Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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"Being connected in a shallow way to the entire world can prevent us from Being deeply connected to those closest to us—including ourselves. and that is where wisdom is found." leadership a nd a n enor mous a mount of content." She adds that she wants to see The Huffington Post in ever y count r y in t he world a nd has her eyes on Mexico and South America next. An Arabic edition, Huff Post Arabi, will be launched sometime this year, according to the latest reports. Given such an incredible success story, it's easy to imagine Huffington's mentor as a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates type. But it's not. It's her mother, Yaya. Huffington grew up with her mother and sister in a one-bedroom apartment in Athens, Greece. They didn't have a lot of money, but no matter how tough the circumstances, her mother was a magical impro- viser. "She was always able to conjure up what we needed, including a good educat ion a nd hea lt hy food," Huffington says. "She only owned two dresses and never spent anything on herself. I remember her selling her last pair of little gold earrings. She bor- rowed f rom a nyone she cou ld so t hat her t wo daughters could go to college, a nd no matter how little we had, she never failed to give to others with even less and to make us feel that we were bigger than our circumstances." In fact, one can see the direct connection between Huffington's passion for "the third metric" and the inf luence of her mother. Huffington describes her mother moving through days as a child does, living in the present—stopping, literally, to smell the roses. A trip through the farmers market might be an all-day affair, with little thought of All The Things That Must Be Done. In fact, the last time Huffington's mother got angry with her before she died was when she saw her daughter reading e-mail and talking to her children at the same time. "She said, 'I abhor multitasking,' in a Greek accent that puts mine to shame," Huffington says. "In other words, being connected in a shal- low way to the entire world can prevent us from being deeply connected to those closest to us—including ourselves. And that is where wisdom is found." Along similar lines, Huffington has been spearheading "What's Working," a global Huff Post editorial initiative to double down on coverage of the kinds of stories that resonate with the public—in other words, stories about success. She explains that, while The Huffington Post will continue to cover serious issues, she wants to move beyond the hackneyed journalistic princi- ple that "If it bleeds, it leads." "I believe that it's our responsibility as journalists to give our readers the full picture," she says. "A nd the full picture obviously includes crises and beheadings and rapes, and we're going to continue to cover these things relent- lessly. But at the same time, the full picture also includes an enormous amount of good things happening—examples of ingenuity, compassion, solutions. I don't think journalists have done as good a job at covering those. And as a result, we have a lot of copycat crimes, but not as many copycat solutions." This focus on the positive dovetails with Huffington's "third metric" for success (money a nd power bei ng t he ot her t wo), wh ich consist s of fou r pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving. In basic terms, she advocates mental and physical health and wellness through digital detoxing, sleeping eight hours a night, relaxing, taking your vacation days, and spending time with loved ones. She maintains that meditation, yoga, getting enough sleep, and gen- erally renewing ourselves makes us better employees and more successful. It's hard to believe that the head of a huge media empire grounded in the 24/7 news cycle can actually practice what she preaches. But according to Huffington and those in her inner circle, she abso- lutely "logs off." "My day starts the night before," she explains, "and depending on what time I have to get up in the morning, I estimate getting eight hours of sleep. So at least half an hour, ideally one hour, before I need to go to sleep, I turn off all my devices. I have a real ritual and charge them outside of my bedroom, and if I haven't finished everything, that's fine." Huffington has trained herself to live with incomple- tion. She believes that as long as the most important things have been handled, that's really all that matters. When I admit to Huffington that it's hard for me to turn off in the evenings, she admonishes me: "If you are a mother and a career woman, there's always going to be incompletions. The important thing is not to let the pressure ball fall in the juggling act." She suggests that meditation would be very helpful, adding that one of the great things about technology is helpful apps that focus on well-being and yoga, such as Headspace and Huff Post's GPS for the Soul. When asked about the advice she would give to her younger self, Huffington says she wishes she had known that there's no trade-off between living a well-rounded life and doing good work. "I wish I could go back and tell myself, 'Arianna, your performance will actually improve if you can commit to not only working hard, but also unplugging, recharging, and renewing yourself.' That would have saved me a lot of unnecessary stress, burnout, and exhaustion." Huffington adds that as meditation and yoga have become more main- stream, many CEOs have started bringing them into the workplace. They're no longer just feel-good topics relegated to t he hea lt h or lifest yle pages. And she really is a champion of sleep—there are even sleeping pods in The Huffington Post's New York offices as well as a regular bed. When asked if she ever uses them, she tells me that they're always booked, and besides, she has a nice long couch in her office. To send a positive message to her team about napping on the job, she keeps her curtains open when she's lying down. "I used to close the curtains, but now I don't," Huffington says, "because I think it's good to set an example that napping at work is a good thing." She admits that during her free time, she loves watching House of Cards and Homeland, but her favorite thing is reading and rereading books (yes, real, tangible books!)—preferably in bed. BC bostoncommon-magazine.com 99