Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for a PDF version and other notes.
If you’re new to Daily Prompts, you may want to start at the beginning of the series here.
Year______ Month_______Day______Consecutive Practice Days_____Missed Days______
Day 41
Gratitude:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vision:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Affirmations:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Action Provides Patience
Back when I was more result-focused, I would find myself feeling more and more anxious about the deadlines of a goal. Especially if I wasn’t seeing the progress I had expected.
Impatience, again, is a result of being attached to certain outcomes. If you’re experiencing shame, guilt, or regret because of where you are in your life vs. where you thought you should have been by now, it’s likely due to some arbitrary expectations you have placed upon yourself.
Those expectations can be seeded by well-meaning family and friends, or society at large, but you accepted these expectations. And once you accept them, it’s easy to feel like a failure if you’re not living up to them. So you’re forty and still don’t own a house. So what? Maybe you’re thirty and don’t know what you want out of your career. Why does that matter?
When you let go of these expectations and instead focus on your daily Practices that can lead you to your desired Vision, you begin to appreciate the process for what it is—your life. It’s your unique song. Instead of trying to force a certain climactic finale, just keep the rhythm and listen to where the music takes you.
Staying diligent in daily action helps you feel the progress. Does it really matter if your vision takes six months or six years if you’re feeling victorious all along the way? As far as I know, you only get one life. Instead of pinning your happiness to the attainment of certain outcomes, enjoy the music.
Pinning your happiness to a future date is a form of self-loathing torture. Being patient with yourself is a wonderful gift of self-love. Living daily with peaceful patience allows you to enjoy the dance that is your life.
Action:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Daily: (The pdf version below contains three lined pages for your daily journal)
NOTE:
The above is an excerpt from the upcoming The Lyceum Course Journal. We will be releasing it here for free as a Daily Prompt blog post. If you would like a physical copy, we will link to it here once it is released.
Suggested Use:
I realize a daily journal prompt on a blog is a little weird. This is how I would suggest using it: Open your favorite note-taking software such as Evernote, copy and paste this post into it, and write your daily entries there.
OR
Download a PDF version of this post here. Feel free to print it out, or access it through a PDF editor where you can type in your daily entry.
Collaborate With Me!
This post series is a first draft of the future book. If you have suggestions, comments, or see errors, please reach out so that I can make the final product more valuable for you and the rest of the community. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!
