**Type**: `$= const tags = dv.current().file.tags || []; if(tags.includes("#idea")) { "Idea" } else if(tags.includes("#insight")) { "Insight" } else { "Unclassified" }` **Growth Stage**: `= this.stage` **Last Tended**: ``= dateformat(this.file.mtime, "yyyy-MM-dd")`` **Topics**: #showrunnerjournalling --- >[!Directors commentary] >- Good ideas from Ali Abdaal's podcast about creating an 'alter-ego' to overcome fear and promote courage in moments. >- Ali also described 'seasons' of his life, moving more fluidly from one focus to another. This was liberating as I have been struggling / feel like a more rigid cyclical review and perform model isn't going to work, and can feel my own resistance to it. Something more agile, fluid and organic would suit. >- This gave rise to a new idea around the concept of viewing my life progress as Tv series with seasons - and how this might link to weekly visioning and journalling **Abstract** #insight I have been building up my 'second brain' and journalling practices - but I was struggling to implement meaningful periodic habits such as a weekly or monthly reviews - let alone scale up to visions for the year and beyond. After banging my head on the wall a couple of times I gave up - this is one of those times where that's going to be a good thing. As is often the case, clarity came during a moment of surrender. I was listening to Ali Abdaal on a podcast, where he spoke about tackling life’s big questions with an ‘Alter Ego’ mentality and viewing his life in ‘seasons.’ He described how these phases carried their own themes and priorities, and how he adapted his intentions to match. Something clicked. I loved the ‘Alter Ego’ idea—it tapped into the comic book geek in me—but I parked it for later. What really sparked my imagination was the leap from seasons to storytelling. Life, I realised, could be framed like a TV show: an ongoing narrative with a main character (you), a series of episodes (your weeks), and overarching themes and goals (the seasons of your life). And just like that, the Showrunner Journalling Method was born. **What Is a Showrunner, and Why Does It Matter?** A Showrunner oversees all aspects of a TV series, functioning as the creative and managerial leader. They craft the overarching narrative, direct the vision for the show, manage the writers’ room, and ensure the final production aligns with the intended themes and character arcs. Their role requires juggling creativity with practical tasks like budgeting, hiring, and maintaining continuity across episodes and seasons. In life, you are the showrunner of your own story. You craft the narrative, define your priorities, and plan the episodes, all while navigating the unexpected plot twists that come your way. This method invites you to step into that role intentionally, balancing reflection with action and creativity with practicality. So how to map it on? **A Framework for Life as a TV Show** I'm clearly not going to advocate for the 1 day, 1 Episode equivalency. I don't believe you can plan and control your life to that degree of certainty, nor would I want to, and I just wouldn't be committed to writing a reflection and plan for every single day. So 1 week is an episode. Each day is a scene, contributing to the larger storyline. A collection of episodes forms a season. These might be 6–10 weeks long, reflecting a natural phase of life, or longer, if you long for the bygone days of 20+ episode dramas. There is stronger correlation between these timeframes and what Ali had described as seasons of his life - though I also agree this could also be measured in months too. This structure mirrors life’s rhythms, allowing you to set short-term goals within the context of long-term aspirations, all while leaving room for spontaneity. So if our weeks are episodes and a bunch of episodes make up a season, we can begin to use the Show Runner parallel to plot out those weeks towards a satisfying conclusion (or cliffhanger!) where we - the main character - achieve our aspirations or significantly move our narrative forward. These are our seasonal themes and goals. **The Writers Room** To get there, we can dive into the detail in our weekly 'Writers Room' - intentionally pre-planning the plot-points and potential storylines of our week that move us towards our goal. At worst its 30 mins to just to look further ahead than the next few meetings of the week. But at best, its a moment to think carefully about the things that are likely to happen and need to happen, to create strategies; to navigate the harder things, enjoy the easier things more and make things happen by purposefully putting time and effort towards the activities and relationships that progress your narrative. It's not telling the future, so it isn't all going to happen as you plan (plot-twists, right!?), but if you are lucky enough lead the sort of life that has a degree of predictability and your own agency, then you'll be surprised how much of what you set out to do, you actually can. This is vision driven planning. It's not manifesting our dreams, you aren't going to win the lottery, meet the man of your dreams or walk on the moon - but you might just see that path to those things, and importantly, take action on them. **How to Use the Showrunner Method** So what exactly am I suggesting? Well, using the metaphor, I've made the weekly planning a bit easier to engage with; you could pick your own approach, here is how mine works: 1. **Re-affirm your priorities.