Issue 58: The Words in Your Journals in the Ears of Others
The sounds of the words you speak may lie on your own lips, but if you do not relinquish them entirely to a listener they never become words, and you say nothing at all. The words die with the sound.
Dear Reader,
Being vulnerable on the page creates breakthroughs, rare moments of clarity. This clarity is a fragile thing. It may only exist in a certain combination of words, or under a certain amount of light.
Outside the leather bindings of our journals, the winds of the world quickly snuff out moments of clarity. The world has no means of reflection, since it cannot be outside itself.
Paradoxically, by sharing our thoughts with others, we temper and strengthen our reflections. Validation from others is a continued license to pursue an idea.
One of the best gifts society can offer is to support your efforts (with positive sentiment, financial backing, or a myriad of other resources) while leaving you alone.
To succeed in this endeavor, we take our fragile reflections and mutate them.
With your reflection in a gaseous state, first rip out any instance of “I”. Remove yourself, so the reflection can be borrowed by others. They can’t take you with the idea, they must parcel it on their own and you are too heavy of a concept.
Next, mutate the reflection into a solution. Any solution to any problem. Both can be made up. This requires that you know your listener well enough to guess their problems, and that you know your idea well enough to make a solution for them. Both are difficult, and both are case by case.
This is an art, not a science. A good place to start is asking yourself as a listener why you wrote the reflection down in the first place. Write down what you hear.
Finally, suggest a venue for spreading. There’s no need to force this. In fact, force kills momentum. The path of success here lies in making the idea remarkable. A strong idea finds itself in cafes and town squares, not trapped in pages.
Now, say farewell to the fragile concept from your journal. If the idea comes back to you in time, from a small group of spreading, perhaps only four or five people, the idea has been smithed into a much harder metal.
Your idea may no longer look exactly the same as it did before, but it has seen the world, and has chosen to make its way back to you.
The ears of others are the forges of our words.
A Hypothetical Example
Reflection/Moment of Clarity: “I think beauty is worth any price. But I can’t afford the pieces or experiences that I think are beautiful. My affordable strategy is to find what I use daily, and functionally replace items with beautiful versions. This is a slow process towards the same goal. I’ll start with my computer, my phone, and my shoes.”
First Step (subtract the “I”): “Beauty is worth the ticket price. But many beautiful experiences and things hide behind unattainable price tags. An affordable strategy is replacing daily functional items with beautiful versions. This is a slow process towards the same goal. Start with items you use to create, or items you use to live.”
Second Step (mutate into a solution): “Make a list of items you use every day. Of the items on this list, note which items are you (most/least) excited to use. As your budget allows, replace items on this list with beautiful versions. Do your research and build excitement for the day you have these items. At the same time, show daily gratitude to the beautiful items you already own by taking care of them.”
Third step (make the idea remarkable a.k.a social enough to share): “Here’s a list of items I found beautiful replacements for. I focused on the quality of material, as well as how using them made me feel about myself. Before I bought any replacements, I did my research and built up excitement for getting it. I also made a second list of items I already owned that bring me immense pleasure. I show gratitude to these items every day now. What’s your list?”
Zettelkasten for this newsletter issue – check this out if you want to see the book quotes I used to write this issue
Thanks for reading, and see you next Sunday!
ars longa, vita brevis,
Bram
