You have a 'work journal'?
Alan Bronowicz
Adobe Snr Director Professional Services Operations, Non Profit President, Realtor, and Entrepreneur
Why yes I do!
About 9 years ago I was learning as a senior leader the need to be more precise and specific in my story telling. I set out to improve my communications, specifically presenting in front of people, and one area I focused on was the ability to tell a great story. I have always admired communicators who were strong in this area and set out to emulate their success.
I had heard John Maxwell speak and talk about how he has so many stories to pull from. It was quite simple really, he said "you can't find something if you don't file it away properly". He was referring to physical artifacts like newspaper or magazine clippings, funny stories, comics, anecdotes, etc. He said he had thousands filed away he would tap into as he needed them.
So I decided to start a work journal or a diary. I figured I could file away my thoughts and experiences and build a library of my history. Here's my very first entry:
Purpose – Starting 15 May 2010 and each day I will take 15 min to reflect on the day and capture those thoughts in this journal. Highlights, low lights, disappointments, frustrations, joyful moments, breakthroughs, emotions, ideas….anything
This is one of the best things I have ever done. I tend to write once a week or so and I now have over 300 entries in my work journal. It has become this amazing collection of ideas and insights, lessons learned, and stories. I tap into this all the time and I actually find as a result my memory is so much better. I usually remember the details without even reading the journal and when I don't, I have a rich repository to use. I dream in my journal, I plan in my journal and I do a lot of self reflection in my journal. I have grown professionally and as a leader because of this practice. And it's fun to go back and see how far I've come when I read entries from years ago.
Maybe this will encourage you to do something similar. Or maybe you already do and would like to share your insight or tips on what you do in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
Alan
CEO, Sales Athlete Executive Search Compensation and Career Advisor
5 年Alan, Right on! Thank you. Kathy