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 43
Gratitude:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vision:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Affirmations:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
To have it all, focus on one.
I’m the type of person who has so many interests I can scarcely name them all in one sitting. I’m an artist, astronomer, author, and musician. I love learning about all of the hard sciences (like biology, physics) and some of the “softer” ones (psychology, archaeology). I hunt, garden, and forage for wild food. I love traveling and riding motorcycles. I’ve always wanted to get my pilots’ license.
The list goes on and on.
My daily Practices over the years have included meditation, learning Spanish and Hebrew, playing guitar, drawing, writing, exercise, Indian Clubs, breath work, reading…
The problem for the aspiring polymath is that there is so much to be interested in and a limited number of minutes in each day. I’ve had so many different daily practices that I’ve taken up to three hours to get all of the 10-minute sessions done!
Even if you only have your Vision set on one overarching theme, it’s easy to get caught up in dozens of different aspects of it. Your daily practice works best when it is, in fact, daily. So you’ll have to learn to say “no”. And sometimes “no” just means, “not now”.
I would encourage you to identify the ONE practice that is the non-negotiable go-to that will most effectively lead you into your Vision. For me, as much as I want to do it all, I know that if I’m ever distracted or overwhelmed, the one practice that will most affect my Vision is writing.
I want to study music and astronomy, but the lifestyle that will afford that freedom of time for me, is being a successful (enough) author. I couldn’t care less about making the NY Times Bestseller List. All that matters to me is that my writing provides value for my readers, and in exchange for providing that value, I get to live a life that is free enough to pursue the romance, art, and learning that I desire.
Writing is the Keystone that props up everything else in my Vision.
I encourage you to pursue all of your Vision. If you see your happiest future as one of travel, and learning to juggle, and read ancient Greek tragedies in their original scripts, then, by all means, set up practices around each of those aspects. Spend 10 minutes daily in pursuit of each. But, if you continue to add and add and add and eventually get to overwhelm, be sure you’ve identified your Keystone Practice.
What is the ONE action you can take today, the one, timed Practice that when done consistently will help set you up for your entire Vision?
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!
