The Trio of Personal Progress
Memory:
I walked into my sisters room and sat on her bed. In her hand was a magazine and she was excited to read about the life experience of Spencer W. Kimball. I listened intently as my sister read about how this church leader had a total of 33 black binders on his personal study shelves which consisted of his journal. To me this was an impressive autobiography. In that moment I felt a little guilty for all the times my parents had encouraged me to write in my own journal and I had either not done so or followed their counsel begrudgingly.
What stuck with me all these years is that I had a strong desire to follow Kimball's example. Along with the impressive picture in my mind of all the black binders all in a row, I wanted to someday be able to tell people that I had written in my journal as many consecutive days back to back as Kimball had. I do not remember the exact number of days the article specified, but I do remember that my sister and I felt the spirit of journal writing that day and the two of us made promises to ourselves to be more diligent journal writers.
Keeping a commitment:
Since that experience with my sister, I believe I have written a journal entry for every subsequent day of my life. I have not, however, actually written in my journal every day. There have been times that I was 'too tired' to write in my journal and I postponed my entry till the following day. There have even been times where I got into the bad habit of simply writing down notes to myself of the events of particular days and in reality I was a month or more behind actually writing the journal entry on the day the events occurred in my life.
A renewed and recently inspired goal:
Over the past few weeks I have been trying with all my might to write my journal entry before I retire each night. This has not been easy and I have learned it is better to schedule my day out and write earlier than later. This is not only because it is more likely to happen if done early on in the evening, but also because it is a more quality entry at that time; a pat entry at 2am is much less riveting than one I actually put sober thought into writing at 8 or 9pm, before preparations for bed begin.
Over the years I have not found a more inspiring example of journal writing to me than that of Kimball's. I have recently, however, been inspired by Henry B Eyring's example of scripture study, which, in turn, translated to my journal writing as well as scripture study and personal conversations with and daily accounting of my actions to the Lord.
Said Eyring: "I have read the Book of Mormon every day for more than 50 years." For some reason, I am drawn to statistics like that. Hearing Erying say this sentence gave me such a boost of confidence and desire that I couldn't help but be inspired. I have always learned its important to study the scriptures every day, but until I heard Eyring's statement, I honestly didn't think it was possible.
I hope in some small way I can share this inspiration with others. I, too, have a testimony of scripture study and now I know I can study, pray and write in my journal every day without exception. How this happens in everyone's life will look different, but I want to share my new personal accounting system with everyone as a reference to help others begin or improve on their goals to do any and all of the three daily principles of self-progression.
Here is a snapshot of the spreadsheet I made for myself:
I now have a measurable record of how often I am meeting my goal. The spreadsheet doesn't show the quality of each of the three goals, but I can definitely put that in my journal entries, and it is very encouraging and helps to hold me accountable to myself and everyone reading this blog.
I walked into my sisters room and sat on her bed. In her hand was a magazine and she was excited to read about the life experience of Spencer W. Kimball. I listened intently as my sister read about how this church leader had a total of 33 black binders on his personal study shelves which consisted of his journal. To me this was an impressive autobiography. In that moment I felt a little guilty for all the times my parents had encouraged me to write in my own journal and I had either not done so or followed their counsel begrudgingly.
What stuck with me all these years is that I had a strong desire to follow Kimball's example. Along with the impressive picture in my mind of all the black binders all in a row, I wanted to someday be able to tell people that I had written in my journal as many consecutive days back to back as Kimball had. I do not remember the exact number of days the article specified, but I do remember that my sister and I felt the spirit of journal writing that day and the two of us made promises to ourselves to be more diligent journal writers.
Keeping a commitment:
Since that experience with my sister, I believe I have written a journal entry for every subsequent day of my life. I have not, however, actually written in my journal every day. There have been times that I was 'too tired' to write in my journal and I postponed my entry till the following day. There have even been times where I got into the bad habit of simply writing down notes to myself of the events of particular days and in reality I was a month or more behind actually writing the journal entry on the day the events occurred in my life.
A renewed and recently inspired goal:
Over the past few weeks I have been trying with all my might to write my journal entry before I retire each night. This has not been easy and I have learned it is better to schedule my day out and write earlier than later. This is not only because it is more likely to happen if done early on in the evening, but also because it is a more quality entry at that time; a pat entry at 2am is much less riveting than one I actually put sober thought into writing at 8 or 9pm, before preparations for bed begin.
Over the years I have not found a more inspiring example of journal writing to me than that of Kimball's. I have recently, however, been inspired by Henry B Eyring's example of scripture study, which, in turn, translated to my journal writing as well as scripture study and personal conversations with and daily accounting of my actions to the Lord.
Said Eyring: "I have read the Book of Mormon every day for more than 50 years." For some reason, I am drawn to statistics like that. Hearing Erying say this sentence gave me such a boost of confidence and desire that I couldn't help but be inspired. I have always learned its important to study the scriptures every day, but until I heard Eyring's statement, I honestly didn't think it was possible.
I hope in some small way I can share this inspiration with others. I, too, have a testimony of scripture study and now I know I can study, pray and write in my journal every day without exception. How this happens in everyone's life will look different, but I want to share my new personal accounting system with everyone as a reference to help others begin or improve on their goals to do any and all of the three daily principles of self-progression.
Here is a snapshot of the spreadsheet I made for myself:
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