The MenPathic Journal Method for Clarity and Focus (Instructions and Examples)
Special Request: This is a very long post! Read it through twice and then leave a comment telling me how it strikes you!
Leonardo, Einstein, Marcus Aurelius, Thomas Jefferson…
All kept journals and all achieved the clarity and focus they needed to fuel their achievements.
In this post, I’m going to lay out a journal practice that can open the floodgates of creativity, awareness, self-discovery, and growth!
I know from years of experience how beneficial keeping a journal can be for self-development and self-discovery; both of which are critical for MenPaths to embrace. But there’s a problem.
The Problem with Most Journals
The problem with most journals is that they arrive pre-formatted and in a layout that might work for its designer, but usually doesn’t work for most of the people who want to use it.
That’s my chief issue with most desktop or notebook-based planners. What’s might seem important to the one person, may seem trivial to another.
As an example, I recently purchased a bound planner, knowingly violating every principle I ever espoused about pre-formatted planners, mainly because I trusted the guy selling them and I wanted to try his system of daily planning.
Not only did it arrive with a mistake that the author admitted to making necessary to edit every page (200 pages), but the layout was so tiny and cramped that I immediately knew it was useless. Unfortunately, I now have a $30, very attractive hard-bound planner that’s unusable.
This is why, until this most recent transgression against my cardinal rule of only purchasing blank notebooks.
But there are other barriers to adopting a journal practice beyond just a pre-formatted planner, including resistance, a lack of confidence, and knowing what to write about.
The Barriers to Establishing a Journal Practice
Some MenPaths never get past the barriers and they allow their often false objections to keep them from experiencing the deep self-discovery that otherwise could be theirs if they didn’t fight the concept.
1. Resistance
In his landmark book, The War of Art, Steven Pressfield—author of numerous books, including The Legend of Bagger Vance and my personal favorite, Turning Pro—offers us the perfect villain, resistance.
Resistance is the reason we don’t have six-pack abs, can’t quit our social media accounts, and why we stop meditating every so often. It’s simultaneously the most powerful force arrayed against personal progress of any kind, and completely an inside job.
Resistance to taking action or to sticking with any new process for longer than a day or two is what keeps us from moving forward. And the worst part of it is that we create it all by ourselves. There is no external force keeping us static.
2. The Lack of Confidence
Regardless of our level of education, most of us don’t possess much confidence in our ability to write effectively. We allow the past criticism of our earliest composition teachers and college professors (many of whom failed in their efforts to survive the publish-or-perish world of academia) to prevent us from even exploring the idea because we believe that a journal needs to read like a work by Thomas Jefferson or Christopher Hitchens, both of whom are my heroes when it comes to elegant and powerful writing.
But the good news is that there is no red ink in your future. No one will be purchasing your journal or grading it, and that should alleviate some pressure and some of the resistance you manufacture.
3. Nothing to Write About
While it’s true that there is nothing more capable of inducing paralysis of the mind and fingers than a blank screen on a laptop or an empty page in a notebook, a journal isn’t a piece of literary work that requires a headline that sells or a title that make people pick it up.
In this system, it’s simply recording, even in short bullets, what comes to mind after some simple questions.
However, I Believe The MenPathic Journal Method Solves These Problems
Yes, I know… that sounds very magnanimous, still, I believe it.
I’ve worked out a simple practice that gently evokes what’s important, relevant, and meaningful for the MenPath in a manner that doesn’t require writing talent, the ability to form perfect sentences. Instead, it’s focused on simply recording what bubbles up in our minds.
And it doesn’t take any more than 15-20 minutes at most, about the same amount of time I linger over my morning coffee.
The MenPathic Journal Method for Clarity and Focus is a method I’ve devised that fits perfectly with the Practice of Spending Time in Solitude that I wrote about in my online journal (The link above opens a new tab to that entry).
Here’s How It Works
It’s modeled on a three-part process that has been used for decades and popularized in books such as The Five-Minute Journal and Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages. I adapted both of these approaches into the practice I’m now using each day and evening in a 6” X 9” softbound notebook I prefer, the Traveler notebook by Code&Quill.
Part I - The MenPathic 5-Minute Morning Snapshot
The 5-Minute Morning Snapshot consists of answering three questions each morning in a very brief manner.
Ready to take a look?
3 Morning Questions that Capture Your State of Mind
Instructions: Consider these questions each morning and record the first responses that come up for you. After you’ve recorded three brief thoughts for each question, look them over and circle the bullet next to the one that seems resonate with you on that particular morning. I’ll explain the reason for doing this later on.
