Steering your Monday

And one of my favorite tactics for future thinking ... 1,158

Oh, hi friends!

Last night, during my weekly bout of Sunday scaries, I kept thinking, “I’m behind, I’m already behind on everything.”

What?

It was the weekend.

And yet this idea repeats over and over again.

But we are rarely actually behind.

Instead, we’re operating under the belief that we are behind.

So pop that belief bubble.

You’re the one in control. Believe what you want to believe.

I talked with the wonderful Emily Nonko at From Day One about how to get your ambitious projects off the ground, and reveal the name of the third journal I’m writing, which is heading off to the printers this month! (OK, I’ll tell you, it’s called Do It (or Don’t): A Boundary-Creating Journal.

Below I share one of my favorite prompts for forecasting the kind of work you actually want to do in the future. You can read the entire interview here.

What are other mantras or tips from the journals that have really resonated with readers or that you yourself turn back to again?

Two things come to mind. In the first journal, one of the prompts is writing your future Wikipedia entry. It sounds kind of silly, but I think it really forces you to look at what you actually want to leave behind and what will be the main bullet points. I’ve seen a lot of people write their Wikipedia entries and they end up finding that the things that they actually want to do or that they want included in that entry are not the things that they’re working on every day. So where is that disconnect, and why are they not able to do the work that is most meaningful to them? It’s a macro overview of what you want to do, where you want to spend your time, and what you might want people to say about your career 30 years from now.

The Inspired Life column at The Washington Post always gets me good. Here’s a headline for you: “At age 5 he vowed to go to college with his mom. They just graduated together.”

“It was a long journey and a dream come true,” says Carolyn Patton, 63, after receiving her bachelor’s degree.

I love that the son stuck to his promise, and how they pushed each other to succeed. The story is worth every minute.

Have a great Monday, friends. It’s never too late to begin.