As mentioned in the
“Features” above, you can encounter this book in a number of ways. However, I
have deliberately designed each book in the series to be actively worked
through with a journal, notebook or electronic pad readily available as you
read.
Each volume guides
you through a series of questions, reflections and other activities based on
the twelve steps of “The Road Clearing Way (to Success)”. To get most from the
program, you are encouraged to actually think about and record brief responses
to each of these activities as you go. These notes will then be available for
comparison, further reflection, motivation and self-discovery later in the
program.
Theoretically, you can collect notes in any paper notebook
such as an exercise or binder book with a minimum of 128 pages, or one of those
securely bound blank journals available from many newsagents or booksellers.
Alternatively, the journal could be in digital format such as a set of files on
a portable notebook computer, smart-phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or
electronic pad. Whether it is paper or digital, ensure that your method is
portable, expandable, flexible, easily and quickly accessed, and allows input
of both words and illustrations.
My recommendation
for this first book in the series is that you spend a little more time to set
yourself up properly with what I call the “Thematic Journal”. This useful tool
for self-knowledge ticks all the boxes and will continue to serve you well long
after you have closed the covers on this volume.
A Thematic Journal
can be created using either an A4 sized ring binder, or on a portable
electronic device that allows you to establish a number of separate folders or
sections.
If using the ring
binder, use tabbed pages to divide the folder into at least eleven separate
sections. On the electronic device, use software to set up a separate folder
for your journal, and within that folder, create eleven separate sub-folders. One
program that works like this is the Microsoft “OneNote” program, but there are
others.
Clearly label these sections in either your ring binder or
electronic device with the following headings. Beside these headings, I have
briefly described the types of notes or diagrams that may be stored in each
section. Some of these terms may not make much sense at this stage, but I will
explain all when you eventually work through the appropriate sections of this
program.
Suggested Thematic Journal Sections
1. Display Page: During this
program, you may produce a symbolic drawing of yourself, a symbolic coat of
arms, or a personal mandala and any one of these could be used as the front
display page for your Thematic Journal in your ring binder, or as “wallpaper”
on an electronic device. If not used as a display page, these documents can be
kept in the “Identity Documents” section (see below).
2. Identity Documents: This
section contains your “Identity Chart” which is a list of identity elements
produced in the first mission of this volume when answering the first two big
questions - “Who am I?” and “What do
I really want in life?”. It can also be used to store other charts, pictures
and responses completed during the program such as the “Wayfarer Map” that you
may have just completed, a personal mandala, a symbolic picture of yourself, a
symbolic coat of arms and working notes used in shaping answers to the “big
questions” (see below).
3. Philosophy of Life (Answers to
the Big Questions): As I will explain in more detail below, this book
guides you through the process of developing your own answers to the “Big
Questions” of life to form your own “Philosophy of Life”. This section contains
all your current answers to those big questions - as developed through the activities in each mission.
4. Life Stories: This
section is a place to record the stories of your life or histories of various
aspects of your life e.g. the history of good friends, the history of
significant books you have read, or movies you have watched, the history of
your vocations and occupations or even the history of beliefs including how
beliefs in “god” may have changed over the years. We can write a history or
story of anything!
5. Values & Beliefs:
This section contains the collection of values and beliefs developed during
Mission 1, and used when answering “Big Question 8” in Mission 3 about how you
wish to live your life. We will refer to this collection several times during
the project.
6. Themes & Symbols: A place to keep an ongoing list of
the key themes and symbols in your life. We will also refer to this list during
the programme.
7. Life Goals: A place to keep your lists of yearly
goals so you can compare them from year to year.
8. Daily Journal: A place
for daily, “diary-type” entries reflecting on the events and thoughts of the
preceding day. I am suggesting that you do not keep your preparatory notes for your
“big question” answers in this place. They are best kept together in the
“Identity Documents” section (see above).
9. Dream Journal: A place to keep a record of dreams
you remember - simply write down the
events of the dream without any interpretation along with the date of your
dream. This is also a place to include reflections about a single, or series of
dreams. (See Mission 1, Step 23 on “Understanding Dreams”). Dreams become most
useful when common patterns are noticed in a series of dreams.
10. Dialogues: A place to
keep imaginary dialogues with parts of yourself, with other significant people
in your life, or with events. (See Mission 4, Step 2)
11. Guided Imagination: A place to keep your responses to
Guided Imagination activities. (See Mission 1, Step 22)
12. Big Decisions: A place to sort through big decisions
when standing at the “crossroads” of life. This section contains a history of
the events that led up to the moment of each decision, a list of the arguments
for and against taking each possible path, and an imagined outcome of what
happens as you head down each of the available paths.
Using The Journal
This Thematic Journal is the ideal place to record and file
responses to the questions and activities in this volume. In fact, the assumption
made in presenting these activities is that responses will be recorded in such a journal. Specifically, as mentioned
above, we will be collecting information and recording answers to the big
questions of life. When finalised, those answers will be stored in the
“Philosophy of Life” section in the journal as your own working “philosophy of
life” statement.
However, apart from this book, the sections in the Thematic
Journal can be used in many other contexts. You can record details of dreams in
the “Dream Record” any time you experience a significant dream. You can use the
“Daily Journal” in the same way that you might use a diary or personal journal - as a way of reflecting on each day
of your life. Furthermore, you can use the “Life Goals” section to record
personal goals or New Year’s resolutions at the start of each year.
The longer the journal is used, the more valuable it becomes
as a tool for personal growth and understanding. It will be particularly useful
if you occasionally reflect back over your life and notice the patterns that
keep repeating themselves, as well as the ways your ideas have changed and
matured over time. Such information can prove to be very valuable when facing
big decisions or crisis periods in life.
CREATIVE RESPONSE (SU): Decide how you intend to work
through the responses in this book including whether you will use a journal,
and whether you will complete responses as you go or mark them to be completed
at a later stage.
*
If you decide to make use of
the journal idea, decide on your format and set the journal up with your
desired sections. Firstly, you need to decide if you will use a paper journal
based on a book or loose-leaf folder, or an electronic journal in a smart
phone, pad, laptop or desk based computer.
*
As for sections, you can follow
the guidelines suggested above, or simply add sections as and when you see fit.
*
This is an appropriate time to
consider if you plan to take up the option of working through the whole book
over a single period of several days. This will not suit most people, but it is
a way for those interested to get away by themselves and “get a handle” on the
spiritual dimension of their life in a relatively short period of time.
*
Other readers need to decide
whether they will complete responses after, or as part of each reading session,
or read right through the book and mark responses to be completed at a later
stage.
*
Whatever method you choose,
enjoy the journey.
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