Prompt-a-Day Journal Pages for the week of September 12-18

Hello fellow journalers!

Next week's prompt-a-day journal pages are all ready to go and I'm thrilled to share them with you.

They include a new lightning round, a non sequitur edition this time, which was such fun to write. You might find the combinations to be a little odd, but I hope they'll take your thoughts in new directions. There's even a chance to create a couple of non sequitur pairs of your own! (And if you're up for it, let me know what you come up with and I'll tell you my choices.)

The prompts are similarly wide in scope, from your to-do list on Monday, to your personal strengths on Wednesday, to world events on Friday. All are opportunities to bring unique parts of yourself to your journal and to reflect on the choices you make every day. As always, I hope you'll find new and exciting insights in your journal.

You can download next week's prompt-a-day journal pages here or by clicking on the photo above.

Best wishes and happy journaling!

P.S. I'm also sending out next sets of pages on Thursdays with my newsletter. If you'd like to have them delivered right to your inbox a day early, you can subscribe to my newsletter right here.

Prompt-a-day Journal Pages

A journal is many things. It is a keepsake, a source of inspiration, a repository of wisdom and hard won experience, a record of growth and development, and -- for me this key -- a tool for positive action.

Over time, my approach to writing journal prompts has evolved, I hope, to encompass each of these things -- along with a few surprises here and there when the mood strikes! Journaling has been, and continues to be, a tremendously useful tool for my own growth and development and, as always, I'm eager to share my thoughts and journal prompts with you.

It's been a while since I've written regularly in this space and I'd like to spend more time here. So, for the next several weeks, to give myself a new writing challenge and to give you an opportunity to visit and share your thoughts on journaling, I'll be posting a series of prompt-a-day printable journal pages.

Each week I'll upload a file with two letter-sized pages, which will include one prompt per day plus a bonus -- I'm thinking that's where most of my lightning rounds will end up! I'm a day late to begin this week, but upcoming sets will be posted on the Friday preceding the week ahead. Let's try it out for the month of September and see how it goes! Let me know what you think, so I can tweak as we go.

You can download this week's prompt-a-day journal pages here or by clicking on the photo above.

Best wishes and happy journaling!

Journaling your goals - Parts 5 and 6

Parts 5 and 6 are up! These are the last two newsletters in my journal series on goal setting and they are all about tracking your progress toward your goals (Part 5) and troubleshooting if you get stuck along the way (Part 6).

As you journal your goals, take a moment to reflect on the strategies that are working for you, to celebrate each completed step, and to look forward to the steps to come with Goal Setter Journal Page - Part 5:

And if you find yourself a little stuck along the way, don't give up! Instead approach difficult moments the same way you approach your goals, one step at a time, with Goal Setter Journal Page -- Part 6:

And here we are! It's the end of another journal series. If you have any questions about my Goal Setter journal pages or would just like to chat about them, I'd love to hear from you. You can leave a comment on this post or email me anytime. I promise to write back!

The next newsletter goes out this Thursday. I'm moving on from goal setting with a fun new printable featuring two brand new lightning rounds. (I've missed lightning rounds. Have you?) If you'd like to have this week's newsletter delivered straight to your inbox, click here to subscribe.

Best wishes and happy journaling!

Journaling your goals - Parts 3 and 4

Parts 3 and 4 are up! The latest newsletters in my ongoing journal series on goal setting tackle confidence and commitment (Part 3) and your steps to success (Part 4).

Did you know that confident goal setters are more committed to their goals, use more effective strategies to achieve them, put forth greater effort, persevere longer, and are more resilient to failure?

Boost your confidence with the Goal Setter Journal Page -- Part 3:

When you're ready to take action, write a list of the steps you'll take to achieve your goal. Then, here's the trick: take those steps and break them down into even smaller steps. After that, you might even want to think about breaking them down again.

This is my rule of thumb: if I look at my next step and think, "Ugh. I'm not sure I can or want to do that," the step is too big. I divide the Ugh-I-can't-do-that step into several smaller steps so I can get moving right away, rather than stalling my progress by procrastinating on an action I don't want to take.

It works! Give it a try.

I'm putting the finishing touches on this week's newsletter, which is all about tracking your progress toward your goal. If you'd like to have it delivered straight to your inbox, click here to subscribe.

Best wishes and happy journaling!

Journaling your goals - part 1

It's up! The first page of my new journal series went out with my newsletter last Thursday and I thought I'd talk about it a bit here, too, since journaling and goal setting are such happy partners.

