Journaling and Mindfulness
Record I'm Listening To: The Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest
Beer I'm Enjoying: Gipps St Pale Ale - Stomping Ground Brewery
My early journals currently reside in a tightly sealed box, safely stored away under a family friend's house in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I've written in too many now to have justified bringing them all with me when we moved back to Melbourne three months ago. They're just too heavy to cart all the way around the world until we know where home will eventually be. I wish I had my first one right now though, because the entry on the first page details my enthusiasm for starting to write reflectively, inter-twined with my doubts that I would stick with it for longer than a few days.
I was inspired at a sales training workshop in 2016 during my early personal training days to start a journal by the instructor. I remember being so captivated by his charisma (he referred to himself as K-Man). The day wasn't at all what I expected from sales training. Perhaps the most profound thing he said that day was,
"People hate to be sold stuff. But they love to buy. So become buyable".
It was an indirect approach to sales, encouraging one to go slow, really learn their craft, and up-skill themselves to attract business, as opposed to simply forcing or pushing a product or service on someone. As a shy introvert, this really resonated with me. Additionally, K-Man mentioned that the most important books on his bookshelf were his journals, serving as an important medium to help him hone his craft. That was good enough for me to begin the habit. Eight years later and I'm still doing it.
What's ironic, is that I had no idea what I was looking for when writing in my journals. I began by writing about the day. Over time, this evolved into goal setting and note taking from books and podcasts. It took about six months before I started to feel like it was doing something, and even then, I couldn't say what. It was only when I stopped writing for a stretch of time that I really began to notice its effectiveness. Writing felt good. Not writing didn't.
What I've realised in hindsight, is that writing in a journal is a powerful mindfulness practice. In my case, I only write about observations that feel good. What I observed initially, is that I began to gravitate more towards these feel-good inducing things such as profound ideas in books I wanted to expand upon (which had an indirect effect of fostering a strong reading habit), beers I particularly enjoyed, or memorable days out with friends and family. As I became more aware of the effect writing was having, it became less a matter of gravitating toward than deliberately seeking out and therein lies the mindfulness. Because I typically begin the morning with writing, this practice ends up having a positive flow-on effect into the rest of the day.
I often still sit with the idea of becoming buyable. This too is mindfulness because attention must be placed on characteristics or skills one wants to improve and requires self-reflection. But the meaning has evolved considerably since I was a twenty-three year old personal trainer right at the beginning of my career. Today I think about being a good son, husband, father, family member and friend, and so the concept of being buyable in this context has much less to do with literally being buyable. Today I think of it more as, how can I be the best version of myself for my family and friends and set a good example for my son? It's just as mindful because the principles are the same. As a trainer in the early days I was enamoured with productivity and personal development, cramming as much as I could into each and every day. In my defense, the timing was appropriate for this back then, but that's another story. Today, I'm far more interested in doing a small handful of things to the best of my ability and ensuring there's abundant time for the important relationships in my life. Journaling and being mindful are integral components for this, lest I get sucked into an autopilot style of busyness that distracts from the important things. How often do we hear stories of people who neglect their health for the sake of their job? Or allow important relationships to become subordinated to lesser things? Perhaps I would have come to this realisation anyway, but by making time to write in a mindful way, I can guarantee that it's regularly at the forefront of my mind.