Even Happier: Say no and stay friends

"A real friend helps you in time of need. Maybe, but there are times in which you need to say no: you could be super busy, or the favour being asked might be far too dodgy..."

For a change, I have written the rest of this post on Leo’s ZenHabit: it’s a great blog, check it out, if you haven’t done it already!

And if friends come in time of need, shall I consider Becky a friend? You might be wondering: who is this Becky anyway? Well, a week ago I received this very flattering letter:

Dear Marco,

I wanted to drop you a note to let you know how much I enjoy your website. I was stumbling about the Internet late this evening and was shocked to find a site that made me smile and feel a bit more comfortable about my place in this world.

Thank you for the time and energy you put into brightening others' lives via the website. I will be checking for updates :). Now... if only I could find a counselor with the same positive attitude!

Take care and blessings to you and your family,
Becky

In a different moment, I would have simply replied via email thanking Becky for her lovely note, but her letter came at an important time for me, one in which I was asking myself if EvenHappier was just another Internet-powered way to spend a few minutes of our precious time, or if it could actually touch a few readers life. So my Thank You goes to Becky, and to all of the other nice people who send me fun or encouraging comments via email or in the blog: you might not know it, but you really make all the difference.

Becky also mentions her interest in counseling. Well, I am a counselor too! Take a look at the Telephone Counseling section in case you are interested, and let me know what you think.

Last but not least, Becky says that she has found my site via StumbleUpon. I think most of you know this great site: it a unique way to discover new content on the Internet, and I owe them big time... more than 14.000 visitors have found EvenHappier thanks to SU: I think it would be only me writing and my mum reading if it wasn’t for StumbleUpon!

BTW, mum are you really reading this? Well...

Back to StumbleUpon. In particular the post Fun Makes Change Easy has gone viral. And how many visitors have come from Digg for the same post? Zero, nil, asolutely no one!

Digg users hates me or what?

So I got curious, and I began checking StumbleUpon top health sites, to see if they actually got anyone Digging them... The result? Popular digg health sites are often unknown on SU and viceversa! Digg users are mostly male techies interested in creepy news , whilst Stumblers are more inclined toward timeless advice.

I guess that as the great American writer Willa Cather once said: “One cannot divine nor forecast [and neither Digg!] the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them…”