Welcome to a new feature. No story. No setup. Just the wisdom.In 2014 I started a Ritual I call My Daily Recap, a structured journal entry to recap my day. In 2015 I added to it with the fifth section, to record one lesson I learned during the day.

Each year as I review the year’s recaps, I harvest the gold that those lessons contain. They come back to me like little wisdom bytes. It is a shame to keep them to myself, so I decided that I will share them here periodically.

Why not make use of my hard-earned wisdom?

As a start, here are 10 lessons I learned in January 2017.

1

You have to honor the rhythms of your body and your process. You can’t force yourself into an arbitrary schedule imposed by someone else, even if that someone else is the entire culture. Going after a goal that you don’t want won’t fulfill you. Doing something in someone else’s timeline won’t serve you. Those voices are part of the noise. The magic happens when we hear the silence.

2

The pains that you have struggled with are not unique to you. Your journey in healing your pains will be your best asset and resource as you expand yourself to help others.

3

Small changes often don’t produce any noticeable results when you look at them one by one. It is only when you look at them over the span of time that you can truly appreciate how much they move the needle.

4

We tend to cling to negative feedback, experiences and outcomes over the positive. We need to create new tapes that remind us who we are and what we are capable of doing. Acknowledging and celebrating the wins helps us create those new tapes.

5

The only thing you need is already within you: the desire to serve others by sharing your wisdom and your heart.

6

It’s so important to honor your own rhythms and to find the stillness to listen to your inner knowing. We only feel stuck when we don’t listen to our inner guidance. It knows what we want and need and how to make it happen. But we can’t hear it when we are racing around reacting to life.

7

There are people out there who find resonance in what you offer. You have a responsibility to share your voice and my perspective with those people and not leave them out there feeling alone. It’s your duty to ensure that they know that they are not alone.

8

The act of writing down your wins and what you are learning on a regular basis — daily, weekly, monthly, annually — is a crucial ritual to build momentum and catalyze growth. Writing them down brings them to the surface. It sparks thoughts of other wins and lessons that you may have forgotten. And seeing them in writing helps you connect the dots and see patterns in your work and what you are learning.

9

Focus on a message that transcends the lifespan of any medium, and also learn how to craft your message in a way that will best leverage the qualities of that medium. When you can do both, that’s a home run.

10

The universe and God give us what we want without regard to when we think we are ready for it. We never believe we are ready; we can always find some reason that we are not ready or some reason why we can’t implement. The truth is that God never gives us anything that is beyond our capability to handle. This is a key lesson to remember daily: trust. You are more ready than you believe. You have preparing for this moment for your whole life.

Which wisdom byte resonates most with you?