Automatically transcribed, so expect the odd wrong name or word.
Hey legends, I hope you're all having a spectacular day. Now, I've just recorded a super podcast with Tommy and Shawny, which I think will be uploaded when this one's up, 'cause this one will go up after. But if you haven't listened to it, I would highly recommend it. But while I was here, while I had the mic on in front of me, I thought I'd spend 10, 15 minutes doing another little riff, solo chat. I had some great feedback from the last one, so I figured, hey, why the hell not? Today's topic, what I wanna
talk about is writing, more specifically, journaling, and I guess just having, working on a way to find an outlet for all of the crazy thoughts that we, well, I know I have, that I think most of us have going on in our heads. The reason why I wanna talk about this today is because it's something that I do every day, and it's something that I try and share as much as possible, and I guess through reverse osmosis, or the power of the Instagrams and the internet, I've had a bunch of people shoot me messages and
ask me about what's my process, how do I do it, how do I go about it, how do I keep myself accountable to it, all of those kind of things, and I'm stoked to know that there's a handful of people that have all kind of taken this habit on board now and been able to cultivate their own journaling practice. And yeah, I just wanted to have a chat about it, and I'll talk about kind of what I do, what my process is, why I do it, first and foremost, and kind of how I got started.
And I wanna chat about my weekly rap a little bit as well, which is kind of a, it's a more public version of my journal, one that I send out each week. So long story short is I loved reading when I was a kid, probably more of a younger kid. That was definitely facilitated by family members who would read to me, like grandparents and parents and things like that, and I remember reading all your childhood classics, like your Enid Blunt books, and Dr. Seuss and all that kind of stuff, and I think that that has probably allowed me or gave me the skills, I was always really good at English, or really good enough, better than maths.
Let's just stick with that. When I was at school, I loved English and enjoyed reading even the books that we had to read at school, and then probably spent five to 10 years not really reading, anything that wasn't a strength and conditioning publication. And then a couple of years ago, maybe 2016, something clicked and I fell back in love with reading. Part of it was definitely the search for information and understanding about how the world works, how other people think, and all that kind of thing, and then the other part of it was the competitive part of me that just wanted to read more and wanted to up the tally of how many books I read.
And that kind of got me into a really good rhythm of reading and hearing, and I guess diving into how other people think, especially all of the people that are the readers, the authors that, I don't know why I said readers, the authors that we all look up to, whether it be J.K. Rowling, Tolkien, George R.R. Martin fantasy kind of books, or whether it be like your Steven Pressfield or Malcolm Gladwell or Tim Ferriss, those kind of books. These are people that have invested the time and energy wanting to cultivating a practice of writing, but also compiling information or creating a story that we can all look to and find either comfort with or find inspiration and motivation through.
I guess that getting stuck into reading and feeling like I had something to say, I had things that I'd learnt or whether it be by reading or by doing that could add value to others, I kind of set about wanting to cultivate a journaling practice and I dabbled, and I use that word very lightly, I dabbled with journaling prior to that. I'd spent maybe two or three years writing 10 pages of a journal in months, I'd write a couple of pages, get into a little bit of a rhythm and then just not do it, which
I'm sure most of you who are listening have probably been in a similar state of mind, a similar place, I kept a bunch of those journals, so I've got a bunch of those barely filled out journals on my wall, they're on the bookshelf, which is next to the wall. And I look through them now and I kind of laugh at my attempts, but knowing that those attempts at cultivating that practice are the reason why I've been able to get into a rhythm now, I've probably spent, I think it was 2017? 2018, it was 2018 where I kind of went, yep, I'm gonna make this happen.
I was gifted a, 2017 I dabbled and did a very poor job at journaling, 2018 I dabbled and did a very poor job said, yep, this is a year where I get it sorted. I was lucky enough to be gifted a beautiful journal at the start of the year, I think it might've been me and a Christmas present 2017. And I started writing it early in 2018, I kind of did a bit of a summary for what happened in 2017 and what my plans were and what I'd learned and all those kinds of things. And
then spent probably a couple of months trying to find my rhythm and trying to find my groove in terms of what I wanted to share and what I wanted to put in that journal. And I've got that journal in front of me now and like, it was things like, I did a power list for a while, which is like five things a day I wanted to work on or it was what I was grateful for. It was information on courses I was doing, it was stuff about work, it was just kind of like all over the shop, it was a bit of everything.
A lot of gratitude stuff, which I found helped a lot, but I look through the journal now and I'm, where are we, about halfway through the book and I'm at August, no September, ninth month is September, so it took me half a book to get to September and then from there I decided that there was a certain way I was gonna set out my journal. And it was, when was the date, 17th of September in 2018. I decided to set it out the way that I've set it out every day since then. And today is day number 505, 507.
