back to school...

The lucky of us never stop learning. The whole world is our school and we revel in learning something new every day. I have a friend who kept a learning journal and, every night before she went to bed, she wrote down what she'd learned that day. What a marvelous way to reinforce your own experiences!

I've spoken before about being a reflective writer. About taking the time to look back on what you've accomplished/learned/experienced and then writing about it. Today is one of those days.

Yes, there is a danger in looking back too often. Living in the past is no way to move forward into the future.

Yet that's not really what I want you to do today. Today (or sometime this week), take a look only at what you've written in the past year. If you've been doing each of these exercises (there are just under a year's worth of them!), pull out what you wrote for each one and read it over again, then do the following:

1. Where do you see growth as a writer? What have you learned to do (or not do?)? Take 10-15 minutes and write down your observations.

2. What is your favorite piece from the year? Why? What did you like about it (be as specific as you can)?

3. Which is your worst piece? Why do you think it is? If you were to give it to someone else to read, would they agree with you?

4. Start looking ahead. What are some new skills/techniques you hope to learn in the coming year?

Enjoy the introspection and leave a tip in the jar on the way out...

Diana

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