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📚(Week 6 of 6) - Learn to Journal like Ralph Waldo Emerson
Published 7 days ago • 4 min read
Learn to Journal Like Ralph Waldo Emerson (Week 6 of 6)
Hello Reader,
This is the last of a six-week series I'll be sending, called "Learn to Journal Like Ralph Waldo Emerson."
I know, it's a catchy title.😂
Here's a quick breakdown of what we covered:
Week 1 (Aug 27) - A journal is a savings bank of your ideas.
Week 2 (Sept 3) - You must be in constant contact with your journals.
Week 3 (September 10) - The John Locke indexing system of journals and other ideas.
Week 4 (September) - Emerson's improved index of journals and the 400-page master index.
Week 5 (September 24) - How Emerson used his journals to think better.
Week 6 (Today) - Final wrap-up and tips for better journaling.
Lessons for Better Journaling
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been walking through Ralph Waldo Emerson’s approach to journaling. Today, I wanted to finish with some wisdom from one of his most famous essays, Self-Reliance.
Some great lines in this essay could make our relationship with journals more meaningful. And who doesn't want more meaning, right? Here are five lines for the essay that stood out to me:
1. “Speak your latent conviction.” Latent means “existing but not yet developed.” A journal is a workshop for underdeveloped thoughts. When you sit down to write, you’re finding ideas.
2. “Envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide.” Emerson reminds us to stop imitating and start living. I think of my journal as a safe place where I can discover my own voice—without worrying about what social media, friends, or the crowd might say.
3. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” A journal can help us test our own habits and patterns. It’s where we can ask: Am I just repeating myself for the sake of it? Or am I really growing and changing?
4. “Man is timid and apologetic… he dares not say ‘I think,’ ‘I am.’” In the pages of a journal, you don’t have to apologize. You get to state your truths as you understand them. Sometimes the simple act of writing “I am” is the bravest kind of self-respect.
5. “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.” Family and friends bring us joy, but peace is an inside job. A journal invites the kind of self-reflection that makes inner peace possible.
I hope you liked this series on journaling with Emerson. I got a lot out of it. My biggest takeaway is that a journal isn't about keeping track of events --> it's about finding and shaping my ideas.
I’d love to hear from you. Did you like the series? Would you like to see more content like this?
👋 Until next week, read slowly – take notes – apply the ideas.
-Eddy
---------------------------- Works Cited: Richardson, Robert D. First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process. University of Iowa Press, 2009.
Richardson, Robert D. Emerson: The Mind on Fire. University of California Press, 1995.
This Week's Book Recommendation
Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life
Let’s be honest: if it’s about Socrates, I’m buying it. And I love this book.
Open Socrates falls into that vein of modern writers helping us make sense of difficult philosophers. We need books like this—because let’s face it, the old thinkers (and plenty of modern ones) can be almost impossible to understand.
Agnes Callard does a great job working through some of Socrates’ most famous positions—like his claim that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” What does that even mean? Callard walks you through it with some crispy writing.
Socrates was a tricky old man. He annoyed a lot of people because he never stopped asking questions. If you’ve ever read Plato’s dialogues, you know what I mean—Socrates can even be a little annoying to read at times! But that’s the point. He wasn’t after easy answers; he wanted to ask the kinds of questions that made people stop and think.
And honestly—that’s what we need more of: thinking.
If you’ve ever wanted to learn about the father of Western philosophy without getting lost in the weeds, this book is a great place to start.
Join Us for a Month of Deep Reading
In November, I’m hosting a live deep reading course on one of my favorite novellas: Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich. This short book is only about 60 pages long, but it opens up enormous questions about meaning, mortality, and how we live our lives.
Over the course, we’ll meet together to slow down, read closely, and really wrestle with Tolstoy’s words. My goal is to help you experience the book in the way it was meant to be read—not rushed, but carefully, with time to think and discuss.
We opened the class to 100 seats, and as of today, there are 69 spots left. If you’ve ever wanted to read Tolstoy with a guide (and with a group of fellow readers), this is your chance. 👇🏻
$249.00
Standard Seat: 30-Day Deep Reading Course 📚 The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Class Limit: 69 seats left
We’re reading one of the greatest novellas ever written—and I’m inviting you to read it with... Read more
Feel free to respond to this email. Let me know how I can make your experience in our reading community better, or if you have questions, I'm all ears.
As always, read slowly - take notes - apply the ideas.
-Eddy
Got Questions?
Reply to this email with your questions. I respond to each and sometimes make a podcast or video to answer your bookish questions.
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Subscribe to my newsletter for tips on close reading, detailed note-taking, and applying bookish wisdom to your life. I talk about fiction and non-fiction, interview literary experts, and host The Read Well Podcast. Subscribe today and build better reading habits.