It will be six years since I started my leadership blog. I had often read blog posts online and wondered if I would ever / could ever start one of my own. And here I am, I feel successful, mostly because I jotted down key life lessons.
The pace of our work moves quite rapidly. You get up at 5 and immediately start your morning routine. You say to yourself "Hey - I might actually leave for work by 6" and the next thing you know it's 6:30. Then at work it's churn churn churn until the clock strikes 4. You rush home. Dinner on the table, baby fed, toys splattered across the floor. Then 10PM rolls around and you sit in your office saying "what happened today? Or better yet - what's happened in the last year?"
Often times, we lose sight of the day. We fail to jot down lessons or reflect on what we did. We fail to make time for "whitespace" where we can just strategically stop to breath and innovate. So when I stopped tonight to read my first post from July 2012, I thanked myself for writing it down. And I appreciate you writing it down as well.
People come to me for advice and if you're one of those people, you would have heard me say "just write it down." So here it is again - Write it down.
Just Start Writing
I couldn't sleep tonight. I spent over an hour on Facebook catching up on my news feed, which I rarely do and asked myself - what's on my mind? I'm told it's difficult to journal but all you have to do is write. Whether it's in your notebook (on paper or on your electronic device), writing out words helps you internalize all that you have encountered throughout the day.
It doesn't need to be Shakespearean. Just write words. The words will turn into sentences and the sentences will turn into stories.
You will be amazed what you come up with.
Be Purposeful When You Need To Be
I learned through various development training sessions some techniques to get me through rough patches. If it's a life change or I feel "stuck" I tend to turn to more purposeful writing sessions. Most of these you won't see on my blog but it's a tool that helps me overcome a challenge.
For example, if I'm struggling with something but I cannot pin point what it is, I write out all the good and not so good things going on. I smile at the good and feel blessed and then do some more work on the not so good. I start by categorizing what I can and cannot control.
For the items I can control, I write out short term and long term objectives. For the things I can't, I write them on a separate piece of paper and say "Good Riddance." I don't throw it out but rather tuck it away. They are real issues but they are not issues I can do something about, so why focus my time and efforts on them?
Other purposeful writing sessions tend to be around career growth. When choosing my path, I learned to not only write out what you want to do but rather what you don't ever want to do. It's okay to map out where you don't want to go and why, so when the opportunity comes knocking, you can be true to yourself.
Share Your Learnings
In 2012, I was selected to be in a leadership program for approximately a year. They handed out these really nice executive notebooks and said "Great leaders journal." I went home that night and wrote that down. And that was the only thing I wrote down. So, I found my own style to fulfill that task. During the day or after a long week, I would box out a space in my notebook to write out some thoughts. Good learnings or not so good responses. I also had a personal notebook stashed in the back corner of my closet for my emotions or other non-work related things.
Then one day, I logged onto Blogger and wrote about "It's Just Noise." Not only did I publish my learning, but it stuck with me. Since that day, if something falls off my desk or someone coughs during my presentation, I keep going. It was an odd learning but one I felt I needed to share. And I did.
Sometimes we think we need to write as if someone is going to read it. But that's not always the case. Journaling has gotten me through different speed bumps on this road called life.
I share this with you because I had a story to tell. A story about a girl who just wanted to write about her day but wanted others to benefit from it. Hopefully for the better.
Photo credit: http://www.masscommunicationtalk.com/news-writing-editorial-writing-column-writing-and-feature-writing.html
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