2017 was a big year. After being on this planet for four decades, it was time to take stock. I needed to figure out my next forty years or buy a Porsche. Instead of buying a car, I went with a few books that might offer some enlightenment.
I started with Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. In the book, they teach you how to apply design thinking principles to create a more meaningful and fulfilling life. To my disappointment, no sports cars were necessary.
I spent months on the process, thinking through my priorities and purpose. The process forced me to rethink my entire life. It also led to me becoming a writer.
Let me explain. During my journey, I set a few goals around learning new skills. I wanted to push myself to do more. Around this time I discovered online learning platforms, like Udemy. They offer an endless amount of content. I could learn a new language, an instrument, photography or any other topic I could dream up.
As I browsed the catalog, a course called “Writing With Flair” jumped out. I never considered myself to be a great writer, but I also didn’t think I was too bad. I’ve written white papers, come up with attention-grabbing press releases and led marketing teams.
But I was in for a shock. As I went through the class, I realized how little I knew about writing. I also figured out how much I sucked! I had a lot to learn about this craft.
As I dug deeper into the rabbit hole, one piece of advice kept coming up. If you want to be a better writer, you have to write. So I did. I wrote articles about travel, life experiences and books I’d been reading. Every day it was a struggle.
Then inspiration struck. As a father, my family is my top priority. Since I was taking the time to write, I thought, “why not share life lessons that could help my children?” One day I started a list of every lesson I wanted to share. By the time I finished, I had a list of 70+ topics.
Then I got to work. I took notes every night and wrote every morning. The words just flowed out of me. I loved every minute. After a few weeks of writing, I started doing some math. My letters were about 1,000 words each. By the time I would finish, I’d have about 70,000.
Hey, Google “How many words are in the typical non-fiction book?” The answer came back “between 50,000-75,000 words.” It was like a sign. So I decided on the spot to create a book.
Later that month, I had lunch with a friend, who also happens to be a New York Times Best-Selling author. As we talked about the project, he shared all sorts of helpful advice. Then he told me something that changed my entire perspective on the project.
He said Chad, “You write a book for one of two reasons. Either you want to change the world, or you want to change yourself.” I nodded as my wheels started to spin. In my mind, I thought “I want to teach my kids.” But is that changing the world? Was I approaching this all wrong?
I continued to write every day, but this comment never left me. Before long, everything became clear. These letters and this book were changing me. The process of reflecting on what I’ve learned and what I can share made me rethink every aspect of my life.
I realized that I wasn’t approaching this the right way. It wasn’t enough to share a few platitudes about life. I needed to pull back the veil of my life. Sharing what I’ve learned, but more importantly, what I still need to learn was the only way to make these stories stick.
Throughout this process, I evolved. I was breaking down what I thought I knew and challenged myself at every turn. I changed the way I spent my time. I looked at money differently. My vision of the future changed. I changed the way I treated others. And the list goes on.
By the end of 2017, I finished writing every letter. Ever since then I’ve been editing each one to create a book called “Be Better: Stories of Success, Failures, and Learnings Along the Way.” It ships in less than a month on July 17th, Father’s Day.
If you’re interested, I’d be happy to send you a preview copy for free. If you enjoy it, all that I ask is that you share your thoughts on Amazon so others might discover it as well.
