Set Priorities. Manage Boundaries. Seek Alignment. 3 Guideposts for a Healing Journey
Looking back on the first leg of the road From War to Writing, three main landmarks (guideposts) stand out above the horizon.
Writing last week’s missive, From Boundaries to Breakthroughs, provided a welcome shot of clarity.
The first three chapters of From War to Writing are the foundation of my work here.
The concepts in those three chapters can help bring someone from survival mode to strength.
Priorities, Boundaries, and Alignment are the three pillars, landmarks, or guideposts of From War to Writing.
With clarity emerging on the overall scope and specific guideposts of my work, today I want to share the refined framework and give you a chance to shape the work here with a few quick polls.
So much of the work here has been exploratory in nature. Putting words to new experiences, ideas, and tools while figuring it all out can be tricky. Without care, it can leave the door open confusion.
An occasional pause to make sure everything is working together is warranted.
As we discussed in Chapter 3, we seek alignment on healing journeys. Today we apply that to the way my work here is presented and organized.
Last week helped me see the foundation poured here is already helping create breakthroughs. Today we’ll take a fresh look at how things here will come together going forward.
To my regular readers: Today’s missive won’t present much new information, but it will present familiar concepts it in a new way. You will find some framing to make sense of how my articles work together — a zoomed-out view to see more of the entire tapestry instead of just the individual threads.
If you’re new here, welcome! This article is a great place to start! The second section of this article links to my core work, tied together under these three guideposts for contextual understanding. You are among the first to have the opportunity to explore these resources with a solid framework to get started. If you’re curious if this is a place for you, you should find your answer in the second section below. :)
Regardless of if you’re new or returning, I invite you to scroll to the bottom and take the polls. Your feedback can help make the work here more useful to every reader.
It’s been a while since I’ve offered a poll here, so if you’ve been looking for an easy way to provide some feedback, today is your day!
While I always appreciate DMs and comments, polls are quick, easy, and anonymous, so I invite you to participate if you would like. :)
Mission / Framing / Going to Print
Today’s focus on the three guideposts requires a quick look at the mission behind my work, the new framing concept, and some notes on plans of going to print.
My Mission
My mission is to tell my story.
My mission is to make From War to Writing exist.
My mission is to weave and share this story of hope and healing.
My mission is to always consider you, my dear reader, as I put words together with care.— Terry Duke, A Substackversary
It’s still unclear exactly which parts and in which order... but clarity continues to emerge.
I’m slowly learning how to discern what belongs here on Substack, and what belongs in the book. Yeah, I’m sharing my story, but what parts help you? Help others? Provide value?
This week I stepped back and focused on the bigger picture… trying to see this tapestry of healing in its entirety.
My main goal was to consider you, my dear reader… to make my work more accessible. No matter how useful ideas might be, they’re only useful if they’re approachable and understandable.
If it’s been a challenge to follow the overall theme here, the new framework today should add some helpful context.
Framing - Three Guideposts as a Lens
Using a road trip as an analogy to describe the road From War to Writing, we’ve come quite a long way over the last year or so. When we pause and look back, three main landmarks (guideposts) stand out visible above the rolling hills and the trees:
Set Priorities
Manage Boundaries
Seek Alignment
There is enough useful, actionable, helpful, healing work and insight in those three concepts and my associated writing to become the central pillars of this work.
In my writing going forward, Priorities, Boundaries, and Alignment will be lenses used frequently to identify useful insight and actionable tips.
With these keys identified, it’s time to capture and frame my work in such a way that it will be more helpful to you, and others.
Going to Print
We’re going to print! (but not just yet…)
I’m not sure when yet, but there is more to this work here than just weekly newsletters.
Over the holidays, I printed a test copy of my book. Holding it was pretty cool and reminded me of the sense of pride so evident in every picture of an author holding their book for the first time … but it also carried more weight than I expected.
Yes, there was a sense of pride and accomplishment, even though it’s still a manuscript, and far from complete.
But, more important, was a sense of responsibility.
That small taste of holding a physical book in my hand helped me understand how important it is to be diligent about considering its audience... my audience... you.
I can’t add more once it’s printed.
I can’t take things out, either.
You deserve something understandable.
At some point, you may be holding my book. Someday, someone will. That reader needs a resource with structure.
Now is the time to make a solid framework to tie my work together into something coherent, understandable, and approachable.
The framework in the next section is how I’m making that happen. 8^)
Three Healing Guideposts
An important part of making this space useful and understandable (and preparing for the book) is categorizing my articles in a way that makes sense, particularly for new or occasional readers.
The three guideposts of Priorities, Boundaries, and Alignment are the keys to providing clarity going forward.
This week, I grouped many of my previous posts under the new guidepost framework. When I did so, the bigger picture of the project here came into focus.
It’s like I’m finally starting to see the tapestry as a whole, rather than just a collection of individual threads.
The following list of articles shows how they group together to form a coherent whole when focused on the healing guideposts.
If you’re looking for more thoughts on one particular guidepost, this list should save you time and point you the right direction. :)
Set Priorities
Manage Boundaries
Seek Alignment
Three Quick Polls
It’s been a while since I’ve offered a poll here, so if you’ve been looking for an easy way to provide some feedback, today is your day!
Your feedback can help make the work here more useful to every reader.
While I always appreciate DMs and comments, polls are quick, easy, and anonymous, so I invite you to participate if you would like.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this new framework. :)
and finally… I would like to add a little more to my weekly effort here… but it’s important that effort be focused on something useful that you want.
If any of the options below seem interesting to you, please let me know by clicking in the final poll below.
(Also, feel free to leave a comment or send a DM if there’s something else you’d like to see)
Wrap
I hope this new framework makes sense and provides you some additional insight to how my work here ties together — so it can be more useful to you. :)
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
If you would like to weigh in, please take the polls, leave a comment, send me a DM, or simply reply to this email.
Thank you for reading!
I look forward to continuing this journey with you.
Until next Saturday, take care.
Yours, from war to writing,
- Terry 8^)