Why You Should Write Down Every Dream You Have in a Notebook
A good storyteller speaks something into nothing. Where there is an absence of story or perhaps a bad story, a good storyteller walks in and changes reality. — Donald Miller
I believe in the power of writing things down. I have to because it’s changed my life in a very tangible way. I have a stack of Moleskine notebooks on my bookshelf. I can trace every idea, every project, every book, and every blog post back to the pages of one of my notebooks. Writing things down in a notebook makes you the author of your own life, and gives you the ability to rewrite your story. In the pages of a notebook there are no limitations. It really is a platform for your imagination. It’s fertile soil for planting creative seeds.
SOME BASIC GUIDELINES
1. Don’t judge Your Ideas
If you have something as beautiful as a Moleskine notebook, you’re natural temptation will be to not want to taint it with chicken scratch and bad ideas. In a conversation with Amber Rae who has handwriting that is beautiful, she said to me “fall in love with your chicken scratch.” Since then I’ve not only fallen in love with my chicken scratch, I’ve put any idea regardless of how ridiculous its sounds in the pages of my notebooks. As Seth Godin says “if you have lots of bad ideas, eventually you’ll start to have some good ideas”
2. Don’t Worry About How They’ll Come to Life
When I started planning a conference, I really had no idea how it would happen. I just started jotting down speaker names, venue ideas, and dates. But that planted the seed. It got the wheels in motion. Other ideas have come to fruition years later. So don’t fret over how any of your ideas will come to life. Write without judgement., without expectation and without viewing it as a means to an end
- No dream is too daring.
- No idea is too audacious.
Just keep planting seeds.
3. Never Leave Home Without It
One of the pieces of sage wisdom my friend AJ shared in his collection of essays, The Life and Times of a Remarkable Misfit was that you should always carry a notebook. As he says below
I use a tiny Moleskine as my idea notebook. I jot down every business idea, prospect idea, project idea, potential blog post, poem, art or social project, whatever. Every single thing I’ve done in the last four years can be traced to one of my notebooks. — AJ Leon
You may have noticed that ideas don’t always come to you at convenient times. While you’re sitting at your desk you might struggle to come up with a genius idea. But when you’re stuck in traffic or in the shower you seem to have a flurry of them. While you can’t carry a notebook into the shower, one of the best things you can do is treat it like an American Express card. Don’t leave home without it.
The simple act of carrying a notebook with you, and writing things down will change your life. If you make a point of taking notes, your life will become noteworthy.
I’m the host and founder of The Unmistakable Creative Podcast.
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