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 how stability kills.

Let’s get started!

In This Week’s Issue (7-minute Read)

💬 Quote of the Week

🖼️ Framing Your Reflection

✍️ Three Insightful Journal Prompts

🧰 Life Improvement Toolbox

🧗‍♀️ Featured Photo & Affirmation

Framing Your Reflection 🖼️

Safety and stability are words that get too good of a reputation.

Let’s see how closely this hits home.

You have dreams. If I ask you “what would living life to the fullest look like for you?”, your answer would probably include things like:

1) World travel

2) Having close friends that you see often and depend on

3) Falling deeply in love

4) Starting a company around something you’re scarily passionate about

etc.

But also, you have a “rational” voice…

The one that says…..“that sounds amazing, but first we need to set ourselves up for success. So let’s stabilize, find our footing, get a good job, build a safety net, and later, once things settle down, we’ll get started”.

The voice says this today….and tomorrow….and the next day….and the day after that.

Why?

Because things never “settle down” or “stabilize”. We just stay busy and the later never comes.

We keep chasing the same “safety” and “stability”, slowly strangling our dreams to death in the process. Killing the most unique part of ourselves along with it.

And if we kill this, our bodies die.

If you think that statement too extreme, just do some research on the effects of retirement on the human brain (spoiler alert, double-digit faster rates of cognitive decline and increased risk of dementia).

As a parent of 4 (two teen girls, 10 year old fire-setting boy, and 1.5 year little dude), I totally get the “I need to put food on the table” argument.

But how does that hold up on the time horizon of our entire life? Can we really not spend ANY time toward building something?

How would you actually feel if toward the end of life you have nothing but mountains of emails you answered, and trips to Costco to look back on?

Or that at 65 the craziest risk you took happened when you were 15…with 50 years of “playing it safe” until the ticking death clock made you feel not-so-safe and not-so-stable?

And for those with children, do we really want our example to send the message “I did not pursue my dreams because of I was too busy taking care of you”?

No child should bear that martyrdom burden, and they will (at a minimum subconsciously) if we neglect to live our own lives to the fullest.

If you have children, you know that they listen way more to what you do, not what you say.

Which means if you continue down the fake stability path, your children will follow you to the Dream Grave.

That level of existential angst doesn’t make anybody feel either safe or stable.

For those of you in this boat, it’s never “too late”. That’s just the same damn voice trying to keep you where you are. Playing it safe with predictable suffering ahead.

For those in their 20s and 30s, thinking it doesn’t apply to you - I urge you to think and reconsider.

We don’t need to set everything on fire and backpack through Europe.

But we do need to stop believing that tomorrow will be better just because we want it to be.

Unless you do something different today, tomorrow will look the same or worse - because you’ll be using a dated map of reality to navigate a world that changed while you didn’t.

If you felt uncomfortable reading this,

A) you’re not alone (I wrote it because I need to hear it too).

and

b) listen to that feeling. It will get worse the longer you postpone chasing your dreams. Feeling it now is the gift of perspective.

Safety and stability are an illusion because it implies that you can control reality.

Courage, acting despite the fear and uncertainty, now that’s real because it only involves controlling yourself.

Journal Prompts ✍️

No prompts. Go beyond the pages this week.

Take at least one action that moves you closer to one of your dreams.

Life Improvement Toolbox 🧰

📚 Reader’s Corner

Just like no prompts, let’s go beyond the pages this week.

📝 The Journaling Craft

Step out from the journal this week! Go take one small action toward a dream!

🧠 Mind + Body Connection

Get the body moving this week, and the mind will follow!

If you really don’t want to fall behind on your reading, try Audible so you can listen on the go - check out how it works here. 🎧

Featured Photo & Affirmation 🧗‍♀️

Affirmation for Stability Kills

"Stability is not real. But my dreams can be”

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!