In this month’s Flourishing School Leader Community Cohort, I shared with our members the power and magic of creating a personal operating system, and how that has completely changed how I live and lead
**Hint: you can read about the full system here:
During our time together, I shared with these school leaders from around the world one of the things I try to do every day that has made a difference in my life over my life: journaling
For some reason, I have always been a journaler, going back to at least college. I have scores of old, tattered, very well worn journals that recount how I felt, what I was thinking, and what I was experiencing at that given time.
I have journals from my study abroad in Oxford, England and Florence, Italy; journals from my early days as a teacher; journals from my travels; journals from various seasons of life, journals as a dad, journals as a school leader
And here is what I have found as someone who is a lifelong journaler:
It keeps my mind open to what I am experiencing in real time: Writing down my struggles, concerns, challenges, and experiences in the given moment helps me process the difficulties and decisions I’m facing in real time. It gives me a clarity I would not have if I were just living in knee-jerk fashion to the moments of my life. Journaling helps me work through the options and opportunities, the moves and strategy, but, most importantly, how I feel and what I think about what I’m going through in that moment so I have more clarity (and, ideally, peace) walking out the days of my life
It grounds me in moments I may miss otherwise: Journaling grounds me to the experiences, the moments, the people, and the places I inhabit along this journey. I have journaled on the steps of the Duomo in Florence, in cafes in Copenhagen, in piazzas in Rome, in the Alps of Switzerland, in the silence of my college dorm room, in my reading chair in my office, in airplanes, on trains, in libraries and bookstores around the world. Journaling allows me to capture moments in amber that I may forget later, keeping them fresh and alive for me decades after they happen.
It shows me where life has been faithful, even and especially in hard seasons: This past month, I picked up on old journal from about 15 years ago and read through a very difficult season I went through, a time I faced a medical diagnosis I feared might even be life threatening. I reread the fears, anxiety, and concerns I had about leaving my family too soon, about not experiencing my children growing up, about facing my own mortality. Thankfully, that diagnosis did not come to pass, and I am still here today, but, rereading my thoughts during that time reminded me that I have faced extremely difficult seasons and stood in horrific storms and somehow came through the other side. Rereading these gives me hope in the difficulties I face in this season that I have come through pain and sorrow, challenges and loss before, and I can (with grace and resolve) do so again
In the Cohort session, I shared that I often journal first thing in the morning to start my day with fresh thoughts and clarity of mind, and at the end of the day to record the things I experienced, did, and thought as a way to bookend a given day.
Journaling may not be for everyone, but I do think it is an essential skill for leaders, for the reasons I list above and for the calm, clarity, confidence, and conviction it inspires as you lean into leading other human beings who are just as frail, fraught, and fragile as you are
I am reminded that some of the greatest works of philosophy and thinking about life and living well were essentially just the journals of people going through the storms themselves: Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Anne Frank, Sylvia Plath
These were people living and doing life, recording their thoughts, musings, and experiences, who left for us a rich guidebook of an inner life not that far off from ours
What I have found over the years is that, at its heart, journaling is not a productivity hack — it's a practice of formation.
Every page is a small act of attention, a refusal to let the days pass unexamined.
The leaders who journal aren't just recording what happened; they're becoming someone through the act of writing it down.
So here's my invitation to you: don't wait for the perfect notebook or the ideal morning routine.
Open the page. Ask the question underneath all the others — who am I becoming, in this work, on this day? — and let the answer form slowly, sentence by sentence.
That's not self-improvement. That's flourishing taking shape one line at a time.
Blessings on the journey
Scott
If this resonates and you would like more in-depth engagement on your own personal and professional development as a school leader in a collaborative community of colleagues who understand and share the burden and blessing of leading a school
Then the Flourishing School Leaders Cohort is for you!!
Once a month, a group of bold, brilliant, kind, thoughtful, innovative school leaders gathers to lean into inspired strategy, hope-filled community, and authentic collaboration
This group hails from around the world, from Alabama to Bangladesh, but the one thing they have in common is their commitment to improving themselves as leaders for the schools they serve
We meet once a month online to engage a given topic, then spend time in cohorts unpacking what we are learning and experiencing as leaders before sharing out our experiences and needs as school leaders
It is a sacred gathering that is truly transformative
We would love to have you at the table!
