Shifting to Summer's Cadence (Productive Flourishing Pulse #505)

aka Get Busy Living mode

Since we’re on this side of Memorial Day, it’s summer for me. I grew up in Arkansas, and in the South, summer starts with Memorial Day and ends with Labor Day, sun cycles be damned.

While I’ve always shifted energetically in the summer, in years past, my shifts were driven or mediated by external projects and circumstances: returning to school, deployments, seasonal marketing campaigns, book-related deadlines, and so on. Tending to aging pets also kept us at home, as well.

The last of our ancient cats, Petie, died last March, so it was the first summer as adults where we didn’t need to be at home. There’s a lot to catch you up on from last year, but the short story for today is that we figured out that I could do most of my work while doing road trips and basecamping.

Not only could I work in those scenarios, I was actually a better advisor and teacher. Clients noticed, gave feedback about it, and asked what changed.

The answer was simple: I was being truer to my nature.

We’re heading out this week again. By the time you read this, we’ll already be in the woods. Rather than keeping these shifts and what we’re doing behind the scenes like we have been for the last few years, I’ve decided to tell you and, depending on how interested y’all are, to show you more.

I’ve historically been allergic to doing the performative lifestyle influencer thing, but what my clients and inner circles have told me is that what I’m doing — and why — has inspired them to think bigger and differently about how they spend their days. If sharing serves the mission of helping more people thrive without getting in the way of how Angela and I want to be, then it’s worth sharing.

One shift that I’m going to be more explicit about this year is that instead of feeling the pressure to publish at least one new post a week as well as the Pulse, I’m only committing to the Pulse every week. If and as I finish some of the other pieces that have been percolating for a while, I’ll publish them. The cadence may be slower, but what I publish will be better.

I'll still be doing Leadership Strategy Sessions and Monthly Momentum Calls with premium subscribers (see below) and will probably be sharing daily-ish Notes on Substack (and maybe LinkedIn). This shift will also give me some more space to get more words in on my current book project.

Consider this the first official Get Busy Living post. More coming on this as it’s ready, but in the meantime, I hope it helps you consider what you might shift so that you can get busy living, too.

~Charlie

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Take a Moment

A prompt to pause and reflect.

How might you embrace thinking bigger/differently about how you spend your days? What’s one small change you could make right now that would help you better align your days to your true nature?

We’d love to hear what’s coming up for you.

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