For me, the first step to journaling your goals is the Pre-Goal Consultation (with yourself). It's your chance to get to know your goals, to organize and prioritize them, and ultimately, to decide which goals you are passionate about pursuing and committed to achieving.

It all starts with a simple, yet time-honoured journaling technique: the list. Start by writing a list of the things you want to accomplish. Then, evaluate your list, looking for connections, opportunities, and priorities.

With a little time and consideration, you'll be well on your way to completing the Pre-Goal Consultation (with yourself) (free of charge!). You'll have written down and critically reviewed your goals. That is truly the first step.

Because these will likely be complex matters, your goals. They won't always be easy and they won't necessarily present themselves with obvious courses of action or clear solutions. But don't let the challenge deter you. You are the driving force here and that is a very good thing. You are not a bystander in your life; you are an active participant. You get to decide which goals to pursue, how you will pursue them, and what success will look like.

Your journal will be the perfect place for the purposeful reflection that will help you achieve your goals. It will be a valuable tool along the way.

If you missed it the first newsletter, you can find it here. You can also sign up to have next week's newsletter delivered straight to your inbox (top left corner of the newsletter page). I can't wait to share the next page!

Best wishes and happy journaling!

Journaling your goals - a new journal page series

Journaling and goal setting go together like peanut butter and jelly, like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and like, umm, other things that go really well together.

What I'm trying to say here is your journal is an ideal place for the purposeful reflection that effective goal setting demands. It's so much easier to manage your goals when they're written down, all in one place, where you can record your progress, develop new strategies for managing the inevitable bumps in the road, and plan for the next steps forward.

For last week's newsletter, I was going to write about the benefits of journaling your goals, but after writing several paragraphs, I realized I had more than one newsletter's worth of research. I considered expanding the article to three parts, but it just wasn't right, so I started over.

This time, instead of writing the newsletter -- sorry about that! -- I opened up Illustrator and started a new journal page. It was super-helpful to think in terms of prompts and to break down the process step by step. (I also took the opportunity to throw in a bunch of equally super-helpful doodle borders. Doodles make everything better.)

The result is a new and unfolding journal page series on Journaling Your Goals. The first page, the Pre-Goal Consultation, along with lots of thoughts and suggestions for your journals, will appear in this Thursday's newsletter.

Beyond that, I've planned for five more pages that will take you through prioritizing your goals, thinking them through, and tracking your progress.

See you over at the newsletter on Thursday!

P.S. If you'd like to subscribe, you can click here to sign up. (You'll also be able to check out my archive, which includes lots of good reasons to journal!)

Word of the Year

If you decided to choose one word or idea to give you inspiration in the year ahead, what would it be?

Debra Dane, the wonderfully creative, energetic, and passionate artist at the helm of Inner Compass Designs has invited me to contribute some guided journaling materials to the Word of the Year Facebook Group she has created for 2016. She has been an amazing supporter and source of wisdom since we crossed paths years ago over the internet, and I jumped at the opportunity to work with her. I'll be creating some special pages, starting in April, to give group members a fun way to check in with their words and their progress throughout the year.

When I took a good look at my goals for the year, I knew exactly what my word would be: growth.

This year, I am working toward increasing the number and variety of journal products in my shop, increasing my reach, and ultimately, toward increasing my income, both through the shop and through consultation outside of the shop. In order to achieve the targets I've set, I'll need to grow in other ways as well -- as a business person, as a journaler, as a collaborator, as a parent and partner with a lot on her plate, and probably in a whole bunch of other ways I haven't considered.

What I like about the word growth, in addition to the idea of increasing in size, are its other inherent attributes. It is incremental, which is a wonderful way to pursue one's goals, and it involves development, which I'll definitely need to engage in along the way as challenges become ever more complex and require more creative solutions.

Journaling will be a huge part of my year of growth. Setting goals, developing strategies for facing challenges, checking in to gauge my progress, celebrating my successes, gathering resources -- these subjects will all find their way into my journal, my handy tool for positive action.

Debra's Word of the Year group is open to anyone who'd like to try their hand at choosing a guiding word for the year and share the support of others who have chosen their own inspirational words. If that sounds like your cup of tea, hop on over and check it out! She has a whole roster of fabulous contributors lined up and a schedule filled with creative activities.

So, if you could choose a guiding word to inspire you in the year ahead (or the month ahead, or even for today), what would it be?

