I started this year holding the intention for transformational memories. I would that intention has definitely come to fruition, but they came about in ways I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen to happen.

What are transformational memories?

Memories tend to fall into several different categories: the mundane, the memories we want to forget, the bad memories that are burned into our psyche and the mountaintop memories – or big events we work to remember for later in great detail.

Transformative memories are those every day moments that make a lasting mark on who we were in the moment and who we are becoming, still.

Are transformational memories active gratitude, counting your blessings?

2020 may have many transformational memories for you that are certainly not mountaintop memories and they were also not mundane. This is evidence of the “unprecedented times” we keep hearing about and experiencing again and again and again.

Now we have crossed the bridge to 2021 and although the calendar has changed, we are still facing many of the challenges from before. This series is to stay focused on what moves us forward.

Building a creative streak to practice successful completion

It is also an example of a small “streak” or container to hold a 31 Day Experiment in Counting My Blessings everyday that also is a method of completion practice.

I am a believer in practices like this because it gives you a daily completion, so you get practice in what it feels like to accomplish something simple to do and significant to do everyday. It is nothing short of magical. 

Don’t believe it?

Try this for a week and tell me how you’re feeling.

Today in June I am revisiting – Three cool things I noted from January 3:

1. Samuel started the day shift at his job. No more graveyard. From now on he will work conventional hours and I won’t get to bring his lunch to his bedroom door by special delivery every day. That is a sadness I will just get over.
2. Katherine got a full-time church job! She will be the Solo Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Sussex, NJ. I told her today I look forward to the day I can travel again and see her in action in her congregation! Update: In September, 2021 I will be moving to Sussex myself for a year to be close to Katherine and Donald AND experience an entirely different life. It will be a valuable experiment I never could have imagined when I set the intention for a year of transformative memories!
3. I created a bunch of content for the week to come, ahead of time. “Getting ahead” always makes me happy – now I simply need to get better at batching – working on one task theme for a set amount of time. For example. An hour of making graphics. An hour of writing copy, an hour of scrubbing the kitchen. 

This process also helps me as a part of my evening writing practice, something I have wanted for a long time. As soon as I am done with this, I will do some writing in my notebook, some meditation and fall asleep.

The significance of revisiting recent (and not so recent) personal writing to mine for transformational memories.

I am revisiting this writing at the end of June, 2021 and have decided to begin this practice again for the month of July, 2021. To recap between January and now, I will touch base on some of what I have been experiencing.

I will share three transformative memories – and attempt to keep them succinct.

1. My father died on April 18. From that moment, so many things happened and the memories have been very sad and also very filled with love.
2. I learned the Valley Fever I have been carrying disseminated, which means it spread beyond my lungs. This could be very dangerous AND I have been receiving ongoing treatment AND I have never felt more confident in my ability to manage my health. I was filled with stress for a lot of time from January through whenever it was I had a biopsy-turned-drainage (I think in March? Since Dad died, a lot of time has had a very different meaning and context.)
3. I have been getting my writing mojo back, slowly and surely. Poetry is back, working on my book projects is back, writing in my notebook daily is back. I realized in getting it back I was in quite a state of languishing for a long time. This is definitely transformative.

It is easier to see Transformational Memories from a distance, but what does naming 3 good things from any given day tell you?

I like to look at collecting transformative memories (and transformative memories-to-be like this: it is as if my future self and present self are having a party. Since my life in 2021 has been in a surprising uproar, there are so many times when I have said to myself with a lot of incredulity, “I am so grateful my past self was looking out for me!”

It is in the tiny, day to day things that the transformative memories happen. It is only from a distance that we can see what the whole picture looks like.

With that in mind, tell me:

What are 3 Good Things from your day? When July 1 hits, I will return here every day. I hope to see you here, too. This will be informal, flexible and fun.

Are you ready to count your blessings? Let us know in the comments!

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creator of the One Small Shift Course which helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She came to this conclusion after almost dying and coming back to true healing by writing 377 consecutive haiku… and a lot more along her way to building that streak! To find out more about this program, visit this link, here.

She has been a Life Purpose and Creativity Coach since 1999. She has taught workshops in college classrooms, hospitals, teleclasses and webinars with participants across the world.