What a difference a year makes.
SND CLE is about to kick off in my home state of Ohio and I, unfortunately, can’t attend but I wish them the best and will be tracking the event from social media.
Running SND STL, just over a year ago, marked a pivot point in my life. Actually, most of 2011 and half of 2012 was the pivot point where I came to a serious realization: I needed to find a better life balance.
Don’t get me wrong, SND STL was a blast and I’d do it all over again if I had the chance; I learned a lot, the overwhelmingly positive response and impact it made from folks who I really respect like Yuri Victor and Joey Marburger fills my heart and makes me proud of our team. What we pulled off with very limited financial and human capital blows my mind and I’m so fortunate to have had amazingly hard workers like Steve Dorsey and Jen Hermann by my side.
But I knew after I fulfilled my commitment to SND STL, I needed to step back and reboot.
I needed to start saying no to things.
I needed to start taking better care of myself.
I needed to recognize that I can’t know everything about everything, and can’t spend almost every night and lots of time on the weekends on a computer. There’s no badge or certification for being the ‘most knowledgeable’ in every single digital news technology. Trying to pour through 1,000+ RSS feeds is insanity.
I needed to find a better balance.
So as I alluded to before, this shift has been a pretty big project for me and I recently passed a pretty major milestone that I’d like to share — I’m down 200 lbs from my peak weight.
It’s not just food/exercise (although major changes in my diet and regular exercise has helped tremendously); I’ve made a conscious change in how I consume information and interact with digital content, largely sparked by Clay Johnson’s “The Information Diet” a fantastic book on the gluttony of information overload.
I still have a long way to go but I’m pretty pleased with the progress so far. There were times where I’d totally lost hope and never thought this would have been possible.
I really want to thank my close friends and family that have been supportive over the years, especially at times when I should have taken more time for them.
Onward and upward.
October 11, 2012 at 4:17 am
Congratulations, Will. I’m very glad to hear you’re taking care of yourself. Your health and sanity is way more important than any number of feeds, and I suspect you’ll do even better work when you’re feeling tip-top. This is a spectacular accomplishment, and I applaud you.
October 11, 2012 at 6:52 am
Thanks, Matt!
October 11, 2012 at 8:55 pm
That’s wonderful news, Will! Congratulations on this change and healthy outlook in life.
Funny enough I just wrote a column that publishes Sunday that touches on this — the fear of missing out that leads to information overload on the Web. I’ve found mindful meditation and focusing in the moment to be helpful.
Best wishes!