It's around this time of year, in the middle of Christmas and New Year, when it's brilliant to look back at the diary that you've written for the last year (and years).
I've talked about the diary loads of times and thousands of these blogs, but it has literally been a lifesaver for me over the years.
I'll repeat my format here, just in case you haven't started or done it yet, and so here it goes,
Number one, create a way of writing a diary that no one else will ever see.
Number two, password-protect it and hide it.
And number three, refuse always and ever to show anyone it.
What that allows then, is complete honesty about where you are, who you are and what you do.
There are lots of different formats for diaries and journals, but this ‘secret journal format’ is one that provokes the most honesty. It's a huge and extraordinary form of self-reflection; it shows you about the character that you have, it shows you how you may be better and become a better version of yourself, whether you're able to do that or not.
One of the most important things it does, though, at least for me, is it logs the crisis and the thoughts and the carnage, and so when I get to a time like this in between Christmas and New Year, and things are generally OK.
Then I realised that I made it again for another year, and I'll be able to do it again.
In the midst of the terrible bits, sometimes you wonder whether all the cards will fall down and the wheels will come off. Whether you'll be left much more disadvantaged than you were, and then it doesn't actually happen like that.
Hayley and I have a saying at work, “Be alright in a minute”.
It almost always is; that's what the diary is good for. Reading how bad it was then, and understanding that you got through it and so, on balance, you can get through it again.
Blog Post Number - 4391