Recently, I received a copy of My Green Notebook: ‘Know Thyself’ Before Changing Jobs. Between all the self-help options, I have struggled to find a means to help me start a self-reflection routine. If you are looking for a way to jump start your self-reflection program and gain accountability, this guide is absolutely necessary. Over the course of thirty days the prompts help make self-reflection a quick and easy habit focused on daily improvement.
The authors, Joe Byerly and Cassie Crosby, have worked together on the website, From the Green Notebook. Their website provides a trove of resources, including podcasts and articles. The content ranges from general leadership topics, to personal development and organizational growth.
When he isn’t managing From the Green Notebook, Joe is an active duty Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army. He draws from two decades of leadership and organizational experience. Cassie is a retired military officer who now operates her own leadership consulting and coaching firm, Iterata Solutions. They both draw from their military experience when writing, yet their audience is not constrained to only the military.
Likewise, their book is intended to be for professionals who are in moments of transition. It seeks to engage readers between jobs and as they reflect on their recent experience in order to grow.
These transitions are more episodic for those of us in the military. Our career paths tend to bring abrupt transitions every three to four years. The premise of the book is to facilitate a daily moment of reflection as you work through your transition to your next job. They provide a 30-day guided reflection theme with two accompanying questions that help you to focus on an aspect of yourself.
Structurally, the thirty days fits well. Thirty days is usually the amount of time one finds themselves on leave – or moving to that next job or school. Each day’s prompts are easy to manage and I was able to directly connect with the accompanying questions.
There were a few times that I could not connect to the prompts. I struggled to derive an experience or memory that allowed me to reflect on the theme of the day. Other times, the prompt didn’t speak to me at the moment. However, it did not hold me back from progressing because each daily prompt is not sequential. You aren’t required to follow each day prescriptively. I found myself fast forwarding to a day that I knew I could connect with and would ultimately come back to the previous day I was having trouble with at a different time.
This books #1 benefit to me was induced accountability. It allowed me to create a habit of self-reflection. The guided approach taught me that I didn’t have to write a short story every day in a journal to benefit from reflection. Nor was every day going to be awe inspiring. I reset my expectations for reflection. The prompts did not drain me of my time or energy and instead allowed me to connect and immediately begin capturing my thoughts.
For those new to self-reflection and finding ways to build it into their days, the daily prompt took me less than five minutes and the meaningless time to reflect left me energized. This self-reflection guide is critical for any professional, inside or out of the military, who is interested in how to use reflection to improve on a daily basis.
Capt. Kiernan Kane is a field artillery officer. He is currently working on the Combined Arms Center Commanding General’s Inform Cell at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and will be attending the Command and General Staff College this upcoming summer. He is also pursuing his Master of Arts degree in Security Studies through Kansas State University.