** This can be quite hard, if you are just starting or struggle to confidently identify your values or aspirations, so start off more short term and then mature them into something more enduring throughout the season. Think about where you will put your energy, what you care most about and what will make the most difference. You could try listing 3 things to focus on, for example: 1. “Focusing on my health with daily exercise.” 2. Deepening my connections with loved ones.” 3. “Progressing in my career by dedicating time to deep work.” These priorities act as your guiding stars, shaping the narrative you're about to write. 2. **Write the narrative for the week.** This is where the magic happens. Armed with your priorities and a calendar view of the week, map out your episode. What’s the story you want to tell this week? For set events, think about: *How will I show up? What does success look like?* For the unscheduled moments, ask: *What habits will I stick to? What progress do I want to make? Where will I find joy and rest?* I find these work well starting with “I will…” statements, which keep the focus on action. For instance: - *“I will prepare thoroughly for Monday’s meeting to feel confident and in control.”* - *“I will dedicate 2 hours to creative writing on Wednesday evening.”* - *“I will spend Saturday afternoon on a long walk to recharge.”* Your script doesn’t have to be perfect. Life’s plot twists will shake things up, but having a plan gives you a starting point. 3. **Learning Arch.** Every great story involves growth. What will you learn this week? Perhaps it’s a skill you want to improve, a book to read, or a mindset to develop. This serves as a moment to be intentional about creating time to grow but also recognises that the experience you will journey through also has lessons too. Growth doesn’t have to be grand or rigidly planned. Sometimes, it’s about being present in the moment and recognising the lessons life offers naturally. As they say, every day is a school day. 4. **Character Management.** This could be better named maybe, but lets run with it. Think about those closest to you, family, your friends, colleagues, clients etc. Who will you be interacting with this week, who do you want to interact with or need to interact with? How will those interactions shape the narrative? This is your chance to nurture relationships and create meaningful connections, not only how others can support you. Think of every moment as that 2-way street people can support your narrative, but while your show is all about you, they are their own lead you might just be an extra in that scene. 5. **Alter-Ego.** Every good main character inevitably goes through some sort of inner struggle and emerges the moral victor, having made the tough choice and taken action. Sometimes we wish we could be more than we are or feel we are capable of today, perhaps we wish we had superpowers. Every hero faces challenges. What’s the one thing you’ve been avoiding? A daunting task, a bold opportunity? Likely its's that nagging uncomfortable gut feeling when you turn your attention towards the topic. If you ignore it, at best, nothing changes. But we grow when we put ourselves outside of our comfort zone and I'll bet there is a small part of you saying *"you know you should do this"* - step into your Alter Ego—the version of yourself who says yes. Maybe it’s making a difficult phone call, tackling a scary project, or putting yourself out there in a new way. These moments are where progress happens, and they often lead to the most surprising plot twists. 6. **Keep it light hearted.** Please don't see this as all work and no play. Quite the opposite. Sure I enjoy a good thriller that sucks me in, but I bet you prefer something joyful or uplifting more often than not - and you'd want your life to be the same too - so look for the opportunities to celebrate wins and have new experiences. Think about where you get your energy from, what brings you joy and happiness- and write those moments into your story too. Being as intentional with things that bring you happiness is just as, if not more important that planning all the hard work and necessary stuff. - Your story should make you smile as much as it challenges you. That's it. 6 simple steps. 