A newsletter and a new guided journal series -- all in one

What is your general approach to life? What drives you? What are you really good at? What are the moments you never, ever want to forget? What makes you smile on even the darkest day? How do you decide what's important and what can be disregarded? How do you use your voice in the world? How do you convince yourself to keep at it when nothing seems to be working? How do you celebrate your successes?

It's certainly trite to say that it's trite to say that life is complicated . . . but it is. Complicated, I mean. And even so, a certain amount of complication is good. It keeps things interesting. It keeps us on our toes. It forces us to rise to challenges and make good use of our many strengths (and then to feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment when we do.) But complicated lives require navigational tools. And if you know me at all, you'll know that I recommend a good journaling session every now and then to check in, poke around, gauge progress, brainstorm and make plans.

I fiercely believe that journaling is a tool for positive and constructive action and this forms the foundation for a new project I'll be starting next week: a newsletter. I'll be sharing updates, journaling tips and works in progress. I'll also occasionally include new guided journal printables before they're available anywhere else.

To start things off, each week for the first ten weeks, I'll be sharing a new page from a free, printable series that asks the question, Why journal? In it, I'll give you ten good reasons to give journaling a try. (If you've already given journaling a try, I hope this series will spark new and fun ways to approach your journals.)

Here's a pic of the first page, Good Reason #1:

If you'd like to subscribe to my newsletter, simply click here to be taken to the signup form. Alternatively, you can click the button at the top of the right sidebar of my website.

I hope you'll join me for this new adventure in guided journaling!

New journals in the shop and a bit of creative experimentation, too!

One of the very best things about journaling is that there are no limits. You can write as much or a little as you like. You can draw, you can collage, you can make audio of video recordings. You can delve deeply into the mysteries of your soul one day and record point-form snippets about nothing in particular the next.

I am in love with the possibilities that journaling brings. I love the search for meaning. I love gathering up all of the ideas and values that are most important to me and looking at them from as many different perspectives as possible. Most of all, I love the surprises, the discoveries about myself and the world around me, that happen along the way.

I strive to bring all of these elements to each of my guided journals and I'm thrilled to let you know that I've recently added a new spiral-bound journal to the collection in my Etsy shop -- Volume 4!

I've also been experimenting with the idea of adding a little something extra to a small number of my spiral-bound journals: a little piece of original artwork in the form of a hand-lettered quote (painted in gouache by me!) and an accompanying, hand-painted (and secret!) prompt -- all tucked into an envelope inside the back cover.

No extra charge, just a personal touch, created with care, from me to you.

These two sets were early attempts. Just to sort out how it might work:

After that, I created two more sets with two different quotes and I've just put them in the shop. (In the first one, the quote and the prompt are a surprise!)

I've called them Special Edition journals and you can find them here and here. If this is something you'd like to see more of, please let me know -- I'll get out my paint and paper and create additional listings.

Wishing you lots of inspiration in your journals and your travels,
Christie

Sticky notes

I've been thinking a lot about the ideas that inspire me to journal. One day, not too long ago, in order to sort through them, I got out a bunch of sticky notepads and started writing.

It began simply enough with the words discovery, connection, and thoughts into action (up in top left corner of the photo) and, quite unexpectedly, a sticky note mosaic sprung to life on the wall behind my desk. It's not a permanent installation, as each square is doing its darnedest to peel itself from the wall, but it has been a welcome (and colourful) reminder of the many possibilities that every journal holds -- as a place to experiment with new ideas, commit and re-commit to projects new and old, work through fears, build courage, play with colour and curiosity, and to create an enduring record of the experiences in between. All of them, opportunities to inspire.

A new journal

I made a new journal!

It's spiral bound and a little bigger than my two previous pocket journals; it's 5.5" x 7" whereas my pocket journals are 4.25" x 5.5".

It's 40 pages long and full of brand new prompts, including a new category of pause and reflect prompts in which you build upon your responses to earlier prompts. (These are my new favourite prompts. I love looking back and looking deeper. Lots of wisdom to be found within.)

I put together two photo montages, to show you a selection of the new prompts. You might notice that the design is a little different from my pocket journals and printables. I took a detour from hand-lettering and created all of my doodles and borders without my pen tablet. It was such fun to take a new direction and I'm really happy with the results. (My next project for the blog involves the pen tablet and a return to hand lettering.)

With this new journal and a couple of new projects in mind for the blog and the shop, I'm going to try, once again, to spend a little more time here and on Facebook and Twitter. I've been back to Pinterest lately and I'd forgotten how inspiring it is to see all of the amazing ideas and beautiful work out there.

