Transcription
The first thing to understand about a journal is that it's your book. And because it is yours, you must be the one to select the size and style you feel most suits your needs and personal preferences. Like a favorite armchair, a journal must be comfortable enough that you will want to go to it often.
You may, in fact, find yourself experimenting with a variety of journals over the years as your needs and tastes change. During the past 25 years, I'd be willing to bet that I've tried almost every conceivable system of capturing ideas on paper, from loose-leaf binders and file cards to dime-store notebooks and hard-bound volumes. I've had big journals and little journals, journals with lined pages and journals with blank pages, all of which met a certain need at a certain period in my life. And believe me, you too will undoubtedly go through half a dozen different methods over the years, and that's to be expected. As you continue to grow and develop, you will soon discover that last year's systems won't likely meet this year's needs.
You see, one of the keys to success is flexibility. We must always be on the search for more effective methods to facilitate and accommodate new ideas. But let's face it, in the beginning, the only thing that matters is that you develop the journal habit. The journal we've included with this tape program may or may not be exactly what you're looking for, but just start using it. Like ordering Chinese food for the first time, the only way to find out which dishes you will or will not like is to try a few. By using this journal to get you started, you will not only develop the journal habit, but you will also discover in the process of using it what you like or do not like about it. Then, when you've finished, you can always look for a journal that is more tailored to suit your specific needs.
And I would suggest that when you go to buy your second journal, that you take the time to get just the right one. Remember, the use anything received will always be in direct proportion to how it makes you feel when you use it. Color and material of the binding, the texture of the paper, the width of the lines or the absence of lines are important considerations. If you feel lines tend to restrict your creative flow, then go with blank pages. If you feel uncomfortable with blank pages, then choose lined pages. Hey, it's your book, make sure it reflects what you are.
My latest journal is a leather-bound volume for which I paid handsomely, but it's worth every penny I spent. The richness and the smell of the leather, in themselves, are enticing. It's enjoyable just to hold it in my hands. And too, it's important to me to know that unique ideas are being stored in a suitable place. Somebody once asked me why I pay as much as I do for an empty book, and my answer was simple: I intend to put something valuable in it. Let's face it, you wouldn't store precious gems in an empty cigar box, so why put a million-dollar idea in a 10-cent book?
Just one bit of advice, however. Bear in mind that a journal should be capable of going wherever you go. A journal that requires more space than your briefcase permits or more room than your desktop allows for you, more often than not, it will be left at home, gathering dust instead of thoughts and cobwebs instead of observations.
But let's get to the heart of the matter. Buying a journal is the easy part. The real challenge lies in filling it up, and that's what we want to deal with now. What should go into a journal if it is to have meaning and value in your life? Perhaps the best way to answer this question is to consider the purposes and functions of a journal. Once the matter of why we should write is clear, then the what we should write will become immediately apparent.
There are so many functions performed by a journal that I could conceivably spend the remainder of this tape and a half a dozen others discussing them. But since more important than listening to my reasons for why you should be keeping a journal is getting busy actually using your journal, I'll try to limit the list and merely highlight some of the majors.
One of the unique characteristics of a journal is that it offers you an effective way to figure it all out. To figure out life, to figure out people, to figure out business dilemmas, and most important of all, to figure out yourself. There is something magical about writing down a problem. It is almost as though in the very act of writing what is wrong, you start to discover ways of making it right. Perhaps the source of this magic lies in the objective perspective that writing affords you. Even though you are describing your problem, your challenge, your life, your uncertainty, and your indecision, the fact that you are writing about it, as opposed to mentally pondering it, creates a space between you and the problem. It is within this space that solutions have room to grow.
You see, writing about events and circumstances that occur helps you to clarify exactly what is happening. When we describe life to ourselves only in our minds, our imaginations tend to feed false or distorted information about how things are, positive or negative. When we describe a situation in writing, however, we become more factual, more accurate, and certainly more realistic. Then, as we reread what we have written, we create a new picture in our minds to replace the distorted picture we have been working with. And once we finally see things as they are, rather than as we think they are, we can then see our way clear to make them better.
