The last post on Healthy Enough (before this one) was published on 3rd June 2014 – over three years ago.
Three years is a long time. Whether you’re a longtime Healthy Enough reader or new to the blog, you might wonder where I’ve been for the past 38 months or so.
I’d say you’re right to wonder, and that you deserve an explanation. After all, I’ve set a high bar in terms of what I want to achieve with this blog – given that I’ve been absent for so long, why should you treat me seriously?
The truth is that the last several years have been a period of huge personal growth for me, which has culminated in me gaining a level of clarity in recent months that I’ve been working to attain for a long time.
Back around the time I published the last post on Healthy Enough, I made a decision to streamline what I was working on. In terms of making a living, my efforts were divided across multiple projects, of which Healthy Enough was one. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a project that made any money, so I took the decision to ‘park’ it while I focused on developing my content agency. Gotta make a living, and all that.
Three years have since passed, and WordCandy is doing pretty well. I recently reached a point where I’m entirely removed from its day-to-day management (pending any disasters). It’s been a hard slog, but I got there.
With that business ticking over, I knew that I needed a new project to work on. Healthy Enough has always been at the back of my mind, as perhaps the only big idea I felt truly passionate about.
However, the issue for me was money. What could I do with Healthy Enough to make it profitable, and thus a worthwhile commercial endeavour?
I toyed with this issue for a long time. In short, I could see no practical way to make Healthy Enough profitable in the short run – at least, not without compromising my principles. It was a catch-22.
Believe it or not, of all places, a John Mayer concert provided the inspiration I needed to move forwards. Watching John perform, I could see that he was truly thriving off of the audience’s reaction. During the gig he spoke about how he felt honoured to have brought so much positivity into people’s lives through his music.
At a risk of stating the obvious, it struck me that he got something out of making music that went way beyond the financial rewards. This was something I suppose I’ve always been intuitively aware of, but at the time, it revealed itself to me in a way I’d never truly appreciated. It’s an attitude that you’ll find in any person who has a career or ‘calling’ that they’re truly passionate about.
At that point, I realised that I had been looking at the ‘issue’ regarding Healthy Enough from entirely the wrong perspective. In fact, I’d been trying to solve the wrong problem.
I own a business that generates enough of an income to support my living. In the process of building that business, it has become ever clearer to me that money (beyond what one needs to avoid privation) isn’t that important. I recognise that avarice is arguably one of the most destructive forces we can bring into our lives, and I have no interest in making more money and buying new things just for the sake of it.
So with my finances in check, why did I actually need to worry about whether Healthy Enough made any money or not? As a project, why couldn’t it just be a vehicle for me to make a positive impact on people’s lives?
The options were simple. I could launch a new money-making project and (hopefully) end up with a healthier bank balance. Or, I could devote myself to Healthy Enough, and (hopefully) end up helping a bunch of people to lose weight, get healthier, and be happier. I’ve ultimately been searching for something that will get me out of bed in the morning; making more money definitely isn’t it, but with Healthy Enough, I’ve found a project that I am genuinely excited to work on.
With financial considerations made irrelevant, the plan for this blog is very simple: write and publish content that I think will help people. Healthy Enough will be an unashamed reflection of what I want to write about. If people don’t like it they can always hit that ‘Back’ button on their browser, but if I manage to help even a handful of folk to make positive changes in their lives, I know my efforts will have been worthwhile.
Now, it would be disingenuous of me to claim that I’m not intrigued by Healthy Enough’s long-term potential (i.e. as something that could generate an income, directly or indirectly). However, the money-making potential of this blog is something that I feel will either present itself or not, rather than something I will chase. Perhaps the blog will grow successful enough that I’m offered a writing deal or speaking gigs. Who knows, but I’m not going to worry about it, as my priorities with the blog have nothing to do with money.
And – most importantly – if money does come into the picture, I’ll never allow it to negatively affect the integrity of the thinking that underpins Healthy Enough. To do so would be to compromise my own well-being, because it would run contrary to the core reason I’ve decided to dedicate myself to this project.
I hope that explains why Healthy Enough has laid dormant for so long, and why it’s now back. I’m no ‘guru’ or nutrition expert, but I do feel that I’ve learned a thing or two about being healthy enough over the years that can help others, and I have a seemingly endless list of topics that I want to write about.
I hope you’ll enjoy what I have to say, and that it helps you in your own journey to being (and staying) healthy enough.
Here’s to the start of something meaningful.