This week in Journaling - 24th October

Drinking, Divorce and Going DEEP!

This week I've been journaling about...

No Drinking

I have decided that I’m not going to drink until Christmas. There’s a bit of as health reason behind it (to see if it actually does have a positive effect) but also to challenge myself too. I don’t drink much, but over the last month, I have. It was my 50^th remember and I had a lot of nights out planned. I don’t drink at home, the only alcohol I have are gifts that I received for my birthday. I do enjoy a post-golf pint, but I’m going to resist the temptation for 3 months now.

Divorce

The financial side of my divorce is nearing completion, I’ve already received my Decree Absolute. This is BIG. My divorce has taken more than six years to complete, so to see the finishing line in sight, is exciting. It has been exhausting and extremely frustrating at times. When 2 people who are in love, fall out, the outcome can be horrible; it’s so desperately disappointing.

Pub Club

I am the self-appointed social secretary of the brand new Pub Club; the Sherpa if you like, happy to do all the heavy lifting and arrangements. It was our inaugural meeting last week, but one by one, everyone dropped out. Now, I used to find this so frustrating, but I no longer allow it to get to me. I used to get so upset about people letting me down. It’s happened a lot recently and it’s taught me a valuable lesson. Not everyone deals with things the way I do and most of the time, they don’t mean any harm. The key phrase and the thing that has adjusted my thinking is this one… “letting me down”. They’re not. Their priorities are different. Plus, I can’t control them, so why do I worry about it? I don’t… anymore.

Physical Photos

I had a bunch of photos printed off at Christmas (yes, 10 months ago!) and this week I got around to displaying them. I don’t have the room to put them all in separate photo frames, so they’re all pinned to a corkboard, hanging up in my bedroom. It’s quite a student-thing to do, but I don’t care. Every day, I see all my favourite people, some of whom are no longer with us, and it makes me smile. A lot of these people live miles away and I don’t see them very often… so now, I do!

Short Journal entries

I’m not one for setting targets on my journaling, but I do have this unwritten rule in my head, which dates back to my blogging days. You see, Google used to love a blog with a minimum of 300-words in it. So, whenever I wrote an article for my webpage, I would always ensure it was at least 300-words long, so Google would rank it more highly. This has stuck with me. So, this week I have journaled mostly on my laptop, and Word gives you a ‘word count’. One day, I felt like I had written down everything I needed to say, but I hadn’t reached my 300-word, self-imposed minimum limit (writing that down makes it sound even more ridiculous). To be honest, 300 words actually isn’t that much, but I had a busy morning ahead and needed to get going. Moving forward, I’m not going to allow this minimum limit to be a thing. If 250 words is all I need to write, I’m not gonna invent 50 words just to appease my Monkey-brain.

Biz Dev or Business Development

For starters, I hate naff abbreviations like that (Biz Dev), which is why I wrote it down I suppose, as a bit of a joke at my own expense. All jokes aside, I do love the process of developing my business. I often feel like I get side-tracked whilst journaling; I go off on tangents, writing down ideas, targets, financial goals, how I’m going to achieve them, marketing strategies, etc. This week, I spent an entire journal entry, writing down costings for creating a physical journal (coming soon) … AND I LOVED IT! It was one of my favourite entries this week. It was at the forefront of my mind, so I wrote about it. I’ve often said, ‘there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to journaling’ and this is a prime example. Don’t be afraid to write about WHATEVER it is that is on your mind. That morning, it was BIZ DEV!

Meditation

It works for me. I love it. It’s the one thing that makes me switch off, 100%, and that is essential. I never thought I’d be able to do it, or even enjoy it. Now, it’s part of my daily routine. I’m no expert, so explaining how and why it works for me, is difficult. But, if like me, you think it WON’T work for you and therefore you’re not even going to try it, don’t be so switched off to it, give it a go, please?

I Went DEEP!

During one of my journal entries this week, I was reflecting on my life’s journey. I got to thinking about sliding door moments. In other words, what happened in my life to bring me to this point right now? For example, how the hell did I end up in Devon? I was born and bred in Kent, with no connections to Devon whatsoever. Yet, I have now lived her for a quarter of a century (half my life = quick maths!). Basically, here’s a quick summary of how that happened. I love cars, so I got an apprenticeship at a garage after leaving school. One of the training courses I was sent on was at Henley College. We stayed in a guest house whilst attending that course, and the people who ran that guest house had a daughter called Simone. We fell in love. They moved to Devon, so I followed. Hey presto, I now live in Devon. Weird, eh? Have you got any sliding door moments in your life?

Being a bit more selfish

I often find myself when I have some free time thinking, “who can I go and see?” rather than thinking to myself, “what shall I go and do that makes me happy?”. I had some time on my hands over the weekend and rather than attempt to find people to hang out with, I went and did stuff that made me happy. A happy Matt is someone that can better serve not just myself, but others. So, please go and do stuff that makes you happy first. That way, you’ll probably find yourself able to make others happy too.