Journaling Templates
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“I know the Big Three model from Brian Johnson:
Energy
Work
Love
Brian identified these three as the most important areas of one’s life. The model was inspired by two big ideas:
Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness. (Sigmund Freud)
And:
Manage your energy not your time.
Energy is our most precious resource, and the fundamental currency of high performance.
(James Loehr & Tony Schwartz, Power of Full Engagement)
It’s a beautiful model which Brain uses as a journaling template.”
“What is a journaling template?”
“It’s a lens through which you can view and gain clarity on your life. A potential starting point, a scaffolding you can build on in your reflection process.
Its value is not just in the framework itself, but also where it takes you.
For instance, the output of today’s journaling looks like this:
Loving Play [<link; short read] is the central value of my life that connects everything else.
Our BodyMind is the most important and powerful tool we possess. I regard Movement and Thinking as two fundamental values, and two essential ways of nurturing ourselves.
As concerns Work, I consider myself a Knowledge Worker. There’s a quote a I love by Naval Ravikant:
Earn with your mind, not your time.
I’m not there yet, but I won’t rest until I do.”
“Why didn’t you draw everything on a single mind-map?”
“I used to do that, but I find it clutters the map too much. Smaller maps are more focused, and more aesthetic.
The Big Three is just one lens. To multiply the insights, you must view your life through as many lenses as possible.
For instance, another lens I like to use is Growing/Giving, which was inspired by a quote by Tony Robbins:
Two things in life make you feel alive: growing and giving.
Today’s journaling looks like this:
This Growing/Giving map complements the Big Three map because it highlights the Why that fuels my work.”
“Remind me what Kaizen means.”
“Constant never-ending improvement.”
The hazard of giving advice
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“No, thank you. I don’t smoke.”
“Come on, live your life.”
“What you call ‘living your life’ is a model. I call it a life-model – a blueprint of what the good life looks like.
There’s a myriad life-models to choose from. Some are very low value, others very high value, and everything in between. [spectrum model]
My model involves a deep respect for my beautiful BodyMind, which I consider sacred.
Why would I settle for what I perceive as a very low value model?
To me your advice sounds like telling a bird it should walk more.”
Gratitude Optimization
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“How can I optimize my Gratitude practice?”
“Through Contrasting you can amplify its effect.
Whenever you express gratitude for something, you can bring to mind its opposite. For instance, whenever you express gratitude for life, you can bring to mind death. Memento mori.
Another thing you can do is place every object of Gratitude in your life in relation to three fundamental categories:
Be / Be not
Can / Can not
Have / Have not
You can make a list of them. Something like:
Be
– Life
– BodyMind
– Health
…Can
– Breathe
– Think
– Feel
– See
– Hear
– Smell
– Taste
– Move
– Create
– Learn
– Appreciate Beauty
…Have
– Experiences
– Relationships
– Resources
– Ideas
– Tools
– Teachers
…
Reading the list can have a powerful effect because it shows an overview of everything you can be grateful for in your life.”
“You placed your BodyMind in the Being not the Having category.”
“It’s one of my axioms of being [<link; medium length]. As I see it, I don’t have a BodyMind; I AM a BodyMind.
The things in the Being category are the most powerful because they enable everything else.
The things in the Being Able To category come second because they enable everything in the third category.
Which is not to say that items in the third category are not important. All of them are.
It’s just a reminder that, whenever you express Gratitude for having something, to also express Gratitude for the things that make you able to enjoy them. To always have in view how they integrate in the Whole.
And, last but not least, you can conceptually connect Gratitude with Love, you can merge the two systems of meaning. You can see expressing Gratitude as an expression of Love.“
The most important Life-System
Every man is the builder of a temple called his body. (Henry David Thoreau)
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“Self-Actualization can be seen in many ways.”
“What’s one of your favorites?”
“Self-Actualization as systems creation and optimization.”
“What’s the most important system of your life?”
“Beautiful question.
I’d say, the Mind/Body.
The Mind/Body is a meta-system, which impacts ALL other systems of your life.“
“I was half-expecting you to only say your Mind.”
“That’s what Dani-who-I-was would have said. I now see the Mind and the Body as one inseparable unit. I’d go so far as to rewrite Henry David Thoreau’s quote.
Every man is the builder of a temple called his Mind/Body.”
“Why Mind/Body and not Body/Mind?”
“I actually use both, depending on what I want to emphasize. This is another instance and application of concept-stacking [<link; short].
The model is fundamentally practical. Those who focus only on the Mind are doing themselves a disservice. They’re out of balance.
On another level, as you know, I’m in pursuit of peak performance. One of my Soul Quests is to become a World-class Thinker [<link; medium]. While exploring the how of it, I’ve reached a surprising realization:
To become a World-class Thinker I must become a World-class Athlete.
I’m doing just that.”
Dani Trusca 
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