Over the past few months, I've been trying my hand at developing an in-person workshop that combines journaling and goal setting. I've delivered it a handful of times and, to be quite honest, I'm not sure where it's headed. There are parts that feel really promising and parts that don't. I'm working on streamlining it and making it as impactful as possible. My primary goal for the workshop is to deliver a course of material that truly inspires people to create, document, actively pursue, and ultimately achieve the goals that matter to them. I'm not quite there yet, so, for now, I'm still plugging away.

I underestimate, at times, how very difficult it can be to launch our ideas out into the world -- to test them and defend them and accept criticism of them and work to improve them. It's exhausting and confidence battering (even confidence obliterating), and yet entirely worth the effort. I look warily forward to more challenges to come.

Let every day be worthy

Flipping back through my collection of diary excerpts relating to the subject of why we journal, I happened upon this one . . .

William Lyon Mackenzie King, who would one day become Canada's 10th Prime Minister (and whose image also now appears on our $50 bill), wrote in his diary on September 6, 1893 at age 18:

"This diary is to contain a very brief sketch of the events, actions, feelings and thoughts of my daily life. It must above all be a true and faithful account. The chief object of my keeping this diary is that I may be ashamed to let even one day have nothing worthy of its showing, and it is hoped that through its pages the reader may be able to trace how the author has sought to improve his time." (From Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Library and Archives Canada)

This excerpt relates very directly to my own thoughts these days -- the acute desire to improve my time and not let even one day slip by without accomplishing a worthy deed.

I'm making good progress on my side project, a new set of journal materials related to goal setting. As I've read and sketched and drawn up new prompts, I've been exploring the fundamental connection between journaling and the pursuit of one's goals.

The connection isn't new, of course, but I'm truly enjoying sorting it out in my own way, creating my very own recipe for goal achievement through journaling. In addition to my usual journal themes and prompts, I've been thinking about purposeful, deliberate forward direction. I've been thinking about how to create a plan for achieving your goals that you'll want to dive into, with everything you've got, right now. That is the key. That is my goal for this set and I can't wait to share it with you.


Previous journal excerpts:
C.S. Lewis
Ralph Waldo Emerson 
Virginia Woolf
Sir Walter Scott
Siegfried Sassoon
Alice James
Sofia Tolstoy

Work in progress

I've assigned myself a journal-related side project that carries all the hallmarks of a good goal -- it's specific, difficult and time-limited. Over the last several weeks, I've been reading research papers and textbooks, gathering facts and figures, and making detailed outlines. It's slowly moving forward and, one day soon, I'm confident it will come together nicely and I'll be able to share it with the world.

Right now, however, it's a bit of a jumbled mess -- in my mind's eye and in my notes. I think this doodle from yesterday pretty much sums it up -- a little bit of everything, none of it quite complete, one thing right on top of the next.

Ever feel like that?

Pattern doodles

Doodled some patterns while I was thinking a little more about goals and journals, trying to fit it all together so that I can put something of value down on paper. Almost there, I think.

I loved making all those dots and lines -- so much so that I think I'll try it again next time!

Journal writing when we're sad?

I mentioned on Tuesday that I'd been reading up on goal setting theory. At one point, I was working my way through a chapter on goal pursuit when I came across a paragraph containing the following two sentences:

“Sad mood has been found to facilitate problem solving and signals a need for changing the status quo. ... These studies imply that sad mood supports the generation of self-regulation strategies that lead to wise commitment to potential goals.”*

I didn't know that. In my notes, after the above quote, I wrote, "Huh! Who'd have thought?"

Just then a diary excerpt popped to mind. It was one that I had noted, but had decided not to use because it seemed a bit depressing for a light-hearted blog post. It was this one:

“My diary again. It’s sad to be going back to old habits I gave up since I got married. I used to write when I felt depressed – now I suppose it’s for the same reason.” (Sofia Tolstoy, Russian diarist and wife of novelist Leo Tolstoy, October 8, 1862, age 18)**

Possibly it's just me, and this may already be quite obvious, but learning something new about problem solving while sad and remembering the diary excerpt made something click for me.

