Dear Diary... What do Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, and Virginia Woolf all have in common? They all kept journals. In fact, many of history’s most celebrated figures journaled long before science connected journaling with personal
Dear Diary... What do Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, and Virginia Woolf all have in common? They all kept journals. In fact, many of history’s most celebrated figures journaled long before science connected journaling with personal growth and learning enhancement. However, traditional journaling isn’t for everyone. If you hit a wall every time you try to put pen to paper, or worry you’ll have to burn your journal when you’re done, there are other ways you, too, can enjoy the benefits of journaling.
How to Journal if You
Apps like Day One for iOS or Journey for Android are perfect for recording your thoughts quickly. Journaling apps are as easy as scrolling down social media, but they can be locked for your eyes only. Integrate written segments with photos to create entries you can reflect on from your phone, tablet, or computer. Record Quotes Quotes are special because they capture a profound feeling in just a few words. By recording some of your favorite quotes, you’re able to capture those feelings and reflect on why they resonate with you. Include quotes from historical figures, books, song lyrics, something you heard waiting in line at the coffee shop, or some of the “darndest things” your kids say. Collect Photos
The advent of camera phones made capturing life’s precious memories easy, but more often than not, those precious memories
‘Failing Forward’ John C. Maxwell’s Steps for Turning Mistakes Into Stepping Stones
Thinking, “I am a failure.”
“The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to … failure.”
Failing Forward: •
People often fail. Even the most successful people in history, from the Wright brothers and Amelia Earhart to Arnold Palmer and Sergio Zyman, have been failures at some point in their lives. So, what’s the difference between the failures of a celebrated writer like George Bernard Shaw and the failures of a writer who never published a single word? As John C. Maxwell can tell you, while the average person lets their failures knock them backward, successful people fail forward. In his book “Failing Forward: Steps for Turning Mistakes Into Stepping Stones,” Maxwell illustrates how positivity and growth can accompany any negative experience, if you’re willing to learn from it. According to Maxwell, people can either fail backward and learn nothing, or they can fail forward and gain new insight and experience. He challenges readers to determine how they approach failure by examining these traits. Failing Backward: • Blaming others for failure. • Repeating the same mistakes. • Blindly accepting tradition. • Expecting to fail continuously or to never fail again. • Limited by past mistakes.
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Learning from past mistakes. Maintaining a positive attitude. Challenging outdated assumptions. Recognizing failure as part of the learning process.
Taking new risks.
It’s not hard to understand why someone who insists on failing backward will always find success out of reach. The act of failing itself is far less important than how we respond to our own failures. If you see yourself failing backward, don’t be too hard on yourself and don’t let this realization feel like another failure. In 15 steps, Maxwell teaches his readers how to go from fearing failure to embracing it and moving forward. I recommend this book to everyone because, let’s be honest here, every one of us has failed or will fail at something. And this is a good thing! As Maxwell points out, “If you're not failing, you're probably not really moving forward.” So, move forward — by first failing forward.
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