As we complete another year, consider writing a book or journal of your experiences over the next 12 months. You might just surprise yourself with what you write down from your experiences that would be a great read for someone you know and love.

Everyone has a book inside of them, but it doesn’t do any good until you commit to pry it out of yourself and put it onto paper.

Writing a book is something everyone should consider doing within their lifetime, not only for themselves but for their family and legacy.

Everyone has their unique story and no matter how dull and boring their life is, we have one.  So, dig it out.  Who knows it may become a best seller one day.

Don’t forget, no one else sees the world the way you do. No one else can tell your stories like you. No one else has lived inside your body and experienced what you have in your lifetime.

Every famous author had a first book once.

I believe something very magical can happened when you write a book and share it with others.

A few suggestions for your personal book or journal.

Write down things you are thankful for in-a-given day that really touched you and write it down in your personal journal.

Write down something you learned daily or at least weekly that changed your thinking or impacted your life that was interesting and maybe unexpected.

Write down a story that you want to remember past or present which impacted your life in some way.

Write about a person that came to your mind as you reflect on the people that God has brought into your life over the years.  Could be a teacher, coach or friend.

Write down something you read or heard on the internet today – article or pod cast.

Write down something you heard in a meeting or conversation with friends or coworkers and want to remember.

Write down something your pastor or Sunday school teacher shared with you that impacted your life with a personal application.

Write down something funny your kids or other family members or friends said.

Write down something that if you had to do it over again, you would do it different. This may be someone from years ago or present.

My first book was called “Don’t Look Now, Your Character is Showing”.  It took me over 6 months of journaling to get the content and then 6 months to put it together for the book.  It came about from making a commitment to meet with 25 businesspeople to learn something about them and a character trait that stood out to me in their life.  I talked to some of their employees to get insights about their boss.  It was fun and interesting to learn about successful businesspeople.

The character traits I selected for each person came from a book called “Achieving True Success: How to build Character as a Family”, published by the International Association of Character Cities.  I asked permission to use some of their concepts and character definitions in the book and they granted me permission.

The discipline helped me achieve a lifelong goal of mine to write my first book.  We all have a book within us.

Enjoy the year and share some of the things you wrote in your book or journal with a loved one.