Think of this as your auto-biography for life lessons and all that you love.
Instead of starting the new year with a bunch of must do politically correct life altering promises, how about you begin today making a real exploration of everything that makes you YOU?
Get whatever notebook you have…
–> Use the first page as a title page – write, draw, paint, stick anything on it as you wish.
–> Count and number all the pages as either individual items like a normal book, or numbering each piece of paper to use front and back as one item, or using each open spread as one item… it just depends on how big you want your lists or if you want to be able to rip out a single full page to manually delete one list.
–> The second page becomes your index – write numbers vertically line by line to match the number of pages in your notebook. I caution against using the back side of the title page for the index as it will be used often and might rip. Plus it can be easier to write on the right hand side for right handed people. Lefties can completely do the opposite 😉
Then once your pages are ready, begin exploring your brain…
Choose whatever you would like to track, in whatever order it pops into your mind. Make page titles that make sense to you. There are no rules. Simply add those page titles to your index, so you can find it again.
Examples: favourite books, authors, books you want to read, movies to watch when sick, Christmas card list, birthdays, meal plans, recipes (name them but don’t use this space to detail the whole process – as that can be in your cookbook), bath time rituals, beauty products (with exact references to find them again when the labels come off), ideal mornings, ideal sleep routine, weekly cleaning, monthly home care, clothing sizes for multiple countries, winter clothes, summer clothes, boxed up clothes, capsule wardrobe, exercises that feel most effective, exercises that suck and should never be done again, places travelled, places that need to be explored, packing list for weekend getaways, picnic essentials, local shop hours, what is in the car including safety stuff, colour codes for home decor…
These are not to do lists which constantly change and react to outside forces, rather this is about things you have learned and now have become who you are. Chances are you already know many of these items and can recall them at will. But some things are better written down for purposes of memory, reflection, tidying up your brain space or just making it easier to find them again when needed. With dozens of pages available, your lists will be wonderfully unique so simply go as the flow feels best. Keep adding as the days pass. New lists, edits previous lists, actually using the lists to do something better…
There are some things that you will only ever do once and you will never need to know about it again. For other things, maybe once is enough to remember it forever. For all the things in between, having one place to record them, means creating your own very special treasure chest.
Call it whatever you wish, just begin to put all those ideas and things and wishes and wonderful memories in this book about you. It does not have to be shared, turned into an online course or an effective thumbnail… just enjoy adding to it and seeing all those random pieces come together and thus create the unique and very special person of YOU.
Kelea Quinn 