The Journal Prompt

Insightful Journal Prompts Delivered Weekly.

Good morning!

Welcome back to The Journal Prompt, your weekly companion for introspection and personal growth. 🌿

This week, we’ll dive into Cultivating the Truth.

Let’s get started!

In This Week’s Issue (9-minute read)

💬 Quote of the Week

🖼️ Framing Your Reflection

✍️ Three Insightful Journal Prompts

🧰 Life Improvement Toolbox

🤝 Featured Photo & Affirmation

Framing Your Reflection 🖼️

The other day I was on a soap box with my kids about the political theory behind the American system of government (I know…riveting meal convo).

In the middle of my Oscar-worthy performance on checks and balances, the phrase “Who watches the watchmen?” came up.

Little did I know that triggered my subconscious to cook something up.

A couple of weeks later, while my wife and I were discussing logistics for our son’s new lacrosse practice schedule, I had almost a bird’s-eye-view experience of the conversation for about 10 seconds….

…..There we were, jointly with our oldest son, actively discussing what to put in place so he can become the best version of himself, while keeping it real about his talents and where he needs to focus.

And that’s when it hit me…

Do adults have this kind of deliberate planning behind their improvement?

Who sits around the table with US?

In Juvenal’s ancient words…..Who parents the Parents?!

Having this type of external guidance and nudging is important for two reasons.

First - past success can blind us to the truth.

Our ego starts to believe it has it all figured out, so it stops learning, and stops paying attention to the details that can bring about our demise (many a mythological story centers around this).

Second - generally speaking, people want to be liked, and this makes them inclined to telling you what they think you want to hear, instead of telling you the truth.

Totalitarian rulers are notorious for this - they systematically remove people with dissenting opinions. But as you amass success, people will also naturally do this because they want to carry favor with you.

So if we are subconsciously susceptible to our ego getting cocky, and most people won’t tell us the truth to avoid being disagreeable…..

How the heck can we get some real guidance on our self-improvement journey?

By building our Life Board of Trustees.

Bringing into your life the rare few who are willing to give you honest feedback from a place of love and care.

Since no single human (dead or alive) is perfect at everything, this concept involves finding role models (dead or alive) for each of the areas in your life you want to improve. And you can do this methodically by using Dunbar’s Numbers.

British anthropologist Robin Dunbar's research, conducted in the 1990s, established a correlation between the size of a primate's brain and the size of its social group, leading him to extrapolate that humans, based on their brain size, can comfortably manage about 150 meaningful relationships.

It further breaks down into:

5 Intimate Relationships (we’ve all heard we’re the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with)

15 Close Friends

35 Friends

150 Meaningful Contacts

500 Acquaintances

1500 People that we recognize

Many successful companies structure themselves this way, and as a prior Marine Infantry officer, our unit sizes mirror these scarily close.

I know that I am constantly at fault for believing that with enough journaling and caffeine I can think my way through anything. This attitudes leaves on the side lines all the social intelligence and ability to learn from others we have cultivated over millennia.

It’s also just pure hubris on my part - if I am not perfect, how can I claim to have a perfect view of any situation?

Getting at the truth is our most important pursuit because the quality of all of our decision lies is how closely we understand Reality. And for that, we need people to lovingly nudge us when we stray from the path.

By deliberately choosing who lives in each of our Dunbar’s numbers, we take an active role in molding not just our life, but those of the ones we touch.

Three Journal Prompts ✍️

🔍 A Trip Down Memory Lane

Examine a time in your life when you had a deep friend group.

Maybe you were part of an athletic team that was on a championship roll. Perhaps some not-so-stellar characters brought out some not-so-stellar character traits in you.

Do not whip and scold yourself here. This exercise is scientific - you are looking for patterns in how their behaviors affected yours and why.

🧠 Audit Your Social Group

First, gain some clarity on the following:

1. What kind of person do you want to be?

2. Who is your ideal self? What qualities do you aspire to possess?

Then consider the five people you spend the most time with: are they the type of person you want to become? Do they support you or pull you down from your goals?

It’s key here to thread the line between not being over-critical, and being ruthless about cutting off bad influences.

Once you find the good ones, think of how you can communicate more with them.

🔭 The Compounding Snake Pit

Perhaps you’re in a tight spot, surrounded by negative influences. Remember that compounding effects work in both directions. Getting out/limiting the effects of that situation is priority numero uno - because they build.

You can do that by:

a) limiting exposure as much as humanly possible, and

b) tapping into what the best minds of history left behind for posterity. Consume the writings and other content of role models as a proxy for direct personal exposure.

This WORKS. I read Seneca and Ryan Holiday every day when it comes to Stoicism. Give some thought on whose writings you can revisit often that are aligned with the person you want to be.

Life Improvement Toolbox 🧰

📚 Reader’s Corner

I met Priya Parker at a Kajabi Creator’s conference. I can only describe her as a force of nature when it comes to dissecting and building real bonding experiences.

If you care about how you come together with others, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters is your book.

P.S.

While reading is something we pretty much have to actively do, listening is fair game for dog walking, dish cleaning, chores, and driving.

Make more progress on the things you want to learn with audio books from Audible - check out how it works here. 🎧

📝 The Journaling Craft

For those of us that live and breath travel, and also have a spouse that’s the same way, check out this super cool couple’s adventure journal.

🧠 Mind + Body Connection

In case the reflection framing and prompts didn’t harp on it enough, changing your environment is huge - and here at The Journal Prompt we want to do something about that.

If you want to surround yourself with fellow journalers that are….

Committed to becoming the best version of themselves

Holding each other accountable from a place of care

Helping each other get at the truth,

Then we are putting together something special for you - reply to this email with “commitment” to let us know you’re interested. ✍️

Featured Photo & Affirmation 🤝

Affirmation for Cultivating the Truth

"I will surround myself with truth tellers”

As we dive deeper into understanding ourselves, let’s remember that we are not alone.

Writing is healing and healing can hurt - reach out to friends and family. They are there for you.

Sending Good Vibes,

Ivan from The Journal Prompt Team

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Happy Journaling!