So I've done 507 days in a row. And I believe there's three reasons why I've been able to cultivate that habit to a point where I've done 507 days in a row. And I think it's gonna be something I do forever. I hope it's something I do forever. One, one of those reasons is because I started tracking the number I was at. So every day when I finish my journal, I write the number that I'm up to. So tomorrow I'll write 508, day after I write 509, I'll just follow on from there. Second reason, actually I've got four reasons.
The second reason that I think it's, I've been able to stick at it was because I set it out a certain way that allowed me to both share my own thoughts, but also to cultivate, probably not the wrong word, is communicate thoughts of others. So on the left hand side of the page, I do one page of a stream of consciousness. It's basically whatever I'm resonating with, whatever I'm thinking about that day, I don't really tend to do a, today I did this. It's more of a, I pick a word or an idea or something that's come up a couple of times and I write about it.
So it might be about being reliable. It might be about focus. It might be around something I'm looking forward to. Yeah, or it might be based off the quote or the quotes that I write on the right hand side of the page. So left hand side's my thoughts. Right hand side is any pieces of wisdom or any interesting anecdotes or aphorisms that I just gained from, whether it be Instagram, Medium, a conversation I've had, a TV show I'm watching, a book I'm reading, I'll write it down on the right hand side of the page. And
I've found that one, it's a great tool to be able to flick back to my 400th journal entry and kind of see where my head was at but also connect with that piece of information that I found beneficial on that day. The third reason is because I've found a type of journal that I love. It's a nice A5-ish, I think, leather journal. Kiki K, I buy them from. I've got my initials embossed on the front. So now I've got a pile of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven? Five, five journals. I've got five full journals that I can now keep for one.
I can look back at and kind of, if I want to reflect on anything, if I want to reflect on a certain time in my life, I can reflect on that. But basically, that looked really nice on the shelf standing next to each other. So I'm kind of adding to that number on the page but I'm also adding to the pile on my shelf which obviously it takes, I think these are like 160 page books or something like that. I tend to write a bit of a summary at the start at the end of it so I think I get about 120 days of journaling out of each of these.
But it's just, yeah, it's a contribution to something that I'll have forever and it's something that when I, maybe 100 days in, I was kind of like, this will be a cool thing to be able to share with future me but also with my kids and anyone else that kind of is interested into where I was at at each stage of my life and I'm able to use my past experiences. I can grab the journal from the end of 2018 and kind of look at what I was struggling with and we tend to struggle with
the same things sometimes over and over so we forget some of the advice we give ourselves so it was an opportunity to dive into that. I also have a really nice pen that I write with. I haven't got the most expensive pen in the world but I've found one that I just love the feeling of and that's been a big part of the reason why I'm still doing it. I remember early on if I missed a day, oh, I would be really frustrated with myself and you kind of think about quitting but I've cultivated the
habit now where if I miss a day, then it doesn't matter because whatever we're working towards in life or at work or whatever, if we do miss a day, if we decide to not go to the gym that day or whatever, we don't have to start again the next day. We just basically put that goal on hold for 24 hours. So I've done the same thing with my journaling. If I miss a day, that's okay 'cause obviously life happens and I'll probably miss one every two or three weeks is that the following day, I'll just catch up with it.
So if, for example, Saturdays tends to be the day that I forget to do it because my routine's out. If I miss a Saturday, then Sunday morning or afternoon when I sit down to do my Sunday journal, I'll fill in Saturday as well. So I just catch up. I know the volume of work I need to do which is one page a day, every day of the year. If I miss a day, then I follow up the next day. So I've found that mindset has allowed me to just continue and just carry on and add to the body of work that I'm creating with this.
And journaling, I don't wanna say it's not for everyone but because I think it is, I think it's something that everyone should or could cultivate a habit in which enriches their life in different ways. But knowing that there are a million different ways to set it up and to do it and to hold yourself accountable and things like that, just give it a crack 'cause I think most people are, if they don't currently have a habit, wanting one because you can never, and this is what I like about writing is you can never write faster than you can think.
So whatever topic I'm mulling over or thought process, I've got a page of writing where I've gotta think about what I'm putting down on the paper and to be honest, some days is garbage. I definitely feel like it's rabble coming from my brain but getting that rabble out on the page helps me think a little clearer and feel a little bit better about what I'm focusing on for the day or what I'm working towards and some days I write things that are a little bit more legible and they're ones that I can look back on and go, yeah, I was on that day.
