Write Your Book of Wise Words
Each month I share my favorite book of wise words. These are books that contain truths about resiliency, hope, and well-being, and are worth reading.
But the wisest words of all are yours. The book worth reading, and rereading is the one you write. Let me convince you of this truth with a lawyer’s set of arguments.
The Case for Journaling
#1. We’re on this earth to learn, grow, and become our best selves. We do that through experiences, good and bad, easy and hard.
#2. While we’re on this path, we help and support others who are on the same journey–our family, friends, and strangers. But the journey is ultimately ours alone, as each of us are required to find our own way.
#3. Consider experiences as a continual set of experiments. We’re figuring out what works for us as and what doesn’t. We become the expert on our life when we observe, reflect, and learn, from these personal experiments. Do I like hard boiled eggs or scrambled eggs? What are my gifts? What brings me joy? Where are my weaknesses and how can I make them strengths? What matters most to me? How can I align my actions with my intentions?
#4. To become the best expert on YOU, you can:
Learn from other’s experiences,
Learn from your own experiences as they naturally arise,
Learn from your own planned experiments (more on this later).
#5. Documenting our experiments helps us learn from them. Scientists know that unless they write down what they did and the results they discovered, they’ll forget, and have to start the experiment over again. A record of your experiences and experiments becomes a priceless resource of wise words for you at the time you write them, and in the future when you refer back to them.
A Journal of Resilience
This year, I encourage you to experiment writing a journal with a focus on resilience, using these questions:
What was my hard thing? (e.g., broken water pipe)
How was I prepared to deal with it? (e.g. knew a good plumber)
What could I do to be better prepared? (e.g. have more savings for home repairs)
What did I learn about myself? others? (e.g. home repairs cause me a lot of stress, but I need to remember I can handle them, and it will work out in the end)
In my blogs this year, I’ll ask you questions, invite you to do intentional experiments, and share thoughts and quotes worth keeping. These all can be part of your journal of resilience.
Some Tips on Journaling
I’ve discovered four guidelines for journaling:
Write just for you, not for others. This isn’t your polished, edited, life story that will be published
for your posterity. It’s a messy, honest, record of your journey.Write clearly enough so you can read your own handwriting.
Be as loving and kind to yourself as possible. As you write, validate your thoughts and emotions. Be curious and open to new discoveries. Be encouraging and brave.
As often as you write, go back and reread past entries for reminders of lessons learned and new insights into yourself.
With these simple guidelines, experiment to find what works for you. If you’ve tried journaling before, start with what you know. Maybe daily writing is too much and you dislike handwriting. Try typing a note once a week. If morning time is sleep time, write at night just before turning out the light. If you don’t like writing sentences, use words, phrases, bulleted lists, or even pictures. There are fancy journals, simple notebooks or apps. Try something for a few weeks, evaluate, and then tweak. Find what is easiest and most enjoyable for you.
Final Notes
Journaling is in my DNA because this blog picture is my grandmother’s journals when she was on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1920. Later, she had a big, clunky, Remington typewriter on a stand in her bedroom where she would type a daily note. Her journals, filled with wise words, are one of my most prized possessions.
My journaling happens on Sunday mornings in a simple black journal with a favorite pen. I take notes in my daily planner, but my journal entries are a reflection on the week. I write, read what I’ve written before, and then I listen. I listen to my heart and whisperings from my God and then I write more, and these become my most precious writings, my wise words.
I don’t know any better way to learn about ourselves and for ourselves than to record and read our own experiences and experiments. It is by trials we discover truths, but by journaling, we remember them.