Humans are creatures of routine. We rise from our night’s rest into a fresh day and do what we have settled into. The staples include breakfast, brushing teeth, getting dressed, checking the news, what’s the temperature, and maybe some less desirable habits like cursing our reasons for closing the door behind us as we are swept up into mid-morning traffic. Regardless of what goes on, if we take note we could easily find those patterns that have evolved naturally into each of our lives.
We seem to have a tendency to direct ourselves based on our needs. In the morning we feel hungry or know that we soon will be and we grab a bite to eat, brushing our teeth not long after but before we leave the door so that the only person to suffer our morning breath is our spouse or dog. Now that those things are taken care of we need to go to work as dictated by our schedule, so we do this. Once there depending on the type of person we are we work or we do nothing of the sort and return home.
Now what do we do? Well.. There isn’t necessarily much telling us what we’ve to do aside from slipping off the check that’s come due next Tuesday or cleaning the lot of dishes that’s begun to pile in the sink. These are all of the small tasks coming to us free from life as it is. Without doing anything we’re given these jobs to do so we do them, hopefully, and if we don’t problems tend to arise. The same thing goes if we aren’t shooting the arrows from our daily quiver toward the long range targets.
To get to an island off shore with a sailboat you’ve got to ride the winds. This takes coordination and understanding of the intricacies therein. With life we’ve got it a little bit easier than that. We aren’t exactly sailing a ship to a far off land, but we are navigating ourselves through the ocean of life. We too require direction and without it we’re a ship lost at sea. This is where the journal comes into play and it isn’t just for the ladies back in high school. History’s greats have used this tool to guide their sails wayward to greatness including Marcus Aurelius, and Cicero. Their lives were just about as complex as it can get and it worked for them, how could it not work for us given its dues?
Starting off may seem confusing but taking the first step is the hardest part. Challenge yourself to write once daily at the end of your day for just two weeks, maybe four if you’re hearty. If you’re interested in a bit of structure start it off with a dated header, the days date. Follow up by a review of what you’ve gone and done with yourself for that day. Don’t be too harsh on yourself here but take note of what you really didn’t particularly enjoy about your actions today, get as detailed as you want and if you’ve not the time quip it onto the page and move on. After this begin planning tomorrow. A few bullet points will do you well for organization, the main idea, then short spurts of what you may need to do to accomplish this may follow if required.
All of it be in chronological order as to be done.. Think about how you’ll wake up and what you’ll focus on thinking as your eyes open as well as what you’ll rest on heading to bed at night. Notice how during your day you’ll have just a whiff of what you could or should be doing after you begin to journal. Does it help get you thinking about where to set your sails? Just as an experiment go back to this journal nightly. Record your log and plan your next day. If you follow the plan good, if not.. That’s okay too but do make mention of this success or failure in your log. You never know where this might take you if you give it your mind.
Take care friend and thank you for stopping by.
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” – Epictetus
Jordan Hutchison 