Intentionality

In keeping a promise made to no one, I’ve decided to write several posts this month. Maybe it’s the long winter days, and darker nights but writing here feels a little like coming home.
Anyway, hey.
Sometimes I think about this line from Haruki Murakami’s biography where he says compared with Japanese, the English language is easier for him because it offers fewer word choices with which to tell his story. Creation by elimination. Mastery by removing the unnecessary and leaving only the good stuff behind.

I like that way of working – it’s so intentional. And the deeper I get into my entrepreneurial journey, the more I understand how important intentionality should be.

Months ago, I thought it was enough to focus. If you really focused on the task ahead, then you’d get it done; all would be sunshine-y and bright. But now, with so much going on at one time, focus doesn’t seem to cut it. A layer of intentionality is necessary to bring a certain crispness to your end result. The modern currency of social interaction is digital connection. With a cold screen separating our human warmth, intention amplifies the difference between authentic and hollow.

When content is intentional, there’s an enticing otherness about the story you’re telling that draws people in and keeps them reading. It’s the complete opposite of excess, though it’s not quite simplicity or simple thoughtfulness. Intentionality, when summoned, transfers quietly from your fingertips to the page. You can’t define what it means but you know when it exists.

The shift can be subtle, slight changes that compound over time. Get rid of an unnecessary emoji here, distill the essence of your thoughts there and before you know it, the work is purer. Yes, you focused and you probably put the right amount of positive energy into whatever it was you were doing, but you were intentional about the finale. The curtain fall after the last sentence is punctuated by the sound of your particular truth.

In the coming days, weeks and months you’ll start to see this transformation happening at little word studio. (A small example is our newly pared-down, storyteller-centric Instagram.) You’ll – hopefully! – begin to discover richer stories from us in different formats like blog posts, videos and original imagery.

For me, intentionality is part of my business’ unending adventure, and it’s a trip you’ve taken along with us, especially for anyone reading who has been following little word studio since the days when it was a blog. The beginning of little word studio as a full-service content marketing company has been about telling stories for our clients. Now, with a renewed sense of intentionality to guide us, it’s also time to tell our own.