Some people say I write a LOT of letters.
The letters I write have an opinion. I like to acknowledge the people I write to. And, it’s really easy to find people to send these letters. When I look out at my world and see an action, a movement or an event and have the thought, “Wow, I’m grateful,” that’s my indicator to take out my journal and write.
Just about everything I do begins as an idea in a notebook. Or on a white board. And, every now and then, on a restaurant napkin (hopefully, a paper napkin!). This gives me the chance to write a “rough, rough draft,” knowing that if I really do ultimately write that letter that I’m thinking it’ll have gone through a few revisions.
Many times, I keep the original letter I send. It’s easier than you think…all I do is take a picture with my Smart Phone, and add that jpg as a note in my digital filing system. I label the photo with the name of the person I’m writing, that’s it. All the meta data (when I wrote it, where I wrote it) is saved in the file itself.
As you can see from the picture below, I’ve been doing this for a long, long time!
Over time, I’ve experimented with different formats for my letter writing exercises. For a while now, the letters I write follow a loose format which includes responding to the following prompts:
- I call out in 4-7 sentences exactly what I saw (or learned) that person did.
- Next, I describe how “what they did” makes me feel.
- And, I include what I’ve learned from their action.
Now, that’s all a loose suggestion, and I’ve only been practicing writing letters like that for a few years. I can imagine in a decade or so I’ll have changed it up again, but that’s not the point. The most important thing is that you ask yourself THIS question:
“Are there people in my world I could write a letter to?"
If the answer is anywhere near YES, open your Momentum Journal and write that person’s name on the top of the page. Over the next couple of days, add a few lines, ideas or paragraphs as you begin to respond to the three prompts above.
Want some help? I write and talk a lot about “Journaling” in my books. Click here.