At the conclusion of this program, you might, in fact, want to use this process to get your journal started. Write about a current dilemma you are facing. Perhaps it is a personal problem, a business matter, a family issue, or a financial problem. Whatever it is, take the time to capture it on paper the way it really is. But remember, writing out the problem is only the first step to creative problem-solving and effective decision-making. The next step is to carefully analyze what you have written.
Here are some of the key things to look for: First, exaggerations or distortions of the truth. Are you really telling it like it is? Take another look. Perhaps your concern is making it seem worse than it is, or your enthusiasm is making it seem better than it is. Second, a tendency to blame circumstances or someone else for your problem instead of seeing yourself as the cause. You see, most of our difficulties are the result of either failing to do what we could have done or in doing in haste what we should never have done. Third, a tendency to expect circumstances, or still worse, other people to change in order for your problem to be solved. Let me remind you one more time that things get better when you get better. Passive hope never has and never will improve human circumstances. And finally, look closely for weak points in the obstacle where you might attack to bring that obstacle to its knees. Remember, David slew Goliath with but one small stone. It usually doesn't take much more than a few minor adjustments in either our attitude or our action plan to solve a major problem.
Essentially, you must learn to view your problems like a scientist who puts tiny organisms on a slide. Examine your circumstances through the lens of the microscope of truth to see their real nature, their real perimeters, and their real composition. And two, as you examine your problem, do as any scientist would do: record your observations. You see, as you continue to refine your statement of the problem, of the way it really is, you will begin to move closer to the solution.
And speaking of solutions, be sure to record the ultimate conclusion to your dilemma. If it worked well, then it is worth remembering. And if it didn't work well, as you had hoped it would, then it is even more essential to record the outcome, lest you should find yourself repeating mistakes instead of learning from them. Mistakes and judgment are nothing to be ashamed of. Surely, most of our personal growth comes as a result of our errors, but what is truly unforgivable is to make the same mistake twice. Every mistake has its own price tag, but the most costly error anyone can make is an error unlearned and often repeated. If something didn't work, it may be too late to undo the mistake, but it's never too late to make adjustments and revisions in your thinking. You see, better decision-making comes from better thinking habits, and better thinking habits come from practical experience, learning both what to do and what not to do. Becoming a more effective thinker on paper is a sure way of becoming a more effective person in practice.
As step one for getting used to using your journal, then, I would suggest writing down problems that you encounter and recording all the steps you can take or did take to solve them, as well as their eventual outcomes. Now, I realize this is only a suggestion, but please let me offer you a bit of advice about suggestions. You see, many people will hear this suggestion, agree that it sounds like a good idea to try, and even go so far as to mentally agree to do it sometime. And therein lies the problem: that nebulous word, "sometime." We all know what happens to the promises we make to do something tomorrow, or next week, or as soon as we have a chance. Somehow, we never quite get around to doing it. My advice is that if you think a suggestion has merit and that it's worth trying, that you promise yourself you will do it. Make a firm commitment now, at the conclusion of this program, that you will have chosen one of my suggestions, and that you will not do another thing until you have opened your journal and written at least one page. Otherwise, to be perfectly honest, you might as well stop the tape now and give it and the journal to a friend, for surely, if you lack the discipline to start a journal, it is highly unlikely that you will ever have the discipline to continue to use one either.
This leads us into a second function of your journal, which is the capturing of good ideas. How many times, as we go through the day, do we come across a good idea, a unique quote, an interesting piece of information, or even a significant personal discovery? And each time we do, we mentally say to ourselves, "I must remember that." Now, I'm willing to admit here that the human mind... I remember one time attending a church service in Carmel, California. The sermon that Sunday morning was excellent, so I opened my journal and started taking notes. But out of the 400 people in attendance that day, guess how many of the others were taking notes? Not one. So there I was, taking notes in my journal from this sermon, and pretty soon the people around me were starting to give me strange looks. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see them nudging one another and whispering. I felt like some kind of spy. I could almost hear them saying, "He's going to get out of here with some of this stuff." And sure enough, I did. I got the stuff.
