The Final Blog – Would You Like the Good News, or the Good News?
Oh my goodness. 365 days of blogging (I forgot two days, and may have in fact repeated a few days, but hey, here’s to being human). And so here I am on the final day.
Let’s take a look at the original plan that I wrote April 17th, 2010:
The Low Down – I’ve moved to back Golden Bay – my original home. Over the next 365 days I’m going to blog about my year in Golden Bay, raising my gorgeous son Kahu, and running my website www.happyzine.co.nz with the target of growing the subscription base of good news consumers to 100,000 people within one year. The essence of my goal is to wholeheartedly enjoy my time here within the amazing Golden Bay community. My strong belief is: greater life enjoyment = stronger business = increased wealth.
Who I am – I’m Charlotte Squire, I’m 33 years old, and I’m the Editor of Happyzine. I founded it around two and a half years ago.
Kahu and I a year ago just before I started the blog
Why I’m doing this – Because I’m listening to my gut feeling that this is the perfect community to thrive in. I’ve had a challenging decade, my father died unexpectedly a while back and I’ve separated from the father of my child (I would like to announce at this point that Kahu has the most loving, doting, adoring, wonderful father. Kahu’s father and I are spell bound by our son).
And amazing things have happened too, I’ve become a Mama and I’ve sprouted a good news website from seed. I’m interested to explore what it genuinely takes for me to feel really good, in my heart. While I know that life has its ups and downs, and every emotion is profoundly valuable, I also know that listening to my heart making ‘fun and chillaxation’ a daily priority, will do me good.I aim to raise my general feelings of enjoyment in life from a four-five out of ten to a nine or ten out of ten. I will honestly give my days scores of of ten, and average them at the end of each week. This is going to be interesting!
A lot can happen in a year.
Did I reach 100,000 subscribers within the year? Actually, today Happyzine has a subscription base of: 1173. How do I feel about this? I feel … more realistic, and wise about what it takes to reach that 100,000 goal. And more determined. And brimming with hope and conviction that I’ll reach that goal. I think that over the past year I learned more about how to get there, how to run a popular web-site that attracts the amount of traffic required to hit that level of subscription base. And oh my, I learned so much.
Today, as I write this blog plans are a foot – I’m about to start launching my ebook town by town across New Zealand, beginning with Nelson this June. I’ll be working with community radio stations, local media, and environment centres to share the good news about the ebook, and Happyzine. I’ll be running introductory green dream courses to compliment the ebook launches – some in person, most online.
Also – the Happyzine local good news scheme is back under-way. Yes, the mission continues to celebrate the good news of the world, town by town. We need writers for each town so get in touch if you’re keen. I’ve learned a few things over the past year or two about setting this effectively project up. Let’s hope the first two attempts prove to be enough learning for me to get it right the third time round!
Kahu now, April 2011
And, the Green Dream online courses are happening – in fact, one’s beginning this Monday evening. Now THAT is one exciting area – working with groups of people to inspire them to reach inside and find the courage and conviction to create green careers. Hello! How cool is that?!
In my life, despite my wish for momentous success to fall upon my lap immediately, things tend to happen one step at a time. Happyzine’s yet another example of this. Over the past year, as I’ve written my daily Happyzine blog, I’ve also developed and run Wild Energy – the green energy design challenge (with David Laing) – which reached over one million people via other websites; I’ve run DreamtoReality – which was the chance for one person to win a year’s worth of life coaching (with Clem McGrath from Christchurch) and Happyzine support to achieve their green dream. In this case Emily Harris’s wish to create roof top gardens in Auckland’s CBD won our hearts; I’ve attempted to set up the local good news scheme; I’ve run positive writing courses, I’ve written an ebook called ‘Ten Ways to Chillax and Have Fun As You Live Your Green Dreams’ and I’ve run Happyzine. I’ve also worked with Happyzine advertisers, writers, potential writers, and a multitude of other stuff behind the scenes – projects that worked, and some that didn’t. On a more personal level I’ve mothered Kahu nearly full-time – who is now three and a half, and I’ve finally figured out how to enjoy a happy, sustainable partnership with his father. Jeepers! When I do the list thing, I’m impressed!
