths in the Top 5, such as Miro with 1800 employees!&nbsp;:&nbsp;)</p> <p>So I went to work and started DM-ing my contacts on Twitter just to get myself locked out from DM-ing.&nbsp;I quickly found out that you can no longer copy/paste messages in the DM especially if they have links. So after I luckily got my DM's back, I started DM-ing something along the lines of the following:</p> <figure class="align-center"><img src="https://editor.blogstatic.io/web/assets/uploads/616d1dceebcae73523c60165732dae75.png" id="/tmp/phppwbkWp" data-image="/tmp/phppwbkWp" width="400" height="224" alt="A screenshot of a DM to my friends: I have blogstatic on Product Hunt today. It would be awesome If you could visit PH and give blogstatic your support. It's currently at #4 and I'm trying to get it to #3. Sorry, I cannot post a direct link here as X is considering it spam, since I'm sending out so many today. Also, hence the awkward 1 paragraph bunch lol. Thanks so much if you can." style="width: 408px; max-width: 408px;"><figcaption>DM-ing twitter friends</figcaption></figure> <p>Lo and behold&nbsp;— the support was incredible!&nbsp;Especially since I've been transparent throughout and most already know about blogstatic.</p> <p>After the DMs, I sent out a Newsletter to around 2,700 blogstatic newsletter subscribers. I was reluctant to do this at first because I've never sent out any promo emails to the list but did it anyway as the stakes were super high.</p> <p>And I even recorded a quick 5 minute podcast episode with the latest and shared some numbers.</p> <figure><iframe width="100%" height="180" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://share.transistor.fm/e/4bbc47a3?color=0B1824&amp;background=FBC75E"></iframe></figure> <h2>The final verdict</h2> <p>After all the hard work chasing the #3 spot, blogstatic still remained at #4.</p> <p>However, looking at the forest, the Top 5 position was the initial goal, and again — this was the second launch of the same product, albeit way improved&nbsp;— AND&nbsp;the only "solo maker" product inside the 5 best of the day.</p> <p>Solo makers can shake the world! It's been proven time and again, by others in the community.</p><figure class="align-center"><a href="https://www.producthunt.com/posts/blogstatic-io" target="_blank"><img src="https://editor.blogstatic.io/web/assets/uploads/ec5e8bbd78d2585673dae9c51524fee9.png" id="/tmp/phpGqcdtX" data-image="/tmp/phpjN7QtV" width="700" height="565" alt="A chart showing blogstatic's voting throughout the day" style="width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"></a><figcaption>PH Launch votes chart</figcaption></figure> <h2>A&nbsp;BIG&nbsp;Humongous Thank You!</h2> <p>Top #5 would have never been possible without the help of my network and especially Twitter friends with whom I've had the pleasure of knowing, interacting, supporting, and even some of them meeting in real life!</p> <p>Thank you from the bottom of my heart.</p> <p>This huge win wouldn't have been possible without you.</p> <p></p> <p></p>

<p><i>From all that is currently happening to us, I want to believe that we’re at the dawn of a new era </i>✊</p><hr><p>I&nbsp;am&nbsp;predicting year 2300 to be the one when we’re living the progressive dreams of today.<br></p><p>By then we have reached a new paradigm.<br></p><p>Countries, as a nationalistic identity, don’t exist. The term minority no longer makes any practical sense. We are all human at the core.<br></p><p>Wars are a relic of the past. There is abundance. History is viewed as something that leads us to the progressive present and not used as a basis for revenge.<br></p><p>We have evolved to not respond to and amplify the negative.<br></p><p>We have restored the climate equilibrium. It’s all wind, hydro, solar, and nuclear.<br></p><p>Work is no longer a thing. We produce, but it’s less about output and more about process. Robots have completely taken over menial jobs. We finally have the mindspace to explore far and beyond.<br></p>