I recently discovered piles of my old work journals that have accumulated over a long and exciting corporate life working in multinational companies. Rediscovering them; I found myself leafing through the notebooks, recollecting and reflecting on combinations of written paragraphs augmented with doodles, cut-out pictures, mind-maps, printed photos of white board scribbles as well as printed excel sheets. Going through the pages of these old journals prompted me to reflect not just on the written phrases, paragraphs and images but the invaluable lessons they held.

There are numerous merits to journalizing but it’s in my own journey that I discovered the transformative power of this habit. I’ve found this exercise helpful in driving more coherence and clarity of my thoughts as well as providing me a system to drive consistent action day by day. Beyond serving as a record of daily events, check-lists and thoughts, my journal also served as an emotional outlet – a space where frustration found a voice and celebrations of an inspiring thought or event were immortalized. It was not just about processing logical thoughts; it was about navigating the emotional landscape of each day. You could say journalizing was a critical way for me to “PROCESS” a day of multiple topics and problems.  In a bigger way it was not only pertaining to distilling the logical thought of a situation or problem but also a self-reflection and awareness of emotions I dealt with when facing the puzzle at hand or a specific situation. The journal was a vehicle for me to mend both my rationale and emotional side in a formal business environment. On hindsight, it also became a gauge of my growth as well as an accounting of who I was becoming because of each experience.

Majority, if not all of, the numeric data and computations are no longer relevant. While the numeric data and computations may have lost relevance, the enduring ideas captured within those pages remain as timeless insights, ready to offer guidance. I believe that these would continue to be helpful not only for me personally but also for others pondering similar situations. I thought that it would be a good thing to share them if fate allows me the chance and an audience willing to listen. 

Flipping through a couple of pages; you’ll see quotes from great men and women, or phrases of universal truths embedded in ads and stories that spark insight, retrospection, inspiration and moves one to action. Flipping more to other pages and you’ll see doodles and graphs that provide structured representations of how things work, a flow chart on processes  or a sketch on causality of how systems interact with each other. Similar to the power of collected words; these frameworks also provide platforms for more ideas and an action.   

My notes also capture numerous twists and turns experienced over a period of executing plans. Detailing a series of diagnosis, hypothesis building, trial, scaling then iteration and refinements. It’s in the nature of projects.  As more facts come in, as ripples from once action causes a repercussion in the system and as execution is improved, we are always faced with the situation of recalibrating until the right combination of levers are pulled. 

Puzzles and Mysteries are solved by iteration. The messy trajectories of projects are only counter balanced by the moving force of a determined collaborative team solving the dilemma at hand. These tales basically reminding the need of not being too harsh or too serious about a defined plan; especially if it doesn’t land right on the first pass. If ever the lesson is to trust on our ability to sort things out eventually.

Adding “color” to my notebooks is a sprinkling of photos of my family and friends – These photos helped “center me” on what truly is important in life. This is what moves and drives me forward and inspires me even with the daily grind that corporate life usually holds.  

As I flipped through these pages, it dawned on me that these ideas, though born in the context of my corporate journey, could hold value for others navigating their own challenges. I’ll be sharing them as articles on this site. In the meantime, I hope that what I shared today moves you all to start writing, documenting and doodling. Trust me;  In a couple of years you can look back at your notes or journal and marvel at the amount of learnings you’ve gained. Moreover, you would hopefully find a sense of gratitude and accomplishment, on time well spent as you remember those gems of wisdom that would continue to guide you through your next adventures.