Your life’s wisdom, refined year after year.

I did a deep dive this morning on the concept of a Codex Vitae. I put Codexes into the category of ex [Coach Tony]( Coach Tony [@tonystubblebine]( I did a deep dive this morning on the concept of a Codex Vitae. I put Codexes into the category of extreme journaling. A Codex is a book representing your life’s wisdom, that you refine year after year until you die. In practice, it’s actually most often a single long web page or journal entry. You get two twists on journaling here. First, it imbues the writing with a sense of grandiosity, and then, second, it gives you some structured topics to ruminate on. It shouldn’t surprise you that this appeals to me and that I have [my own](. Here are some inspirations I picked up as I read other people’s Codexes. ___ Journaling is an amazing multi-tool. Sometimes when I teach journaling concepts to people, I have a hard time explaining how flexible they can be. You can do stream of consciousness investigations à la Julia Cameron’s [morning pages technique](. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and here are two uses that I’d never considered before: 1. Discovering and addressing contradictions from [Greg Clarke’s Codex:]( By defining my beliefs & principles I can recognise when my actions misalign. When this inevitably occurs, I will consciously decide whether to alter my actions or my Codex Vitae. This public document is an invitation to others to hold me accountable to my commitments and to help me identify contradictions. 2. Questioning whether to continue to believe your beliefs from [Terrie Schweitzer’s Codex](: Pull my beliefs into the light where I can question them more effectively… Don’t believe everything you think — The rational brain is a good tool for understanding but it is not the only tool. Intuition, heart, soul, spirit, senses, body: all of these are also good. ___ We crave purpose. A lot of people addressed head-on the ambiguousness of manufacturing your own sense of purpose. From [Buster Benson’s Codex](: “It’s okay to identify our own objectives in life and call them a purpose.” And also from [David Howell’s Codex:]( Human life has no cosmic, unambiguous purpose: we have the opportunity and responsibility to find and make that choice on our own, between ourselves. However, meaning and choice are constrained by our physical and social environment. The skills we learn and the communities of practice we inhabit shape the possible sources of meaning available to us. ___ Speaking of journaling as a multi-tool. Just to connect the dots, [Interstitial Journaling]( is definitely another example of how flexible journaling can be. People always ask me what they should journal about in between work tasks. So I give them a default to start with. But the truth is that you should journal about whatever is going to help you succeed at your next task. There’s a lot of hidden flexibility there. ___ The correct Cal Newport link. I gave the wrong link in yesterday’s newsletter. It should be: I’ve read a lot about Cal Newport but never heard him speak. Here he is, [making the case for not following your passion](. That’s putting the cart before the horse. Instead, focus on skill and by building skills, you will find passion. ___ Our next training to become a Certified Habit Coach starts this coming Monday. One of the things I'm most proud of is how many people we've helped become coaches. If you are at all interested in getting started as a coach, [join here](. Don’t miss out on the other issues by Coach Tony [Become a member for $5 per month]( Did you enjoy this issue? [Yes]( [No]( [Coach Tony]( Coach Tony [@tonystubblebine]( Tips, inspirations, and knowledge on productivity, happiness, health, and making an impact on our world. Official email of the Better Humans publication on Medium. (@bttrhumans) You can manage your subscription [here](. In order to unsubscribe, click [here](. If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe [here](. Created with [Revue by Twitter](.