It's July, which is my birth month -- and this year is a big one, I'm turning 50! Because I swim in a gene pool shared by long livers (three of my grandparents lived past 95, and one lived until 102!), I figure I'm only halfway done. So to celebrate my birthday, I've decided that for every day for the first two weeks of this month, I'm going to share images and words representing what I hope the next 50 years will have more of. Time to say it and claim it, by gum. And maybe, if what I say resonates with you, you'll be inspired to get more of these things for your next 50 years, too.

The starting point of discovering who you are, your gifts, your talents, your dreams, is being comfortable with yourself. Spend time alone. Write in a journal.

~ Robin S. Sharma

I began writing in a journal about 9 years ago, after being inspired by my friend Jen Lee's amazing journal. At the time, I would spend 20 minutes every morning writing, before starting my day. I found that writing cleared my head, and got me more focused to tackle the day's tasks. It was meditative, and for a time it was a ritual that really worked to calm me and make me more productive.

As time went on, however, I became less consistent in my journaling practice. I mean, in all honesty, I'm still an avid journaler -- at the very least, my daily to-do lists and notes that I take during meetings or phone calls or work during the day make it into my journal -- but I'm more sporadic about capturing my thoughts in my journal. These days, I tend to grab my journal when I've had a stressful day, and doodle for a couple of hours. Or collage. Or if I'm reading a good book or article, I might pull a good quote from it to practice my handwriting. But my daily practice has turned into a every-couple-of-weeks practice. I'm not consistent.

So this post is more of a reminder that my journal isn't just a journal, but it's self-care and a creativity tool. And that I can never have too much of it in my life. Time to work it into my daily life again.

Soundtrack: Word up, as performed by Willis

Also for my birthday, I thought I'd give a nice, deep discount to one of my most popular online courses, GLOW: a 21-day ecourse for claiming your light! So if you'd like to get more light in your life, enter coupon code WATCHMEGLOW for 30% off the course. It really is a great course: one participant said she was so happy to rediscover "how blessed I am in my life"; another said, "GLOW came into my life at the perfect time. It is slowly changing my mental state and I have been focusing on the positives for the first time in ages." So join me. It's a great way to jumpstart a daily journaling practice.

click here to register for glow