On March 20th, a few weeks into the pandemic when we had no clue of the extent, I took out a large journal and began writing in it each morning to capture these moments while in the middle of them. Allowing thoughts and ideas to flow onto the page with no rules, judgment or editing.
In addition, I started posting daily on my other blog Cast-Light and have a 58 day streak going. Neither are perfect, but the daily practice of starting is leading to improvement and progress. If I waited to hit the “publish” button until I achieved perfection, the pages would still be blank. Ideas, insights and inspiration are rooted in messy first drafts that evolve into final-enough versions.
In his book Stillness is the Key, Ryan Holiday writes about the value of journaling, “To silence the barking dogs in your head. To prepare for the day ahead. To reflect on the day that passed. Take note of insights you’ve heard. Take time to feel wisdom flow through your fingertips and onto the page. This is what the best journals look like. They aren’t for the reader. They are for the writer. To slow the mind down. To wage peace with oneself.”
These daily habits have helped me stay positive overall as well as opened space to do some deep work each day. Intention, attention and effort merge to create the whole from seemingly disparate pieces. When we allow the creative process to ensue and unfold, it leads us in unfamiliar but familiar directions to discern new patterns in the same, to make fresh connections in what already is present right now. When we enter this state of quiet and reflection, the unnoticed gets noticed, resulting in perspective and gratitude.
In Atomic Habits, author James Clear states that habits follow the same 3–step pattern:
Reminder (the trigger that initiates the behavior);
Routine (the behavior itself; the action you take);
Reward (the benefit you gain from doing the behavior).
My daily journal is next to my bed and before my feet hit the floor, I open it and writing begins. Before calling it a night, the post goes up on Cast-Light with reflections, quotes and quips to cull the lessons available in ordinary moments. There are nights when I’m tired and want to go to bed but the habit doesn’t allow it until I post.
By starting each day writing in my journal and posting daily on Cast-Light, I’ve created specific routines and commitments to initiate the behavior. My current commitment for Start3Things is to post an article weekly, update the website regularly and re-post relevant resources on my Facebook page daily. It’s not where I want it to be yet and I am aware that it is a process. Action creates clarity. From broad to narrow, abstract to concrete, theory to practice, it will come together to make sense.
“Practice yourself, for heaven's sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.” – Epictetus
As I finished the pages in my “pandemic” journal today, I never imagined that I would fill a book and how therapeutic the activity would be on my outlook and mindset. I hesitated with my entries the past few mornings knowing that I was close to finishing. While I will start a new journal tomorrow and will continue the daily practice, the finishing marks transition, pivoting and starting again with the mystery of another blank slate, moving from the familiar into the unfamiliar, precisely where learning and growth reside.
If you’re stuck at the start line or just before the finish line, start three things each day to keep moving so the road can become clearer with momentum and motion. When we anchor ourselves in daily habits, we move into new possibilities, mastery and closer to the finish line.
“The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. Christopher McCandless