Success Tools: Topics du Jour

Luciano Passuello has come up with a great twist on journalling: the Topics du Jour. In a terrific blog post he presents a "one journal topic per day" method of journalling about the most important aspects of your life. His post suggests making a 30-item list (one for each day of the month) and then writing a paragraph or to about "today's topic" (Career, Health, Relationships, whatever). Of course you don' need to match 30 topics with a 30-day month. 10 topics will do, or any number, so long as you cycle through them, jounalling on one topic a day.

Passuello argues forcefully that ta many "Top-Down", "Big-Picture" goal-setting excercises tend to freeze the creative portion if the mind, whereas little mini-essays keep your mind free to meditate, fantasize, and create without the straitjacket of heavy duty, organized planning. Please read his post. It's a great idea.

In my posts on the Major Definite Aim (here and here ) I came to a similar conclusion. Just bringing the aim into the mind on a regular basis naturally generates solutions and alternatives. I also agree that these solutions emerge naturally over time, as the mind reflects back on the progress made so far. I have found solutions often tend to evolve over months, and even years, and Passuellos "Du Jour" method is a great way to keep the mind engaged with the important topics of your life. Furthermore, since, in his method, the mind gets a bit of rest between re-appearances of the topic, the unconscious has a chance to come into play, bringing with it many powerful resources. Of course, one of the earliest references to a cyclical method of self improvement was the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin:

I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I rul’d each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I cross’d these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day.

So, we are in good company.



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