The following contains excerpts from the audio-book How to Use a Journal (Jim Rohn).
In our music school in Odessa, Texas we teach students the value of using a journal. It can be very helpful in tracking progress over time. There are multiple similarities to the musical process of capturing thoughts in musical notation, as well. Composers throughout history have essentially used the process of journaling their thoughts and ideas into written notation, for the purpose of engaging larger groups of individuals, to combine in performing those ideas.
At our music school in Odessa, Texas, we believe that music is much more than sound – rather, it is relationships. Music is meant to be enjoyed and created in community. In order to facilitate community gatherings, it is important to have a written plan. This plan always starts with capturing and journaling ideas.
“For a journal to have its greatest value, it must be frequently reviewed. It is by re-reading our journals that we begin the process of transferring information into practical knowledge about ourselves, our environment, our relationships, our businesses, our financial affairs, our dreams, and our own better future.”
As a composer, I have experienced this process, using music notation. Once I have an idea written down on paper, I refer to it, much like practicing an instrument. I revolve it over and over again in my imagination until it jumps forward, almost supernaturally, into the next section or phrase. The entire composition is built this way. We teach creative students in our music school in Odessa, Texas these concepts of motivic development.
Set aside a day each week, or at the very least each month to review your recent entries. Once a year, take all of your journals of the shelf and read them from cover to cover. What you read will probably make an incredible story of personal growth. A journal becomes an incredible way to document your own life, it is a textbook of self-discovery and self-awareness. Sometimes what you don’t write can be as revealing as what you have written.
What is unique in writing down musical thoughts onto paper, is that many times an idea that has been captured months or years before has been forgotten. Yet, when reviewed again, it still has relevant value. As one man said, “Onto paper, out of mind.” We teach students in our music school in Odessa, Texas the importance of clearing their mind of clutter by writing down their creative thoughts.
Make sure to record the date, time, and location of each entry. Where and when you write can, in themselves provide interesting revelations.
A journal is a little bit like a photograph album. The photograph album records your physical changes, but a journal over a period of time reflects mental changes within yourself and about your environment.
“Perhaps the most important function a journal provides lies in the area of communication. First and foremost, your journal gives you a chance to talk to yourself and to hear what you are saying about your life, your future, your relationships, and your goals. As you begin to develop the habit of writing down your problems, recording your observations, emotions and reactions to life’s events, you will undoubtedly find yourself both posing and responding to a whole new set of questions about your past, present, and future. ‘If I follow this course, where will I be five years from now?’”
Again, paralleling the idea of musical notation, a composer, when reviewing his captured ideas, can gain objectivity into how those ideas have changed and morphed over time. The differences between earlier and later ideas can produce yet another set of ideas through the comparison of the first ones. At our music school in Odessa, Texas we encourage the composition student to leverage these principles to further creativity.
“As you begin to both ask and answer yourself on paper, you will be amazed at the incredible leaps in personal understanding. And remember, any positive change that happens within your life will ultimately manifest itself outside of yourself in your social and professional world, your attitude, your bank account, your habits, and even your appearance.”
“We stand forever exposed to life and to the endless variations that make up the human drama. Our task as human beings is two-fold. First, we must effectively translate what is going on around us into terms we can comprehend, and second, we must effectively express what is going on within us into terms the rest of the world can understand. Despite the major technological advances enabling us to communicate globally, and perhaps even extra-terrestrially, I would suggest that while our means of communication has greatly improved, we are still living in the dark ages when it comes to saying what we mean, and understanding the meaning of what is being said.”
Making, again, a parallel to musical creation, there are many creators in our modern era who prefer to create using technology, using a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). I challenge such creators to consider the value of pencil and paper. There is something freeing about relying solely on one’s imagination, unencumbered by all the bells and whistles of a computer program. We teach students in our music school in Odessa, Texas the ancient disciplines that have spanned centuries in capturing their thoughts without the need of machines and complexity.
“As William James wisely observed, ‘The most immutable barrier in nature is between one man’s thoughts and another’s’. Man is ultimately an island unto himself, cut off by the deep channels of non-communication. Writing in your journal is one of the best ways I know of to develop more effective communication skills. As you become better at describing life to yourself, you will find that you will become better at describing yourself to life. Put into more practical terms, as you become better at saying what you really want, and how you really feel to yourself, you will be able to better express yourself and your feelings to others, and, in return, better able to understand what others are really feeling, and really saying to you.”
“It has often been said that reality is the best beginning, so it is also the best place to begin in your journal. Write down a complete account of how it is right now as this moment in your life. What’s got you turned on? What’s got you turned off? How is it going at home or at work? Are you happy, frustrated, excited, perplexed, worried, doubtful, or any or all of the above? Honestly tell it like it is. Perhaps you will uncover a particular void in your life that needs to be filled, or a major obstacle that must be tackled. Use your journal to then chart out a course of action to eliminate whatever is standing between you and your better future. Examine your progress. Outline the steps you’ve taken, or could still take.”
Yet another benefit of music notation for the composer is that it exists in a form of communication that is separate and distinct from aural communication. It functions visually, on a ‘separate channel’ of sorts. This keeps it free from interrupting the aural, and vice versa. The combination of both visual and aural communication can be quite powerful.
From Will and Ariel Durant’s, “The Lessons of History”:
“Civilization is not inherited. It has to be learned and earned by each generation anew. Consider education not as the painful accumulation of facts and dates, nor merely the necessary preparation of the individual to earn his keep in the world, but as the transmission of our mental, moral, technical, and aesthetic heritage, as fully as possible to as many as possible for the enlargement of man’s understanding, control, embellishment, and enjoyment of life. If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage, and transmit it to others. And to his final breath, he will be grateful for this inexhaustible legacy, knowing that it is our nourishing mother, and our lasting life.”