Daybooks
“You are exactly where you need to be. This is the perfect day to start your life again.” ~Brianna Wiest, The Pivot Year
This month, I revisited the old-fashioned ritual of reading a daybook entry every morning. It’s a wonderful way to start a new year — and it helps keep me grounded, positive, and motivated.
Not to be confused with journals or diaries, daybooks originated in the late 1500s as books for recording daily events or accounting transactions. Over time, daybooks evolved into curated collections of short spiritual musings, magazine clippings, inspirational quotes, and other bits of wisdom. In recent years, daybooks such as Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Simple Abundance and Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening have gained popularity with modern readers.
Today, there are daybooks appealing to a wide variety of interests, from spiritual life lessons to meditations on creativity and Stoic philosophy. Daybook entries are typically short — just a few pithy paragraphs on one page — and meant to be read one day at a time for a year. Each message is crafted to inspire personal reflection or positive motivation.
New favorites of mine include The Daily Stoic: 365 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, by Ryan Holiday and The Pivot Year: 365 Days to Become the Person You Truly Want to Be, by Brianna Wiest.
January is the perfect time to begin a new daybook. The practice of reading a short, thought-provoking entry each day won’t demand much of your time, yet its many life-changing benefits might surprise you. ~CL
Cindy La Ferle
Throughout my career, I've worked as a book production editor, travel magazine editor, features writer, and weekly newspaper columnist. My award-winning lifestyles features and essays have appeared in many national magazines and anthologies, including Newsweek, Reader's Digest, The Christian Science Monitor, Writer's Digest, Victoria, Better Homes & Gardens, Bella Grace, and more. My weekly Sunday "Life Lines" column ran for 14 years in The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak, MI) and won a First Place (Local Columns) award from the Michigan Press Association. My essay collection, Writing Home, includes 93 previously published columns and essays focusing on parenthood and family life.