Do you ever have the impulse to journal when you're upset or down? I certainly do. Perhaps, deep down (or right there on the surface), that impulse to journal represents more than the simple desire to vent or despair, but also the desire to solve a problem that we know needs solving. Perhaps these are the moments when one's journal becomes more than a record of events. Perhaps these are the moments when journaling offers a unique opportunity to think on paper, to put challenges into perspective, to clarify our aims, to determine the best manner in which to move in the direction of our goals. Perhaps these are the moments when we are reminded that journaling can be a powerful tool for transformative change.

It's definitely something I'll be thinking about in the journal entries to come. 


* From New Developments in Goal Setting and Task Performance, edited by Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham, p. 527-8

** From The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy, English language translation and Introduction by Cathy Porter

Back and forth

I've been reading up on some of the recent research on goal setting theory. At one point today, I was flipping through pages and thinking about other things entirely when I came across an unexpected parallel between a bit of research and a couple of the diary excerpts I've found. (At least I think it's a parallel -- possibly I've imagined a link where none actually exists.) It has to do with the way people set goals when they're feeling sad. I needed to think about it a little, so I doodled.

And then I ran out of time. As it turns out, there are violins to practice and sports schedules to be kept. Looking forward to writing a little more about this tomorrow!

Doodling and thinking, thinking and doodling

Got out my watercolours so I could think a little.

I'm thinking that I may have overdone it with the journal excerpts. Except I can't even tell you how fascinating I find them. I was hoping that posting them as I encountered them might help me to make sense of them and, at the same time, offer an interesting journal-related tidbit or two.

If there is one common theme I've noticed, it's how the journal keepers seem to intend for their entries to turn their inner thoughts/dialogues/narratives into tangible things. (Perhaps so that they can pick them up, take a good look at them, identify shapes and patterns, put them in order, and maybe even start to take control of them?) They talk about creating a deep old desk, a receptacle, a tablet. Days have movement, and emotions and sensations are geysers.

In my own journals and here on the blog, I often feel like I'm grasping at something I urgently need to figure out, and I can almost touch it, but not quite. Like some of the journalers in the previous posts, I hope that when I look back, it will all miraculously make sense. Sometimes, when I look back, I do see a pattern and I can start to understand why I went this way or that. Then I can evaluate whether it was a good choice and whether I can chart a better course going forward. When that happens, I feel a little less lost, I feel a sense of purpose, which is a welcome relief from the ever-present intensity of forging one's own path in the world.

So what's next? I'm not entirely sure at this moment, but I'll keep moving forward (probably with fewer quotes from old journal entries) and keep looking back for clues and good ideas and new paths.

An outlet to that geyser of emotions, sensations, speculations and reflections

American diarist Alice James wrote in her diary on May 31, 1889 at age 40:

“I think that if I get into the habit of writing a bit about what happens, or rather doesn’t happen, I may lose a little of the sense of loneliness and desolation which abides with me. …[I]t may bring relief as an outlet to that geyser of emotions, sensations, speculations and reflections which ferments perpetually within my poor old carcass for its sins; so here goes, my first Journal!”

From The Diary of Alice James, edited by Leon Edel

Previous journal excerpts:
C.S. Lewis
Ralph Waldo Emerson 
Virginia Woolf
Sir Walter Scott
Siegfried Sassoon 

Hasty and passionate scrawlings

English poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote in his diary on January 8, 1921 at age 34:

“For I want this to be a readable book, a memorial of vanished days, a consoling reminder of delights and speculations and disappointments, things which can no longer be regretted or remade.

At this moment I am paralysed by the excellence of my pen and paper. I am scared of making a blot on the first page. Nevertheless I am aware of the futility of diaries written (or composed) with laboured care. Self-revelation eludes such a plodding pursuit.

Let there be hasty and passionate scrawlings, exaggerated and cautious gropings after truth, or over-meticulous recordings of names, places, conversations, and episodes; but never an apparent pause for the most effective phrase, or the least hint that the diarist has an eye on his possible audience."

A little further on in the same entry, he wrote:

"Blast this journal, it is as pompous as hell already.”

From Siegfried Sassoon Diaries, 1920-1922, Siegfried Sassoon

Previous journal excerpts:
C.S. Lewis
Ralph Waldo Emerson 
Virginia Woolf
Sir Walter Scott

I wish the zeal may but last

I love today's quote so much that I made a little watercolour note of it in my sketchbook.

Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott wrote in his journal on November 21, 1825 at age 54:

"I am enamoured of my journal. I wish the zeal may but last."

Wishing you much zeal in the keeping of your journal!

Previous journal excerpts:
C.S. Lewis
Ralph Waldo Emerson 
Virginia Woolf