5, if you've got some stability around your priorities week to week. You can revisit this at any time of the week to check in. Is it unfolding as you thought? Perhaps you can remind yourself of your intention at the start of the week to get back on track. It feels good to see things playing out as you envisioned - a sense of control and progress. But life throws plot twists too. There will be weeks that something new, urgent or exciting crashes your plans. I prefer to view this as great TV, maybe even laugh it off in retrospect, - "well, that didn't go as I expected!" It also allows you to forgive yourself if you aren't making the progress you had plotted out. Likely there are a good set of reasons things went a different way. Oh, and give your episode a title if you like. Base it on your favourite themed show or give it purpose "the week I..." but single it out to make it memorable when you reflect back. At the end of the week, perhaps as you enter the weekend or as you write the next week preview, reflect on what happened and why. Could you have had more influence on the outcome? Any cliffhangers, things to carry over or learnings you can take straight into the next week? - after all, its the next episode, and you can keep your audience on the edge of their seats with a surprising twist, comeback or rising to new heights - or maybe its a more restful, light hearted week. You are the writer, you tell the story. This scales well. It's just Episodes and Seasons. If you like, you might know where you want the story to end - but like modern writing, it's a bit more agile, written as you go. We don't know quite how many season it will take, or we how many we will get for that matter! Have long term aspirations and goals, take time to reflect and adjust - but if like me, you want something a bit more formulaic without the absolute rigour, then focus on weeks and abstract seasons. This flexibility is for more forgiving and you will want to engage in it. When you do find your season coming to it's close, you can plan it around a big finale - a significant milestone in your life - or choose to leave it as a cliffhanger into the next season, but you will know when certain arcs are closing and you want to move or are moving into new ones. At this point, its a chance to look back over the season to see how far you've come - celebrate the progress, big or small, against those priorities. (Your episode titles will help remind you of the story arc.) It's the small everyday gains that lead to massive improvement, so now is the chance to bank those. You can't see them day to day or week to week but over a few months, I bet you see the difference - *"I was there, now I am here."* Not everything will be headed in the way you want, and you can't expect to have given your full attention to everything you wanted to - we're only human after all, and we're really good at over planning and under-estimating. In my last season, thinking about my relationships and learning expanded my opportunities 10x through new conversations and trying new things. Just committing to that next conversation or opening that book in the week is the seed planted to something greater by the end of the period. Having the narrative laid out on a Sunday, takes the sting out of a Monday morning too - no surprises. You can look ahead to see where you can expect to have time for the things important to you, and when you won't - this has really helped me manage anxiety in frustration when I want to push on. I like to take a week or two between seasons. This is really important, not to just go rolling from one period into the next. This kind of practice shouldn't be risking burnout, in fact, hopefully you'll notice more when your stacking too much up... but take a break, rest, recover. Have a week without a plan, have a week for hobbies, for experiences, go with the flow. Let life in, it might surprise you. Like a good writer, go immerse yourself in your source material, gather inspiration and reset priorities- and then, back to the whiteboard for the next seasons story - where will you go next? ## Open Questions & Implications Reflection and Journalling plays a big part of this process - I've tied "Daily Plot Points" to this method -which I can expand upon later. My season reviews are new, I'm sure they will mature with repetition and allow me to answer: • How I look back at my episode titles to track themes or progress? • Are there specific journalling questions or prompts I use to assess what worked and what didn’t. **Fine-Tune the Alter-Ego concept:** The Alter-Ego concept is compelling, but might need a bit more clarity or an example. Something to keep working on. --- *This is a living document in my Digital Garden. It grows and evolves with my thinking and represents my personal thoughts and opinions, and is not part of my work at IBM. However, it is part of my desire to contribute a broader conversation on how we 'get things done' - exploring the impact of tools and techniques aligned to my mission to help individuals and organisations create the settings for sustained growth.* --- ## ## Growth Log - 2025-01-07: Initial seed planted - 2025-01-13: Major revision - 2025-01-13: Published on <font color="#6425d0">*link to post*</font>