I’ve been lurking on this forum for months before deciding to actually make an account. Something that comes up now and again is the question “How do you use mnemonics for self improvement?”
I have a list of outlooks, traits, and lessons I want to be part of my behavior. From now on, I’ll just call them values.
This list exists both on my phone for easy review, and on my computer in Zim wiki. The wiki lets me easily add notes, images, and descriptions of the scenes. It also has a journal plugin that comes in handy later.
Loosely inspired by long stretches of Torii gates, I make up a little journey that starts at a gate (I just imagine a pair of stone pillars) and play through a little scene, with an emphasis on trying to feel whatever state I’m after. If you can’t see, hear, taste, feel or whatever it doesn’t matter. Pretend as though you could.
Once a scene is done, mentally travel to the next gate.
So, some examples. The first is “Starting is the most important part of any activity”
Outside the gates I gaze upon a seemingly infinite distance yet to travel. Stepping through, I feel satisfaction in having begun. The music from starting a new game in Pokemon can be heard.
Notes: For me a lot of procrastination and things like writer’s block can be solved just by getting yourself to start, and do a few little things a bit at a time until your mind kind of accepts this is what you’re doing and gets into it. Before writing this, I put it off more than half an hour. It wasn’t until I started mashing random words, deleting them, and putting down notes like ‘inspired by torii gates’ that I was able to get into finally writing.
Finishing something is just starting it enough times it gets done.
“Ability to forgive myself” Walking through a stone path up a mountain, I enter a cave bathed in silvery light. The back wall is a mirror, and my image draws a sword. We duel for a moment and upon disarming my doppelganger I forgive him, letting him fade away peacefully.
Notes: I straight up nicked a scene from Final Fantasy IV. During this fight the main protagonist is seeking to redeem himself of his past sins, by transforming from a dark knight into a paladin. During the battle it tells you “To be a true paladin, you must not fight now.”
I think writers are saying he has to forgive himself in order to heal from the past and be the best person he can.
In my case I’m just too harsh about failure and failings. For example these scenes “should have” been done a long time ago, and having put it off is frustrating. I want to actively forgive that, and work on them instead of being mad at myself.
“Don’t stop digging 3 feet from gold” There is a trench I’ve dug, but got no reward for it. Yukon Cornelius is about to pass by with a sled full of gold. I tell him I’m thinking about giving up, and ask for advice. He says you just need someone to show you where to look, tosses his pickaxe in the air and it lands 3 feet away, splitting the earth and revealing a vein of gold.
Notes: I think most people took the lesson to mean “Don’t give up when it seems like you failed because you’re probably at the brink of success!”
I think the lesson is a little more nuanced. Before you give up, step back and figure out if there’s something you’re missing. It’s a good time to get outside advice, because you might not be in the right state to think about the problem, and someone else might be able to give you insights you need.
I might put little symbolic tokens near the gates in the future. Professor Oak for the first, a mirror with a regretful aura near the second, Yukon Cornelius near the third. These things can be hard to come up with before making up a scene, but they can very easily remind you of the whole thing after. That could be very handy if you have lazy days and want to prime yourself on the values, without engaging in your scenes.
After making these and reviewing them every day, the last thing to do is journal at the end of the day. Write down whatever comes to mind you did that day, in-line with your values. It could be something small like “I picked my socks up off the floor.” when your value is to be organized.
I got the idea of values journaling from James Clear’s blog.
