In this series of posts, I’m putting two ideas together—the idea that smart, creative, sensitive individuals are confronted by special challenges and the idea that journaling is a valuable self-help tool—and turning them into a set of journaling prompts designed to lead you on a personal journey of discovery.
I hope that you enjoy these prompts. Here are five more challenges, and four journal prompts to go with each challenge. Engaging with any one of them may well serve you. I hope you find these valuable! And I hope you’ll take a look at Why Smart People Hurt and at my latest journal, Affirmations for Self-Love.
- Obsessive self-reflection
A smart, sensitive, creative person can spend just too much time in his or her own mind, ruminating, turning matters over, spinning out fantasies, replaying insults, rehashing disappointments, and so on.
+ Would you say that you spend too much time, too little time, or just the right amount of time in your own mind?
+ Do you find your own thoughts stuffy, claustrophobic, and repetitive?
+ There are productive obsessions and unproductive obsessions. Which are yours more like?
+ Are you in the habit of turning matters over too many times and seeing them from too many angles? What would you like to do instead?
2. Uncontrolled energy
Brain power and the creative impulse amount to forms of energy driving a person to think and to create. But like any engine, the brain can produce too much energy, to the point where the brain’s host loses control of all that energy.
+ Are you in good control of your mental energy? Or is it in control of you?
+ Picture mania as a train hurtling down the tracks out of control. What might bring it back to a safer speed?
+ What are your thoughts on the connection between uncontrolled energy and distractibility?
+ What might happen after racing like that? Maybe a low would naturally come next, which might be labelled as depression? Your thoughts on that?
3. Seeing through one’s own rationalizations
A smart person is sharp, and sharp enough to see through his or her own rationalizations. You make the claim that you can’t tackle a certain creative project for a, b, and c reasons—but you see right through those excuses. In such ways do smart people disappoint themselves and expose themselves to self-criticism.
+ When you create an excuse for not doing something creative or intellectual, do you see through your own excuse almost immediately?
+ All people are defensive. Discuss the relationship between the defense of rationalization and the pain of seeing through one’s own rationalizations.
+ Can you recall a time when you tried to rationalize something away, but saw through your efforts?
+ What would it take to rationalize less and to make fewer excuses in life?
4. A penchant for debating
A smart, creative person is typically verbally adept and good at poking holes in the arguments of others. As a result, he or she can spend too much time and effort debating others, to little point and often at the cost of the relationship.
+ Have you harmed relationships by debating?
+ Do you like to tear apart other people’s constructs and arguments? Do you enjoy that activity or would you prefer to be less critically astute?
+ Debating does not usually change another person’s mind. What can change another person’s mind?
+ Have you stifled your ability to debate and other aspects of your razor sharpness? Would you like to boldly free them?
5. Insatiability
Brain power and the creative impulse combine to create a kind of insatiable hunger, where as soon as something is completed the hunger to rush on to the next delicious project produces new pressure, giving life a relentless coloration.
+ Are you always hungry?
+ Do you experience the pressure of insatiability?
+ If you are always hungry, and if that is a problem for you, what might you do to feel move satisfied and less pressed to rush on?
+ What are the dangers of insatiability and constant hunger?
More next time! Enjoy!
