Welcome—I’m Robbie.
Apparently this is the section where I’m supposed to tell you exactly what you can expect from my writing and all the ways I can help you become happier, skinnier, more fulfilled and the best version of yourself—but that’s not going to happen.
What I can do is tell you a little bit about me and leave the decision of whether or not to subscribe up to you—sound fair enough?
Well, I was born and raised in the British countryside, in a small village just outside of Bath. Beautiful place. The kind of place you do not appreciate between the ages of 13 and 25 because it’s full of old people and a long way from everything. Which means it’s also the sort of place that, at the ripe old age of 31, I have grown to appreciate for its density of old people and distance from everything.
I left home at eighteen after sneaking a place at university through a backdoor—a university I was not qualified to attend and certainly not intelligent enough for. Yet, my older brother was there and I was determined to prove he was no more academic than me (for which I turned out to be wrong). I studied psychology and became obsessed with the human mind and what drives our decision-making. I did ok.
After leaving university my life pivoted rather dramatically, thanks to one decision. I had some nice jobs lined up in the big smoke—I was even interviewing to join Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but I didn’t see that going far on account of my dislike for big cities and inability to blend in. When it came to making a decision, I packed my bags and flew to Greece. I spent the next ten years (on and off), traveling the world.
In the early days I picked up work wherever I could—serving fondue on top of a mountain in Canada, teaching windsurfing on Greek islands, working in bars and chalets around the French and Austrian Alps, and building tipis in the fly-swatting heat of Australia.
I grew tired of the labour, which I now miss greatly, and decided to spend some time earning real money with a ‘real career’. That career was as a direct response copywriter, using my psychology degree to hijack the human mind and get you to buy more junk you don’t want and certainly don’t need. Financially, the work was rewarding. But I was paying a price I can no longer afford.
I recently closed down my business. My profitable, yet soul-sucking business. I was making good money and barely working—yes, the dream—but it was weighing me down in a way that’s hard to explain and certainly not one that warrants sympathy.
Over the last few years I have been a part of the problem I see plaguing people today—their addiction to technology, their inability to focus and their draining cognitive and physical health. I look around and see people scrolling on social media instead of being social, listening to podcasts instead of having conversations, and recording seminal moments instead of experiencing them. I swear to god, if I see one more teenager walking around with their family whilst wearing AirPods I’m gonna slap them sideways. I felt my work was part of the problem, so I made a change.
Now I share my writing at Just Busy Living (justbusyliving.com).
I don’t have social media. I’ve had all of them, at one point or another. Now, I have none of them. No matter how hard I try to limit my consumption, I find they consume far more of my life than I’m willing to give up.
You can contact me at rfoston@gmail.com. If it’s urgent, you can call me. If you don’t have my number, then it’s highly unlikely you need to tell me something urgent.
There you have it, my life in summary. I would very much like for you to subscribe, if you found any of this even remotely interesting. I post new content every single week with incredible discipline quite often.
Go outside,
Robbie
