Keep A Journal

Yes, I realize I am writing to men and not just men but manly men who don’t keep a diary next to the bed and write down their feelings and woes every night. Well, it’s your fault you can not remember the restaurant your wife said was her absolute favorite. You didn’t remember that your wife mentioned once in passing, during a trip to Walmart, while looking at coffee makers, that she might like to have a new travel mug.

Keep a journal. I am not talking about writing down the struggles you had during the day and the “Dear Diary...” mumble jumble that women of years gone by used to keep. I am talking about a running record of goals and successes and failures that you have had during the days, weeks, months and years. Write down your goals and read them over and over again. Call yourself a failure when you gave up on something that you told yourself you would do. Remind yourself in writing that you will not quit. You will not fail.

Not only your success and failures and goals, but write down ideas for your wife’s birthday, anniversary, weekend surprises. If your memory is like mine, you already forgot what the first paragraph of this chapter said, how will you remember your brilliant idea about getting some disgusting fish from the worst grocery store in the world (I may or may not be thinking about Wal-Mart) that you know your wife would absolutely love, that you can’t stand but are willing to try so that she can enjoy things she likes from time to time even though the very thought of fish for dinner disturbs your inmost being and sends shivers to the depths of your core? Keep a journal.

“I will prepare and someday my chance will come” - Abraham Lincoln

Seventy years from now your journal may be turned into your autobiography! You could be the next Theodore Roosevelt. You must be completely honest with yourself in your journal. You certainly would not want to mislead people into thinking that your outrageous success, fame and wealth happened overnight. If you do not write down your failures, how will you learn from them and later how will people learn from them in your autobiography?

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train” - Oscar Wilde From The Importance of being Earnest