Posts Tagged ‘Journaling’

I was recently reviewing a random selection of my journals – I currently have forty of these on my home office bookshelf that cover a period of thirty years. In these precious volumes I have recorded the intimate reflections of my thoughts, my dreams, my concerns, my plans, my hopes and my desires. And as I flicked from page to page I could sense the struggle, I could feel the fight that was encapsulated in every word that I scribbled on those pages.

For within these volumes has been waged many a battle. This combat was, and is to this day, my personal struggle to unveil my destiny and to possess my future.

Every single page resembled a wrestling match as I tossed and I turned with my thought processes. The wrestle is represented by every stroke of my pen upon the pages found within these precious journals.

But as I read page after page I discovered a truth. And the truth was this: Your future and my future must be possessed.

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Some of the most disabled people that I have ever come across in my life were not ill, had both legs, both arms, were in their right state of mind and to look at them close up, had nothing that would have denoted them as disabled at all.

However, when it came to dealing with the day to day life issues that face us all, they were totally and completely dysfunctional.

The fact is this: to have a disability does not necessarily mean that you have a physical incapacity or even a mental incapacity.

It’s more a matter of the heart and the soul of the individual.

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Just the other night I encouraged my youngest daughter to start journaling. I have kept a journal for well over two decades now, and I know it is because of that habit that I have developed as a writer and have written more than half a dozen books – many of them bestsellers in my country and overseas. So the next day I purchased for her her first journal which she has already begun to fill with her own thoughts, drawings and ideas.

So journaling has been very much on my mind of late. And last night, as I was digging through all the material I have for a new book that I’m writing, I discovered an amazing piece that I wrote in one of my journals on the 29th June, 2000.

To put this in context, the year 2000 was long before I ever thought about starting a web design business.

Amidst all my other writings I, for some reason, wrote this following random statement – as if it appeared out of thin air: ‘I believe that there is opportunity waiting for me in the area of websites…’ and then underneath it I have drawn a square and within that square I have written the word Website and under that is a large dollar sign.

It was some time later that I attended an Internet Marketing Seminar in Sydney that changed my life, and then a little later on when I was approached to write the content for a friend’s new business and new website. Both those events consolidated the thought of owning my own web design company.

But it wasn’t until October 2003 that I tentatively started ‘OE Design – The Web Designers’ – http://www.oe-design.com. And now in 2008, because of our success over these past few years, we are moving progressively towards franchising the company.

And it all began by journaling an idea.

Now that’s powerful.

It’s now been well over twenty years since I started to keep a journal of some sort or fashion, and I know for a fact that it is because of my daily, weekly or occasional doodles, when I poured out my heart onto the page of my secret journal, that clarity often came and plans were made. Inspiration was suddenly unveiled at times and then there were times when tears dripped onto the page. At times the entries were placed in calendered order and then other times, when in need of expressing myself, the entries were placed in whatever journal was available at the time.

It wasn’t what was written that was always of the greatest importance. It was the fact that I was willing to take the thoughts that were bombarding the walls of my mind and risk future exposure at one point in time.

Reading one entry, it went like this: ‘I suppose in years to come my kids are going to discover my scribblings in numerous places all over the place. A book here, a journal there, and some more material on my computer and the list will go on. Not necessarily categorically filed or kept – just like this one, but each expressing the need to have my thoughts recorded somewhere.’

Oh there are a whole range of whiz bang hare-brained schemes found within the pages of my journals amidst the scattering of profundity, but it doesn’t matter because it is my journal and it is for my eyes only.

There are drawings, diagrams, goals, dreams, and recordings of events. There are concerns. There are solutions. There are questions and there are affirmations. It is a place of solace where comfort can be gained as I share with my maker in an intimate manner and as I battle with the thoughts that pervade in my mind.

And as I reread these recordings my heart rises and my heart falls as I start to realise how far I have come and how far I have yet to go. There is honesty within these pages. There is hope. There is despair. This is a heart on open display. This is human existence revealed. This is the route for human discovery and for human existence. Within the journal there is revealed a map. It is a journey. It is a journalisation journey.

As every day is recorded in your journal it projects the humanity of the writer onto the page. You listen to their cries. You relate to their pains. You rejoice with their successes. You cringe at their defeats. You admire their tenacity. You’re amazed at how short their memory is. You wonder at their confusion, but yet you marvel at their willingness to get up, dust off and try, try, try again.

A WAVE OF EMOTION ENCASED ME…

After writing the above I was moved so much by the fact that I had discovered some long lost desires that I’d recorded that I had to go for a walk. The night air was cool and refreshing as I walked along, but a wave of emotion encased me at one point as I reviewed some of the things I had just read in one of my journals.

My utter humanity had been exposed. Deep down I know that I’m a winner, and yet in reading some of my accounts, some of my goals and some of my dreams, I was blatantly made aware of the fact that many of my dreams had not as yet come to pass. I was stirred. I was spurred. I was challenged to reconsider some of the thoughts I had dared to write down.

I had dared to consider success. I had dared to dream dreams bigger than I had previously ever imagined.

So, is that one of the reasons why keeping a journal is such a powerful part of revealing your personal uniqueness?

Brian Sher, in his book ‘What Rich People Know & Desperately Want To Keep A Secret’ writes, ‘ Be unique or be nothing at all.’ He goes on to write, ‘that being unique means making the conscious and definite choice to go against the grain and risk sticking your neck out.’ He adds, ‘Your uniqueness is what makes you stand out.’ His reference is in relation to having a unique business, but the principles apply to personal uniqueness as well. He encourages his readers to find their uniqueness, ‘develop it and use it every day. Successful people know the power of uniqueness and make sure they use it.’

It is my experience that in keeping a journal that you will be embarking on a journey of discovering your personal uniqueness. There is something mystical about putting words directly onto a blank sheet of paper. There is clarification. There is enlightenment and there is a finetuning that occurs by simply putting pen to paper in your journal.

I challenge you to keep a journal. By doing so on a regular basis, new worlds will open before you as you discover who you really are.

Motivational Quote: Your journalisation journey begins with the first written word.