And I guess a habit I've been cultivating now, where are we, 2020. So early 2018 when I first started attempting journaling, I decided to start putting out a weekly email for our Virtus family and that weekly email, Wallace's Weekly Wrap, I've done every, I think I might have missed a couple of weeks but I've done pretty much every week since. So I think I tried to figure out how many weeks I'd missed and with a couple of holidays and a few hectic times, I think I'd missed three to four weeks in a two-year period which I was pretty happy with and I decided to do that for a couple of reasons.
I decided to do that, one, because I wanted a habit, a weekly habit that would be useful for the Virtus family. So it's a, I guess it's a contribution to our culture. I want to be able to share the things that either I'm struggling with or the wins I've had or the issues that have come up in conversation amongst the Virtus family, whether it's in the gym, outside of the gym, over text, over a phone call, over a coffee, we're in a very fortunate position where we have a lot of great humans we can chat
to about what's going on in their world and we are fortunate enough to have the responsibility to be able to help or to guide in certain situations, especially around health and fitness. So to be able to take those conversations and the things that people are struggling with and the things that us as coaches or me as an individual is struggling with and kind of ride on it and riff on it and open up the conversation has been incredibly beneficial and I, even if, to be honest, if no one read it, I'd probably still do it.
Fortunately, we still get a bunch of readers each week, which I love and I love the feedback that comes with it, but knowing that there's that, there's that positive pressure that comes with expressing a goal or a desire publicly. So obviously, most of you guys that listen would be subscribed to that email and most of our Virtus family would know that every week, Lockie sends an email. So now that I've got that positive pressure on and I've got 500 days of journaling behind me, both of those things force me to create a routine in which,
or through which, I can contribute time to both of those commitments, because if I didn't do it, if I didn't commit to those things, then it'd be really easy to just fall off the wagon. And that routine is something I've worked really hard on and been able to cultivate to allow me to do those things. So my routine for my journaling is pretty simple. If I'm at work and coaching at 6 a.m., then after coaching, whenever it might be, 7 a.m., 8 a.m., 9 a.m., I'll walk around to Common Folk and sit in front of a coffee in my journal and write a page.
And I find knowing that I've got the half a K walk around the corner to kind of get my mind settled and then got the time with the coffee and maybe a few people around to sit there and do it, that tends to allow me enough time and space and space in my own head to be able to put those words on paper. And then if I don't have work that morning, then I'll either get to a coffee shop or get a coffee that I make at home in front of me, sit there and do it.
So that kind of like thing I should do, I match up the thing I should do, which is the journaling with something I want to do, which is sit there and have coffee. And that tends to help really well. You know, every now and again, I'll be sitting on the couch at 10.30 at night and go, I need to go to sleep, and then realize I haven't done my journal. So they're the days where I don't follow that routine, but most days I do. And then the weekly wrap is a very similar process. It just takes a little bit longer.
So every Friday morning, I try and do this like clockwork. If we could have less public holidays on Friday, that'd be great, 'cause I think three of the ones I've missed. I'll go to Common Folk, I'll sit down. If there's someone sitting next to me, I'll kind of say, what should I write about? And if I don't get any ideas from that question, then I'll have a look in my journal and figure it out from there. Because to be honest, most weeks I don't have any idea of what I'm gonna write about until I actually start writing and I feel as though that helps because I can kind of hit the areas which are front of mind.
And I tend to find I get the most feedback, the most positive feedback from the ones where I'm like, yeah, I have no idea what I'm gonna write today. And that positive pressure I spoke about before, the public announcement that I'm gonna do it, people are expecting my email and people are looking forward to my email, which I take as a, it's an honor and a pleasure, but it's also a responsibility for me to actually do the work. Yeah, so that's it. Routine, nice journal, have a system, and just follow it. And I think that
I still don't think I'm a good writer, but it's something that I want to get better at and I practice and kind of do my best to improve on every day. And it's something that I'm in the process of writing a book at the moment. It's something that even if I'm not contributing to my book every day, which I've been a bit slack lately, I've had a few roadblocks around kind of what I'm writing about and how I'm putting it on paper and how I'm actually expressing my feelings and the story and things like that. And knowing that I'm contributing each week to the weekly email and each day to my journal just gives me another little bit of currency.
It's just money in the bank towards being a better writer, being a better human and having a bigger capacity to share what I'm going through and to share what we're all going through to hopefully add value and contribute to anyone that reads, listens or talks about the stuff. So thank you for listening. Thank you for taking the time. If you did enjoy me talking about things, feel free to shoot me some feedback. Be amazing.
