The Life Lesson Journal

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I previously discussed finding a journal to use as a regular course, and I suggested several possible formats. Now I wish to share my favorite and simplest journal of all — the Life Lesson Journal.

For the life lesson journal purpose, I use a simple Moleskine softcover journal. This journal is straightforward to use and maintain.

Moleskine softcover journal, small size

First, decide when you will use it. My initial life lesson journal began as a short evening ritual that mentally prepared me for bedtime. I kept the journal near my bedside and quickly recapped the life lessons from the day. Now I use the journal in the mornings before I even drink my first sips of morning refreshments (coffee and tea). Maintaining the journal takes about a minute or so.

Second, decide where you will use it. I leave my journal on my morning placemat, where I will see it immediately when I sit down to begin my morning reflection and study. Another idea is to store it in a familiar, accessible place and put up a reminder to write in it daily. Habits are more comfortable to start and maintain if I see them when I desire to execute them; hence, my kitchen table where I sit first thing in the morning.

Third, here are the four categories to include in your life lesson journal. Remember, this is a brief journal, like a stake that you put in the ground to mark a particular point and place in the time of your life. The journal does not need to be more than a quick summary of things within these four categories. If you wish to broaden and expand your entries, you can use another larger journal for that reflective purpose.

Day and Date: include the day of the week and its date. I draw a box around this information so that I can quickly see it. Sometimes I add splashes of color to the date box if something important occurred that I think I might wish to find quickly at a later time.

Accomplished: Here, I quickly summarize what I accomplished that day. I use abbreviations frequently. Over time I have developed my abbreviated system of noting what I accomplished in a day.

Learned: Here, I include something that I learned. It may be a new word or piece of information, or it could be a lesson that I learned from a particularly knotty problem or stumbling block that I encountered that day. Sometimes I even forget what I learned that day but might remember that I did indeed learn something. I ask myself these questions to prod my memory: Did I learn something new? Did I learn something surprising? Did I have a problem, and if so, what lesson could I learn from what happened?

Grateful: Here, I write a short statement about something that I am grateful for. This is one of my favorite parts of the journal. Sometimes I have to think about what I am grateful for, and thankfully there is always something to find. I also find that I need to go through the exercise of turning lemons into lemonade, but that exercise improves my mental attitude overall.

Committed: I used to label this category "100% committed," but with time, for the sake of brevity, I shortened the category label to "committed." Here I write what I intend to accomplish the next day. I am careful here. I focus on my intention. I find that what I write here will get done, so I am careful not to over schedule my ambition. Rarely do I not accomplish something on this list, and when that happens, I mark through those items when I visit my lessons journal the next day.

I use my goal cards as bookmarks in my life lessons journal to mark my current time period. I will discuss what my goal cards look like in a later discussion. For now, I include them to keep my place in my life lesson journal because I visit this journal daily and want to see my goal cards daily as well.

I highly recommend that you begin the life lesson journal practice. It takes moments, whether morning or evening, and it is a useful and simple daily tool to review my life and reveal the important lessons that my life will teach me.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2020 by Paula E. Bird

Reflection: What's Possible?

[If you would like to listen to the most recent podcast of this article, click here.]

Recently in a conversation with a teacher friend, we talked about her insights from the week. My friend had recently returned from a teacher workshop, and as is typical of such events, had returned with renewed enthusiasm, affirming reassurance that she was doing a good job as a teacher, and something else.

She told me that it was not the teaching points or ideas that were her main "takeaway" thoughts from the workshop. Instead, she was reminded of "what's possible," and possibility is a very strong idea.

When we use the word "possible," we pack in many shades of meaning. We refer to limits, in that we stay within our limits of ability ("It's possible I can do that"). We refer to what can be accomplished naturally, as in, the best possible thing we can do.

We refer to things that may or may not happen or be true ("It's possible she will learn this" or "it's possible that may have happened"). We also use the word "possible" to indicate potential, as in, it is possible for our students to learn this song in a week.

The origin of the word "possible" means "to be able," and that concept is also very powerful.

• What are we able to do? 

• What are we able to be? 

• What is possible?

Life can be tedious in its relentless demands to heed to daily necessities:

• go to work

• take care of the family

• follow the schedule

What happens though when we take a step to the side of the road for just a few seconds and contemplate "what's possible?" What part of this grand idea have we focused on?

• our limits

• our natural accoplishment

• truth or falsehood

• our potential

Let today's reflection be a reminder to think and focus on what is possible.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2018 by Paula E. Bird

Life Lesson: Safety is an Illusion

A recent reflection yielded an interesting thought: "safety is a very expensive illusion" (Cameron, The Artist's Way). Now what do I mean by safety? The word represents a host of meanings, from comfort to predictability, and I think that the way in which Julia Cameron uses the word is the same.

Change is inevitable. I read somewhere that we replace a great number of our body's cells on a regular basis. Amazing to think that we might be entirely different people today physically than we may have been a year ago. I look out the window and am reminded daily that the weather changes, sometimes by the minute. With all this change happening around me, why would I resist it? Why would I gravitate to "safety" by trying to keep things the same if change is really the only constant in life?

