Nuggets from my own journals: A sneak peek

Over the past month I have been discussing the importance of getting into the habit of writing a daily journal to crystallise your ideas and thoughts. I hope I have been able to get through at least to some of you.

So I thought that today I will share some glimpses into my own journals that I have kept over the years. To do that I skimmed my old journals and it was so interesting in other ways. As I turned the pages I realised how I had matured as a person and a business woman. Let's see what nuggets I unearthed.

My WIP memoir

These were the first lines of my 2013 journal – yes, that old!!

We are what our teachers were. Our personalities are shaped by the teachers who have taught us, especially in school. 

After this I ended up writing about my history teacher in school, which is a part of my planned memorial tracking my journey since class 11th.

On entrepreneurship

And then, this one is pure gold because I talk about the inherent advantages and disadvantages of being a first-generation entrepreneur.

Why do people start a business venture in which they have seen other people fail? It was good we started with a near zero capital; we never had the money to make expensive mistakes. Being a first generation entrepreneur has its drawbacks. The first and foremost being lack of experience and elderly wisdom to draw upon. And a lack of capital. But when I look back upon those times now, when we are comfortably settled, I feel we have turned those disadvantages to our advantage. Here is why I feel so:

1. Our Motto was - small investments always. We never invested more than 10 - 20 K at a time. This ensured that we never incurred big losses. Of course it sometimes also deprived us of the opportunities but fiscal discipline is very important when bootstrapping. 
2. Plan, plan and plan everything in detail. We planned each and everything in minutest detail to know where we could cut on expenditure. But that also ensured that our growth path was very clear before we actually took our first step. We were also sure of where we had to spend. We never curtailed any essential expenditures, which ensured a good return on our investments.

Philosophy called life ??

And then there are occasions when the everyday problems get to me and threaten to convert my journal into a diary open (remember the difference between diary and journal, which I have already discussed in a previous newsletter?) And that’s when I get philosophical. Some of my interesting rants I am sharing here.

Human mind is so prone to travelling down the memory lane at the flimsiest of excuses. You are happy due to some reason and you recall all the related and not so related incidents in a jiffy. You are sad, and you tend to aggravate your situation by remembering things that are best forgotten. I recently read an article that said that people tend to remember incidents or situations that made them sad or hurt them, more than those that made them happy. Has nature wired us like that? Are we supposed to be inherently sad and mournful? I doubt.

I was in splits when I read this:

Building relationships is like handling late payments from clients. It helps you to keep your calm, try to look at others’ perspective and continue to be polite though it is difficult to do so.

Clarifying confusing thoughts

And then when I am confused I try to clear my confusion by writing about it in the journal. For instance, at the beginning of the pandemic, when I realised that only client work will drive me crazy because I needed to write something creative every day, this is what I wrote in my journal:

I am not able to decide whether to write fiction or nonfiction as my next book. Let’s look at the pros and cons. The most important thing is that writing fiction is more of writing and less of research. Because I write it intuitively. For nonfiction, lots of research and outlining will be required. But non-fiction, when published, will be another way to showcase my skills. And I do need that, considering that most of my projects are ghostwriting for tech companies.

The results of this writing and some more afterwards was my second nonfiction – 24 hours are enough – published on October 2, 2020.

Fiction

Many times my words in the journal have given birth to fiction stories too. Like this one:

Somewhere in the deep dark space, I just heard words falling on my eardrums and ricocheting off . They didn’t manage to pierce my consciousness. I continued walking towards the cool pool of water. That promised to soothe my soul. Calm my frayed nerves. Apply balm over my bleeding heart. Because since childhood I had learnt to wash immediately to stench the flow of blood. So that the wound doesn’t go deeper. But the trickle of water from the tap was not capable of healing this one. The water would turn red, losing its own characteristic.

I wrote an especially gory flash fiction after this and never even transferred to the hard disk!

Business idea

And then there was also a business idea of hosting and creating one-page websites for local businesses. Way back in 2016. I crystallised the whole business plan, from target customer to pricing, in the journal. I even got a few clients but then a new venture with my husband materialised and I just abandoned it. 

The idea behind sharing all these pieces from my own journal was to let you see for yourself how fruitful maintaining a journal can be; it can act as a starting point for so many new and beautiful things.

Share the wisdom hidden in your pages

Have you started your journal yet? Or you have been keeping it for long? I think we are now acquainted enough to share our journal stories with each other. Share yours in the comment below or send a DM, if you feel comfortable about bringing them out in the sun. If there is just that slight hesitancy, maybe you are really ready to share your ideas with the world. You just need that confidence, and I am here to help you acquire that.

Happy sharing.