So what I'm suggesting is that you get in there and get out with some of the stuff. Let other people sit there thinking they can remember it all. Let other people treat opportunity casually, but not you. I would ask you to treat it seriously. Let other people wonder at the end of their lives where it all went wrong, but not you. Let other people play while you work, fool around while you study, soak up the sun while you soak up ideas. Ten years from now, they'll still be trying to figure out how to pay the bills, or wondering why their marriage isn't working out, or why they don't seem to be getting ahead professionally. But not you. Life always rewards the serious students for their labors.
So, since we all know that it's nearly impossible for most of us to remember the exact phrasing of an inspiring line or the specific details of a business conference over an extended period of time, we've got to get serious about capturing it now. Generally, if we wait until the end of the day to describe events and happenings and conversations in our journals, the specific details have already escaped us. At best, we are left with scattered fragments, and it's hard to build an exciting future from mere bits and pieces of the past and present. So I would encourage you to get it all down as it comes your way: financial ideas, personal development ideas, time management ideas, family ideas, business ideas, everything you have the good fortune to come across. If an idea is worth listening to, worth reading, worth remembering, then it is also worth capturing in your journal.
And there are many reasons for making the effort to capture good ideas, not the least of which is the fact that the simple act of writing something on paper helps to etch the idea more firmly in our conscious minds. To hear it or see it or read it is one thing; to take the time and make the mental effort to capture it with paper and pen is so much more. Second, every idea has its time and place. As Victor Hugo once wrote, "There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come." Perhaps the ideas you capture today will not have any specific meaning or purpose in your life at this moment, but ultimately, at some future point in time, when you march into battle, the armory of ideas you have carefully and conscientiously assembled over the years will serve you well.
Here's another interesting phenomenon about ideas: as we collect a variety of thoughts on any given theme or subject, there is a tendency for these individual ideas to come together and form themselves into a whole new idea, much as the single flakes of snow, when gathered together, can be formed into snowballs, and snowballs into snowmen. Or perhaps a more graphic example would be that of the igloo, which is, after all, a dwelling built entirely of tiny snowflakes which have been compressed by their weight and frozen together over a period of time, such that whole blocks of them may be cut out to build a structure. The successful human being is one who has learned to diversify his interests and gather knowledge from a variety of sources. Gather enough good ideas in one area of life, and you will form a solid block. Gather enough solid blocks together, and you can construct a whole new life.
But be aware of one thing: the mental storage bank of good ideas is very much like the bottom drawer of our desks or the extra drawer in the kitchen that holds a collection of valuable items gathered over the years, none of which can ever be found when we go to look for them again because of the chaotic manner in which they were stored. We pour information into our mental computers much like we dump old letters and store coupons into the extra drawer, helter-skelter, and hence, irretrievable. One of the first things we attend to when setting up a new business is the development of a filing system for records so that we can easily locate information whenever needed. When we move into a new home, we carefully pack all of our possessions in clearly labeled boxes so that we can find something again in a hurry if needed. But when it comes to facts, to ideas, to observations, we have no system, as though they are incidental rather than essential to our better future.
Your journal, then, provides you with the means of logically assembling and storing the pieces of information that come your way. Now, there are many ways to assemble the data in your journal for easy reference. For example, you might find it helpful to keep an index at the back of each volume so that you merely list the highlights of your entries. So that your index might read like this: "Financial ideas, pages 5, 53, 96, and 104," or "Ideas for increasing company efficiency, pages 46, 82, and 111."
At one time, I used to keep three journals: one for personal observations, one for business notations, and a third for creative ideas for a book I was writing. Of course, it didn't take me long to discard that system. Carrying three journals around the world is no easy task. Then I tried using three colors of ink in the same journal so that at a glance I could focus on any one of the three areas. While it was certainly easier carrying three pens than three journals, it was still somewhat of a cumbersome system. When the ideas are flowing fast and furious, you don't always have the time to search for a red, a green, or a blue pen. The method I finally settled on was setting aside certain sections of my journal for specific uses. For example, at the back of my journals, I have a separate section for recording my goals, for listing interesting quotes, and for thoughts on new speech material. Perhaps you may want to set aside part of your journal for specific ongoing projects or interests that you feel might warrant a section of their own. Choose one of these methods or devise a new one, but make sure you set up some kind of system.
