The Lyceum Course Journal: A Companion to STOP SETTING GOALS!
When I set out to write about my experiences with ditching goals and becoming instantly happier, I wasn’t sure what form the book would take. Stop Setting Goals! Learn The Lyceum Method to Achieve More, Stress Less, and Love All Your Life (SSG for short) started out as an example to share, based on my own practices. It ended up as a how-to book for what I am now calling “The Lyceum Method”.
After publishing SSG I thought about how I, and so many others, read valuable lessons in books but as soon as the last page is finished, they put down the book and continue on living the way before they read it. I know that The Lyceum Method has the potential to radically change lives, and perhaps even society writ large. But if it’s just another book that’s read and set aside, it’s useless. This is why I’ve created this companion journal.
SSG tells some of the stories of my experiences with The Lyceum Method. It is the “why”. This journal is the guided daily steps to integrating The Lyceum Method into your life. It’s the “How” set forth into ridiculously easy to attain daily actions. SSG can be read in a day, this journal will take months, but the benefits can be immediate. All it takes is a tiny commitment to open it up and follow the prompts each morning.
I’ve spent the last 17 years as a coach. Primarily a fitness coach, but I’ve also taught drawing classes and a couple of other tangents along the way. I have eclectic tastes and interests. The common themes in all of my pursuits: I love to learn. I love to teach.
One down-side to writing books or articles is that the personal engagement I have with my readers is mostly one-sided. Teaching, in my opinion, should be a two-way street. Conversation is more valuable than lecture. So, I’ve created two ways to attempt to engage with you. 1: This journal. With its daily prompts and low barriers, it’s the way I wish I had been led through the practices set forth in SSG. 2: The Lyceum Community.
The Lyceum Community is a private online and in-person community of people who are practicing The Lyceum Method. More than that it’s a way for me to teach and engage with my readers as we all learn and further develop the methods. It’s a support group, it’s an entertaining pull to greatness, it’s a learning platform. It’s a special community. You can get all the details at www.LoveAllYourLife.com Jump into the community on day one of this journal and share your process in order to amplify your results and encourage others along the way.
“Life is not a journey, so much as it is a dance.” -Allen Watts
Let’s start the music. Shall we dance?
How to use this journal.
Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes progress. This journal is designed to lead you into a daily practice that has the power to change your entire outlook on life. It will empower you to live life on your own terms and develop a habit of remaining more present. You’ll create a dynamic vision for your life, and you’ll begin to live that vision today.
The Lyceum Method has many facets, and to implement them all at once would likely set you up for defeat right from the start. But part of the concept of The Lyceum Method is to implement very small daily practices that build to life-altering results. Like medicine, the smallest effective dose should be applied. I’ve taken the many facets of The Lyceum Method and broken them down into super-easy Daily Prompts. Each day is a focal point of the larger picture. By following the Daily Prompts, you will easily acquire the habits and practices of The Lyceum Method.
At the top of each page, fill out the Year, Month, and Day as you would most journals. Then mark how many days you’ve followed the prompts with no breaks in the “Consecutive Practice Days” section. No one is perfect, but the idea is to try to get 365 days of unbroken practice. Life happens though, it’s unpredictable, so don’t set a goal for this. Setting an achievement goal will derail your practices. Instead, think of this as a game. If you get 6 consecutive days of this journal completed, then miss the 7th, your “high score” is now 6. See if you can beat it the next time. If you miss a day, try to pick back up the very next day. Mark 1 in the “Missed Days” section. If your break was longer than one day, mark how many days it’s been since your last entry. A perfect score at the end of the journal would look like this:
Year_2022_ Month_August_Day_23rd__Consecutive Practice Days_365_Missed Days__0_
But remember, we’re not setting a goal, we’re playing a game. Nor are we seeking perfection, we’re seeking practice. Just for fun, see how high you can get the Consecutive Practice Days and how low you can keep the Missed Days.
I’ve included lines specifically designated for the practices that this journal prompts, but I’ve also included plenty of “extra” lined pages so that you can free-form journal. I personally write 3 pages every morning as part of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way practice. I’m annoyed by journals with daily prompts that don’t provide enough room for any freedom or creativity. So this journal should serve as both a Course on The Lyceum Method and a daily Journal and/or day planner. Write about your previous day, your dreams the night before, track your exercise and nutrition, or delve into your emotional state. Review a book you’re reading, or ponder the concepts you’ll be practicing here. There is value in writing and the state of mind that it puts you in. How you choose to approach it is up to you!
This is not merely a Journal, it’s more like a Course that leads you to implement The Lyceum Method as part of your daily routine. There will be practices that take you outside of this journal and into your physical reality. These are not “home-work assignments”, these are playbook options for living your best life. How you choose to run with them is up to you. Sometimes growth is painful, but for the most part, I think you’ll find this a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
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!
