The other day, we went walking in Volcano National Park. There’s a lot of volcanic activity there these days, with a sulfur-scented mist rising out of fissures in the ground. It’s important to stay on the path, because a wrong step onto a thin area of the earth’s crust could plunge you into a crater of boiling steam.
As we walked, I was letting my mind float, thinking of pathways, and then thinking of my own path as a writer. It’s been an up-down-and-around sort of journey. I’ve often strayed from the beaten path, but most of my steps have been baby steps, so whenever I noticed I was heading in a wrong direction, I could always find my way back before I went too far astray.
How soon I noticed I was on the wrong track depended on how often I looked up. Because you can go a long way off if you’re moving too fast and not paying attention.
“Am I on the right trajectory?” Is a good question to ask myself whenever I snap to the fact that I’m too busy, stressed, or overwhelmed.
If I’m on the right trajectory, headed in the right direction—moving steadily toward the accomplishment of my goals and the fulfillment of my dreams—I can afford to slow down, take a break, enjoy life.
If I’m not heading the right way, I’m always hustling to catch up but chasing the wrong things. I’ve begun to realize that if I’m trying too hard but spinning my wheels, I’m probably not on the right trajectory.
We all tend to get more and more the way we are as we age. But just like characters in the best books and movies, we’re not one-layered cardboard cut-outs. We all have good traits and bad. So, it’s good to ask ourselves on a regular basis whether we are becoming more like our best (or worst) selves? Are our lives on the right trajectory?
For me, it’s often a wobbly path, like a kid who’s learning to ride a bike without training wheels. Remember what it was like, learning to ride a bike? Jerking the handlebars left and right, veering from side to side until that moment of grace when your bike’s trajectory levels out, the wheels align, and you feel that whoosh of freedom and accomplishment that comes from being centered and balanced?
I want all my days to be like that. I realize that life often has bumps and dips that we can’t see until our bike pitches sideways and tosses us into a heap on the curb. But mostly, I’m the one tossing rocks in my own path without realizing it until I crash.
Today, I’m starting a new BUJO (Bullet Journal—Thanks Kris S. for turning me onto this amazing and helpful tool :-). Part of my process of starting a new journal is to go through the last one and transfer important notes and information into the new one so I don’t lose track of something important.
Yes, it can be a tedious process that takes a whole day if not two. But I find that the act of transferring my notes is like making a grocery list—writing it down helps me internalize the information so that even if I leave my list at home (the joys of ADHD), I’ll be more likely to remember the most important things.
As I’m transferring the information from one journal to another, I may decide that some of those things maybe aren’t as necessary as I thought. Every item I rewrite into the new notebook must be important enough for me to remember and follow up on. Because writing by hand can be tedious, you’d better believe I’m considering each item before I decide it’s worthy of remembering and acting on in the future.
BUJO journals are great, because they have an index at the front so you can keep track of any important information you’ve written within its pages. (Most of mine are filled with random thoughts, worries, lists, and ideas. I’ve been keeping a Morning Pages Journal for decades, something I learned from Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way.)
Just to give you an idea, my new journal’s index has these headings:
- Nov. ‘24- Sept. ’25 calendar that I drew (You can buy calendar templates to go with the journal, but I draw mine by hand because I’m a nerd and nothing’s ever good enough until after I modify it.)
- Upcoming Events and Appointments (in list format so I can remember things that I’ve committed to doing far into the future.
- Future Log (things I want to do in the future but don’t have a date planned to do them).
- Websites and Recommendations (for when people tell me about fun stuff that I’m interested in learning more about).
- Art Ideas
- Blogpost Ideas
- Book and Character Ideas (because I dream things up way faster than I can write).
- Mayco Glazes (because I’m into pottery and want to remember which glazes I’ve used, and notes on whether I like them enough to buy them again).
I’ve decided to keep myself on track for the next few months (or however long this BUJO lasts) by writing a list of questions I can ask myself on a regular basis. The first question, the only one I can think of right now is, “Am I on the right trajectory?”
Do you have any ideas about other great questions we can all ask ourselves to help us live our best lives? Click here to join the discussion on my Community page!