Remember, failure more often than not is attributable to lack of information about how to succeed. Each of us has the capacity to seek out the information we require to achieve our goals. Unfortunately, we do not all have the discipline required to gather the data systematically so that the raw material is easily accessible and ready to be put into practical use the moment opportunity presents itself. How sad it would be if opportunity came knocking on your door, but you had to keep him waiting while you rummaged through drawers and files for the key. Undoubtedly, by the time most people have finally located the key, opportunity has long since become impatient and gone on to knock on the door of someone else.
Next, by taking the time to capture and assemble information in our journals, we now have the added benefit of being able to review these ideas whenever we wish. You don't have to run back to the library to re-read the book you borrowed last year or call a friend on the phone and try to reconstruct the conversation you had last month. If you've captured the essence of the conversation or the highlights of the book in your journal, it will always be there for you to refer to.
And here is the key point: for your journals to have their greatest value, they must be frequently reviewed. You see, writing in journals is merely a way of capturing information, but it is by re-reading our journals that we begin the process of translating information into practical knowledge about ourselves, our environment, our relationships, our businesses, our financial affairs, our dreams, and our own better future. I would strongly urge you to set aside a day each week, or at the very least, each month, to review your recent entries. And then, once a year, take all of your journals off the shelf and read them from cover to cover. What you read will probably make an incredible story of personal growth.
You see, more than anything else, a journal is a place to document the development of your own life. It is a textbook of self-discovery and self-awareness. In fact, sometimes what you don't write can be as revealing as what you have written. A friend of mine recently shared with me the discovery that in re-reading her journals, she realized that everything she had written centered around other people's lives: their accomplishments, their failures, their dreams, their needs. "I finally realized," she said, "that I had spent most of my adult life as a mirror, reflecting everybody else's existence, rather than as a human being living a life of my own."
In the pages of a journal, our innermost feelings and dreams are revealed, as are our strengths, our weaknesses, our positive attributes, and our negative habits and characteristics. If not in the words themselves, then at least between the lines of what we have written are the shadows of self-doubt, pride, envy, jealousy, and anger. Just as actions speak louder than words, so too will journals often say more than what we have written.
A journaled entry should also capture your observations and reactions, for somewhere between what we see and what we do will be revealed what we are. Capture on paper the events, the circumstances, and happenings of your life. Describe the near miss you had while driving to work on the freeway. Outline your observations of people's behavior at the office party. Paint the picture of your day at the beach: the pounding surf, the soaring gulls, the distant sails. And then, when you have written about what your eyes have perceived and your ears have heard, go one step further and describe your feelings, your emotional responses to life. Describe your feelings when you learn that John got the promotion that you felt was rightfully yours, or when you learn that Sally is getting married next month to your ex-husband. Describe it all. Don't miss any of the events of your life. Capture the joy of your victories as well as the agony of your defeats. And remember, it doesn't have to be a monumental occurrence to be worth capturing. Truly, most human lives consist of and evolve around minor happenings, so even a minor event and your response to it can have a major impact on how your life turns out.
You see, part of the human experience, perhaps the most important part, lies in learning to translate these events which occur outside of us into words and emotions within our inner worlds. The better we become at describing what goes on around us, the better we will be able to understand some of the conflicts and turmoils which take place within us. Cause and effect always go hand in hand. Trying to understand or deal with the effects without a clear picture of the cause is a rather hopeless situation to be in. Remember that all human emotions are effects which can be traced back to particular events or causes. A better understanding of events will always give us a clearer picture of the effects we may be experiencing.
Also, on the subject of events and feelings, you will find, as you begin to open up and really tell it like it is, that your journal becomes an excellent, empathetic friend, one who will listen to all you have to say about your joys, your pain, your fears, or your concerns. And I would strongly urge you to get these emotions out of your head and onto the page, for powerful negative emotions are diminished by writing, and powerful positive emotions become explosive. You see, writing about your fear reduces its strength, and capturing your excitement magnifies its power.
And feel free to... there is only one suggestion I would offer concerning the format of your journal, and that is to record the date, time, and location of each entry. Not only will this provide you with a means of measuring your progress, your growth trends, the different phases of your life, and your changing attitudes, but where and when you write can, in themselves, provide into...