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“It’s not enough to be busy… The question is: what are we busy about?”
~ Henry David Thoreau

Are you busy about things that matter? 

In the ten years before we started Happy Living, I was busy about being an owner and operator of two businesses that helped their customers manage custom requirements when shipping products across international borders. 

I was busy about learning the international customs business, and developing software, and expanding our business internationally, and optimizing technologies and processes and teams, and business acquisitions, and customer service, and so much more.

One of the most important things I learned during those ten years was a communication style that worked well for our investors, our board of directors, and for me as the executive in charge. The style I adopted challenged the norms of how business communication is “supposed to be done” by emphasizing content (having something important to say) over calendar (reporting according to a calendar schedule—every week, or every month, or every quarter, or every year).

I made a point of comprehensive and inconsistent business updates. Yes, I intentionally communicated on an inconsistent basis to eliminate expectations based on the passing of time. When I did communicate, I did it well. I prepared in advance, was fully transparent, and presented where we had been, what we had accomplished, and where we were going.

This unconventional style worked well for them because they felt informed and appreciated. It worked well for me because I only reported to investors and the board of directors when I had something important to say. Something that mattered, to them!

My communication style was content-inspired, not calendar-required.

When we launched Happy Living in 2014, I was busy about learning to blog, and developing the Seven Foundations of Happy[1], and authoring books, and then publishing books, too, and podcasting, and cultivating our 3C’s – creating content that inspires through writing, building our community, and strengthening our connection with like-minded people and partners.

In the beginning, I was writing blog posts based on the passing of time because I thought that’s how it was “supposed to be done.” Sticking rigidly to a preplanned editorial calendar. At first, it was two posts a week. At one point it was three. Then one. 

I had let my writing become calendar-required, not necessarily content-inspired. As a result, my blog posts were not as good as they could have been, and writing wasn’t as fun as it should have been.

Then came a major interruption.

In 2019, I took a temporary position as the interim C.E.O. of 3rd Rock Essentials and my writing (and podcasting) for Happy Living came to a nearly complete standstill. Eighteen months later, I resigned from my position at 3rd Rock to tend to some important family matters. A few months later, in the fall of 2020, I expanded our podcasts into broadcasts as we joined an incredible team at WYTV7 out of Charlotte, North Carolina.

And now, happily, I’m back writing again. I love writing. I’m writing to you right now from my summer office overlooking my beautiful lake. In the last few months, I feel like I’ve been at my creative writing best. I penned Something Important About You in May. Then I wrote Reaching Sixty, Unscathed, and Economies of Scaling a Kaizened Life and Scaling Spiritual Energy in June. Then, in July, I authored Buying A Bit of Bitcoin, Every Week, and now in August these words about not just being busy… but being busy doing things that matter that you’re reading right now.

And I wrote each of these blog posts because I had something in me to say to you. Not because of the passage of time. Each of these was content-inspired, not calendar-required. I’ve decided that from now on, I going to take my time when I write to you… because I respect you… because I want to inspire you to believe as I do—that a better self is always possible, today, and every day, for the rest of our lives. When you read something I write, I want you to get something important out of it. Something that matters, to you! 

And I want you to look forward to reading the next post, too. 

So, from here on out, I’ll be writing to you on an inconsistent basis. Out with the editorial calendar. In with writing from my heart. From me to you, my dear reader. But only when I have something important to say to you. Or something important I want you to think about… like: are you busy about things that matter, to you? 

Yes, this feels great! From here on out, all my writing is going to be content-inspired, not calendar-required. 

And I’m super excited to share the next two posts currently swimming around in the creative part of my brain. Their working titles are The Real Magic of Life… and Cowboys and Christians. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I’m constantly searching for other people writing important (Happy Living-kind-of) things that matter and share it all under the heading of Ideas for #HappyLiving. Just follow me on Facebook or LinkedIn to see what I’m sharing from other writers that are inspiring me.

I’m wishing you all the happy and success in life that you can possibly imagine…

With love,

 

 

 

[1] Back then we called them the Seven Foundations of Health

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