My choice of reading material today reminds me that I say "yes" to a great number of things that do not really matter in the grand scheme of life. Perhaps my saying "yes" so often is really a disguised attempt to stay safe. I aspire to say "yes, and . . ." this year, but I do not mean that this aspiration tells me to take on more things. The "yes, and" aspiration refers to attitude. While I aspire to a positive attitude in life generally, I need to learn how to be ruthless about the small things that do not really matter. I need to throw caution and the illusion of safety to the winds. I need to take "leap after leap in the dark." (Agnes de Mille)

Cameron reminded me that I need to be willing first to do something badly. I need to throw perfectionist tendencies to the wind. "Usually, when we say we can't do something, what we mean is that we won't do something unless we can guarantee that we'll do it perfectly." (Cameron, The Artist's Way).

I also read the story of how Himalayan Sherpa explain how they move up the mountains in a seemingly effortless way. The Sherpa explain that they view the mountains as friends that lift them up and carry them along.

Rather than think about risks and challenges as being scary, I want instead to "expand my self-definition" (Cameron, The Artist's Way) and find a friend in the mountain, embrace the challenge as opportunity, and let the mountain carry me along.

I want to let go of the illusion of safety and comfort that comes from the tendency to clutch to perfectionism. I want to take risks and get messy, stand up to challenges and redefine them as opportunities, and leap into the dark unknown and shine a light. I want to see what more life has to offer.

What are the things that you cling to rather than venture out into the unknown and make new discoveries? What would you do differently today if you knew that you would not fail? What would you try?

Why not try it? Now. Today. Why not?

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2018 by Paula E. Bird

11 Aspirations for the New Year (2018)

I recently published a podcast episode about my 11 aspirations for the new year 2018. I thought I would share those aspirations on the blog as well. If you would like to listen to a more in-depth discussion of how these aspirations came to be and the reasons why I wrote them, click here. 

Here are the big 11:

1. Look for Things to be Grateful for
2. Smile More and Smile Often
3. Reduce Overthinking About Small Tasks (Checklists!)
4. Schedule Regular Review and Reflection Times
5. Work While at Work (and Schedule It!)
6. Reflect
7. Think "Yes, and"
8. Return Things to Neutral
9. Read and Learn More
10. Just One Thing
11. Write More

To look at these aspirations every day (or more frequently depending on where I have hung the list) would not be the best way to ensure that I would actually do the steps that underly these aspirations. So I wrote out a series of questions that partner with the aspirations. When I review and answer these questions, I find that I take the necessary steps ("just one thing") to accomplish something represented in the aspirations list. Here are the questions that I currently review each day:

• What am I grateful for today?
• What lessons did I learn today?
• What hope or love will I discover today?
• How many smiles have I given away?
• What tasks can I create a checklist for?
• Did I schedule my weekly sitdown?
• What work periods have I scheduled today?
• What do I want to reflect about?
• What worked or did not work?
• What do I want more or less of?
• What did I accomplish?
• What am I committed 100% for tomorrow?
• Did I return my spaces to neutral?
• Did I read to learn more today?
• What one thing can I do to take a step forward on a project?
• Did I write?

I typed up the list of aspirations on one page and the aspiration questions on another page. Then I laminated these two documents back-to-back so that I can flip the document from one side to the other. If I want to add something to either side, I can use a dry erase or regular marker, or I can redo the entire laminated list. I then placed several copies of these laminated cards in various places of my life so that I can refer to them often and easily.

Already after merely a few days, I have noticed a positive effect. Some of the aspirations have entered my subconscious mind while I am working on chores or walking around. That was my purpose in creating a list of aspirations, and I am pleased with the results.

Do you have a list of aspirations for your life for this new year? What questions can you develop that would help you to perform the steps that you would need to achieve your aspirations?

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2018 by Paula E. Bird

Life Lesson: Begin Anywhere

When I began the first days of this new year (2018), I had a momentary hesitation. Where do I start with this new project? Fortunately, I had my morning routine all planned out and waiting for me to dive in. I had my stack of daily reading material sitting prominently in the center of my desk. And shortly after opening up and reading a short while, I had my answer.

"Begin anywhere." One of my books told of the John Cage story about some performers working to learn one of his pieces and not sure how to approach it, and Mr. Cage gave them this advice. It is terrific advice.

Start anywhere. Get started. Today. Get busy.

And while you are getting busy and getting started, take a look around and see if you can connect to others -- others who have gone on this particular journey before you or may be on that journey now.

The interesting thing is that I also discovered again that synchronicity is alive and well, because my other reading material seemed to present a great number of connected things although on the surface I would not have expected five books written by five different authors and addressing five different areas to align together so masterfully. I was reminded that "you have to help it come about. . . . All good things have small beginnings." (Eileen Caddy, Opening Doors Within).

Do not be lulled into complacency on your journey by thinking that things come "out of nowhere." (Julia Cameron, The Writing Diet). If we reflect, even just momentarily, we will discern the seeds that came out of somewhere. If we lapse or relapse, we need to reflect on the "somewhere," forgive ourselves, and try again.

What are some of today's tools that I will use? Here are a few thoughts I read or noted after reading:

• fill my heart with gratitude; grateful equals an open heart
• expect the very best
• live out faith and trust
• rely on intuition and inner knowing
• remember that love changes lives
• accept faith and belief in the wonder of it all
• express my gratitude

This journey is about learning how to live. It is about figuring out the tools and companions that you will take with you or rely on as you travel. The journey is about looking for and experiencing to the fullest the life lessons that are yours.

What beckons you to get started doing?

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2018 by Paula E. Bird