Leaving Secrets How to Create a Personal Instruction Manual for Life

Title: 
Leaving Secrets: How to Create a Personal Instruction Manual for Life

Word Count:
423

Summary:
Imagine if your great, great grandfather or grandmother had left you a book with their secrets for living. Maybe it contained nuggets of wisdom, yummy recipes, favorite jokes, or just insights for how to lead a good life. You can leave such a book for your own family.


Keywords:
Life�s Missing Instruction Manual, Joe Vitale, John Wiley and Sons, Secrets, Lifestyle, Feature, Parenting, Grandparents, Wisdom


Article Body:
Imagine if your great, great grandfather or grandmother had left you a book with their secrets for living. Maybe it contained nuggets of wisdom, yummy recipes, favorite jokes, or just insights for how to lead a good life. Ever since people learned of my next book, Life�s Missing Instruction Manual, people are curious how to create their own �manual� for life.

You can leave such a book for your own family. What are the key lessons you�ve learned in your life? Are you ready to share them with your children and grandchildren � or with your friend, siblings, parents, and grandparents?

What you�ve gleaned from your life experiences can make things easier for your children or your relatives. In fact, the lessons you�ve earned from trial and error can be the perfect gift for everyone in your life � or for one person who matters to you. Here�s how to commit your insights to writing and share them with your fellow life travelers.

�	Carry a pad of paper around with you everywhere for a week. 
�	Jot down your thoughts and observations as they occur to you. Don�t judge them. Just make note of them. 
�	Add personal stories and memories, as they come to mind. Again, don�t edit your thoughts. Just commit them to paper.
�	Take a few days to go through your notes, and underline the most important passages, and make additional comments in the margins.
�	From this, distill the lessons you most want to share with others: your perspective, your values, what matters most to you, and your reactions to the world around you. 
�	Find a beautiful journal or blank book � one that you feel a strong connection with. You might find it at a bookstore, an antique store, an online auction site, a craft store, or even a flea market. Where you find it doesn�t matter. How you feel about it does. 
�	Fill the journal with your own instruction manual for life. Make sure to include a title and your name.
�	Find a special person to share it with, and turn the presentation of the journal into a celebration. 

If you don�t feel comfortable writing your notes and stories, you can dictate them into a portable tape recorder, and later, you can transcribe them into a journal. You don�t have to be a bestselling author, academic, or philosopher to create a instruction manual that can helped your loved ones every day of their lives . . . and be passed on to future generations as well.