It Took Me Nearly 4 Years to Know how to Answer this Question
I journal every night before I go to bed. I don’t do it for any gain or self-improvement. It’s for my own personal growth. It clears the mind, it makes you think, re-evaluate, and reflect and as someone great once said.’ We don’t learn from experience, we learn from reflection on experience. 'I don’t know who said that but it’s grounded in truth and that’s what I’m in search of, when I lay in bed and just write about the day that happened, my truth.
I’ve been doing it since April 2020 when Covid-19 was just starting to peak and take over the world. A family friend of mine recommended I start journaling so I went to the local stationary store, bought myself a black journal and a black pen and when the day was coming to a close I marked the day and decided to start writing about the day.
It’s become such a habit now… it’s a ritual, I have to do it. Yes, I can stop at any time… but the day won’t be completed without it, it will feel like I’m missing something, that I haven’t personally completed the day and reviewed.
That’s what journalling is for me, reviewing. Some people it’s to write down their feelings, thoughts, ideas, deepest darkest secrets or words they regret they never said to a loved one. There are no rules to journaling, go and make your own.
I subscribe to the Stoic Philosopher of Ancient Rome’s way to journal at the end of the day. Put The Day up for Review. Seneca, whom I’m referring to expresses that ‘reviewing our actions is the key to living the good life.
There are 4 questions I ask myself every night. I have it written on the front so I can internalise them.
Did I follow my plans for the day?
Was I prepared enough?
What could I do better?
What have I learned that will help me tomorrow?
Since I started journaling I could always answer 3 out of the 4 questions with confidence… but, I always struggled with one of them, to answer clearly with closure and confidence. That was number 2. ‘Was I prepared enough?’, it’s such an open-ended question I didn’t know where to begin. I’d do my best at answering it but I never felt like I really REALLY answered the question well. Until recently….
In the past 2 weeks, there was a night I was journalling and I was pondering over this question for a solid 5 minutes and then it hit me… right back to Steve Jobs's quote, “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards…”
I couldn’t believe it… I know how to answer this question now, forever. Connect the dots looking backwards, look at the outcome and go and work backwards from where I started the day, ‘Where did I fall short?’
And now I’m able to answer the question fully each time with a full answer.
It took me nearly 4 years of journalling to do this question justice. But now I have this knowledge, for life. It may have seemed to take a long time in your eyes. Perhaps I wasn’t the person I needed to be to answer this question fully. Now I must be because this 4ish year's journey or finally figuring it out turned me into the person most likely ready to answer something like this with clarity, confidence, conviction and certainty, every time, every night.
The Compound Effect is real. It’s one of the most powerful invisible forces and it applies to everything in life. Don’t get in it’s way. Get out of its way and watch the magic happen.
Just be along for the ride.
If I can do it. You can do it too.
Until next time,
Brody
PS
“When the light has been removed and my wife has fallen silent, aware of this habit that’s now mine, I examine my entire day and go back over what I’ve done and said, hiding nothing from myself, passing nothing by.” - Seneca
“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” - Steve Jobs (Full Quote)