The other challenge I’ve worked with all year – is how to make Happyzine – born of passion and great idealism – financially sustainable. I’ve 
found the dance between my passionate desire to run with exciting projects and my need for groundedness and a steady income stream to be quite the learning curve. But I’ve been so keen to learn, and so I have! Compared to this time last year, I feel much more savvy around this issue, and much more confident about my ability to run a financially successful website.
I think this blog will be one of those missions that I treasure. I did it. I completed it. Until I became a mother I wasn’t that confident about my ability to honour my commitments. Then the commitment of motherhood hit me – it’s for life. That’s a very grounding thought. And so ever since I had Kahu I’ve been better at sticking with stuff. Including this blog, which means a lot to me. It’s been a beacon of light. Oh and I must tell you – I loved it. I looked forward to writing it most days. And even on the days when I really couldn’t be bothered, I still felt good once I had.
DreamtoReality logo - by Dave Kingan http://kereruculture.wordpress.com/
Regarding the rating of my days – well, as soon as I started writing the blog I felt better! Most days were around eight or nine out of ten. Pretty good ratings for a human bean. The days that held the most joy were the ones with music in them, a clear sign that I’d better play A LOT of music.
So what’s next? Nothing’s coming to mind, other than the multitude of other projects I’ve got on the go, so those must be enough for now.
Just to re-visit the relationship between wealth and happiness – yes, nothing’s changed in terms of my beliefs around this. It’s still true. I’ve proven it to myself time and time again. And the cool thing is, as the result of this amazing year, there are a few other amazing projects fast approaching, missions that didn’t fit into the time frame of this blog, but which shall all build up my wealth and hopefully the wealth of all who are involved. By the way there are many meanings of the word ‘wealth’ – as well as financial wealth, it’s vitally important to also consider physical, spiritual, food, time, family, friendship, environmental and community wealth – to name but a few.
So thankyou. Thankyou for tuning in. Thankyou for being the people I held myself accountable to, so that I would front up each day. Thankyou for supporting Happyzine by visiting it. Thankyou.
Over and out.
Roger that.
Charlotte
Today’s rating 10/10
365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people). The Low Down on this Blog.
Check out yesterday’s blog.
Check out my NEW ebook ‘Ten Ways to Have Fun and Chillax As You Live Your Green Dreams’ - how to mix positive thinking with going green to achieve fantastic results (for yourself and the planet). Now you can ‘Like’ the facebook page ‘30 Days of Fun (and Chillaxed) Green Change – April 2011′ and reach your Green Dream along side other green-dreamers, this April 2011
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Oh dear Charlotte, I’m feeling very moved reading this, your final blog. We have talked about the gap that it will leave in your life, but I must say I will miss it too! You may not have achieved the goal of 100,000 but I reckon you have gained more than you expected on the journey over the last year, and as you say, there are many definitions of wealth. i suggest you ahve gained the wealth of appreciation of the gifts in each day, large or small, and that is no small accomplishment. Here I am, raising my preverbial glass to you, my dear friend! Well done!
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Congratulations, Charlotte! I’ve loved every word of it! Well done on your blog and all your brilliant projects! As the oracle at Delphi told me years ago, KEEP ON!!!
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Well done, Charlotte, that’s a wonderful accomplishment. You are shining with light! I love the way you have combined something which supported you to feel good with growing your passionate business. All power to your elbows and your knees!
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I’ll miss your blog too! Have really enjoyed it and will keep enjoying Happyzine. Kia kaha Charlotte.
Tess listening….
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You are a legend Charlotte – so many achievements in one year – thank you for sharing them all.
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Hi Charlotte, thanks for dropping by my blog. I’m totally hocked on blogging so it doesn’t matter what the next bright and glittery things comes by, my blog will always be the centre of my personal learning environment.
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Great job Charlotte! I’m impressed with your stickability and how you have developed Happyzine.
Here’s to the next leg of the journey!
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Thanks Martine
Being a Mama has certainly brought out my perseverance gene.
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