The 3 Word Journal
Excerpts from the book by
Randal A. Wright
Importance
An editorial in a pioneer era newspaper explained the value of keeping written records of life experiences: “If man keeps no diary, the path crumbles away behind him as his feet leave it; and days gone by are but little more than a blank, broken by a few distorted shadows. His life is all confined within the limits of to-day….” (Desert news, July 16, 1862)
An executive of a Fortune 500 company told the story of a meeting called to discuss the possible candidates for promotion to an important position within the company. Someone suggested that a long-time employee be offered the promotion since he had 26 years of experience with the company. Another executive spoke up and said, “Actually he has one year of experience repeated 26 times.” The employee missed his chance to accomplish something significant because he had not learned from past experiences. When you likewise fail to learn lessons from your experiences in life, opportunities will pass you by. Those lessons learned prepare you to step up and tackle your life mission.
Yale Law School
What would it take for you to be admitted to the number-one ranked Yale University Law School? If that had been your goal, you might have begun as early as high school aiming for the kind of grades that would get you into Yale. In college you would have continued to study hard and take challenging classes, knowing that your transcript could make or break your Yale admission chances. Before the Law School Admission Test you would have taken multiple prep courses and practice exams to increase your chances of fulfilling your dream. Finally, after years of preparation, you would apply and then receive a letter of acceptance from Yale. The tuition of nearly $50,000 a year now weighs on your mind, but you have planned for that, too, working multiple jobs and earning several scholarships.
On the first day of class, you settle in, confident in the knowledge that you are one of the brightest young people in the nation, among the 6.9 percent of Yale applicants who are admitted. In this rarified atmosphere, you make yourself a rash promise: “I will never take any notes in class during my three years in law school. I’ll just sit and soak it all in.” What would be your chances of success?
Surely no right-thinking person would embark on the experience of a lifetime without taking notes. Or would they? Most people who have ever lived have done just that – sailing through the experience we call life without ever recording a single valuable lesson or experience. If you take notes to remember important things in school, then why would you not do the same in life?
3 Word Journal
You, too, can carry a significant portion of your life story in a small notebook, categorized by topic and retrievable at your fingertips in many settings.
You have had hundreds and perhaps thousands of experiences over the years that have taught you valuable lessons.
The words need not make up a phrase or sentence.
- If possible, always include a person, place or thing in your three word summary
- Choose three words that refer uniquely to that particular experience.
The 3 Word Journal has its limitations,; no one but you knows the full story behind those three words. Eventually you will want to expand these summaries into full-fledged written stories.
Do not be intimidated by the blank page. Remember that you are sharing your wisdom, leaving for your posterity, in your own words, every significant thing you have learned in life. Through your words, the reader will know who you were and what you believed. Most people know their ancestors only from the information written on a tombstone. By your sharing of things you learned in life, you posterity can learn from your triumphs and tragedies.
After I write my stories, I like to add a few words about lessons I learned from the experiences.
With your 3 Word Journal entry and by adding valuable lessons learned from the experiences, you can create a searchable index of lessons learned.
Using your 3 Word Journal
1 To Teach Family Members
When your children ask you to tell them a story from when you were their age, that’s a precious teaching moment. If you don’t seize those opportunities, your children may quit asking. There is something powerful about using personal experiences to teach lessons. All too often parents draw a blank when asked, “What was it like for you, Dad?” If you record experiences from your life, you will never miss those valuable teaching moments.
2 To Reminisce With Family and Friends.
Few things bring family and friends closer than getting together and reminiscing about experiences from the past. I live to hear the phrase, “Remember the time when…” As soon as someone says a few key words, the memories of that incident come flooding back into the minds of the listeners. Most families have these oft told classics.
3 To Help Understand Yourself and Others Better
All of us have had memorable events in our lives that shape who we are. These are sometimes called “defining moments.” Some of these experiences are positive while others are negative. By recalling and recording these things from our past, you can better understand why you think and act the way you do.
You also will become more compassionate and less judgmental as you understand why others act the way they do.
4 To Counsel Others
During your lifetime multiple people will come to you for advice and counsel. Sharing a personal experience can make your responses richer and more meaningful to them. It is good for both youth and adults to remember that although specific challenges may have been different in the past, the overall challenges don’t change that much. Teens have struggled with self esteem, friends, feelings of inadequacy and peer pressure for generations.
I have had many opportunities to counsel adolescents and young adults as a teacher, youth leader and parent over the years. Using lessons learned from my life, I have broken down barriers and built relationships of trust.
5 To Compile Your Life History
By keeping a 3 Word Journal you can easily arrange every incident – personally experienced, observed or learned from others – into sequential order by year. Create a folder and download your 3 word summaries and then arrange them chronologically. You will have a detailed outline to use in writing the history of your life.
6 To Use in Speeches and Writing
Many years ago it occurred to me that the speeches I enjoyed listening to and the books I enjoyed reading usually had something in common. They included personal experiences to make their points.
7 To Help in Your Occupation
If you were asked to name a few of the most successful businessmen during the last fifty years in America, who would you include? None were born with the knowledge they possessed about the world of business. They obviously learned valuable lessons from life and then used those lessons to reach the pinnacle of business success.
At some point these men and women we consider experts in their field must have learned valuable lessons that they share in their books. I suggest that lessons just like these are available to all of us if we will simply look closely at the world around us.
The 3 Word Journal can give you access to every significant thing you ever learned in life. That offers you an endless supply of interesting lessons learned over the years to use in your writing, teaching and parenting, and in your personal relationships.
Some experiences are put in your path to help prepare you for your life mission – that contribution to humanity tailored uniquely to someone with your talents and lessons learned. “No intelligent person in youth or old age should merely drift along. Look the world squarely in the face, listen and learn and not pass along, in life, indifferently, for there are grand lessons before you every minute. Don’t let it be said of you that life has been a failure.”
Scientists
In a sense, we are like scientists. In theory at least, each generation should be stronger and wiser than the previous one. Yet many individuals, families and cultures are actually getting weaker over time, not stronger. One factor driving this regression is the failure to recognize and learn from grand lessons. Far too many people make priceless personal discoveries in life that would be of great benefit to others only to have those lessons lost forever because they were not recorded. Each new generation then has to start from ground zero instead of standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before – all because the passing generation “didn’t have time” to record the lessons learned. It doesn’t do much good to have a life mission to help the world it the things you discover are buried six feet under with you when you die.
Each of us has been given unique gifts and talents to help us achieve what we are here to accomplish. Formal education has many benefits, but it certainly has no monopoly on the acquisition of knowledge.
Each day ask yourself, “What lesson can I learn from this?”
Since you can’t learn all the information available in your lifetime, focus on learning from the things you are exposed to every day. They are the things that you need to know to accomplish your life mission.