In what ways am I fortunate today? (then circle the one that’s most meaningful or resonates the most)
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
What topics do I need clarity around? (then circle the one that’s most meaningful or resonates the most)
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
What’s important today? (then circle the one that’s most meaningful or resonates the most)
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
Here’s an example from my entry today
In what ways am I fortunate today? (then circle the one that’s most meaningful or resonates the most)
I made great coffee in a very short amount of time.
It’s Friday and that means the weekend is heeeeerrreeee!
The quiet solitude that is mine in the early hours.
What topics do I need clarity around? (then circle the one that’s most meaningful or resonates the most)
Growing my email list - strategies I haven’t attempted
How to live as if today was my final day on earth
What ‘retirement’ for me look like?
What’s important today? (then circle the one that’s most meaningful or resonates the most.)
Scheduling my paid work for team review
My bi-weekly Friday email to my list
Planks - if RBG could do them at 85, so can I
So, those are the morning questions. After circling the ones that resonate the most, we get to expand on one of them in Part 2, the Clarity-Focus Page.
Part 2 - The MenPathic Clarity-Focus Page
The MenPathic Clarity Focus Page takes a single prompt that you’ve already responded to in the MenPathic 5-Minute Morning Snapshot and expands on it.
Rationale
The rationale behind the MenPathic Clarity Focus Page:
“Inkus emeticus” - (Baz-latin for ‘ink vomit’)
We always feel better after ridding ourselves of toxins, whether they’re toxic attitudes, relationships, friends, even a sour stomach.
For example, maybe after a night out in a bar with friends—where you might’ve consumed too much alcohol… just a guess—you might’ve felt like crap the following morning and wished you could throw up so you could move on with your life - am I right? I think most of us have been there.
Likewise, when we’re ill with the stomach flu or something we ate disagrees with us, we know we’d feel better if we could just jam a finger down our throat and rid ourselves of the offending sushi we had no business eating in the Midwest (hint: take it from me…never order sushi in Tennessee).
The idea of Inkus emeticus is pretty simple; it’s using your pen and paper—or screen and keyboard—to “vomit everything out onto the page so you can move forward” --as Tim Ferriss so aptly puts it. Tim has a daily journal practice, very similar to this one.
The Process: Clarity-Focus Page
Review your circled bullets, the ones that you deemed most meaningful in the 5-Minute Morning Snapshot
Choose one that resonates with you and write about it in a paragraph or two..whatever feels like enough for you
Turn in your notebook (or start a new document on your device) and write what comes to mind
POTENTIAL PROMPTS FOR YOUR CLARITY-FOCUS PAGE -
Pick just one of the following prompts, based on your circled responses from the 5-Minute Snapshot and write a few sentences in response. It doesn’t have to be novel, even bullet thoughts will suffice. You can also come up with your personal prompts as long as they’re related to the morning questions.
Prompts:
I’m feeling very fortunate in this area because: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This is why: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I’m feeling the need for clarity around: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This is why: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The most important task for today is: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This is why: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
By responding to these prompts, you have an idea of what’s already meaningful and/or resonating with you, plus the topic of what to write about is chosen for you.
By limiting your response to what’s most meaningful on that day, it will be brief, targeted, and focused. Over time, this leads to clarity.
As you practice this method, the insight, focus, and clarity you seek will begin to be revealed. It won’t happen after a day or two, but allow yourself to engage in the practice for at least a couple of weeks, then see where you are.
Part 3 - The MenPathic 5-Minute Evening Snapshot
2 Evening Questions for Reflection and Clarity
At the end of the day, take a few minutes to review your responses to the three morning questions and then answer these two clarifying questions about your day as you reflect how it unfolded.
What about today was awesome?
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
What the ONE thing* I might’ve done to make things easier, better, or more efficient?
_________________________________________
*This is the topic of an entire productivity book that I recommend, The ONE Thing - The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan.
Putting It All Together: A Recent 3-Part MenPathic Journal Entry
My Morning Questions
Rather than rewriting the questions each day, I simply use one-word for each. Who wants to be rewriting the questions? But, you can if you wish.
My Clarity-Focus Page
I chose one of the circled items to write about. Here’s what bubbled up.
In this example, I wrote three paragraphs. Boom. Done.
My Evening Questions
There, Evening Questions completed. And, the journal entry is complete!
What Do You think?
Is this a journal practice that you could benefit you? I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and I think it’s a great way to get into the Practice of Cultivating Self-Expression, especially if you’re not used to writing on a daily basis.
Your Feedback Is Wanted
How did this land for you? I’ve love to hear what you think.
And after you’ve tried this for a week, leave a comment here or use the Contact Form to let me know how it works for you… or ask me any questions.
Good Luck, MenPaths!