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Open Mind: A Guided Journal for Employees and Leaders Pursuing Their Potential by Toni M. Pristo
So much of our lives consist of work. Yet so many individuals find their work unfulfilling and hardly an opportunity for ongoing growth and development. For others, the demands of work are so out of alignment with the rest of their lives, that to continue their roles means sacrificing other desirable aspects of life, such as family, friends and community. Some people persist, but without a real connection to their work and path.
In recent times, many others have decided to leave their organizations out of great discontent with the status quo. They’ve chosen not to settle. Unresolved, we are wasting human potential at a time when it couldn’t be more important to our challenged world and the people in it!
“Frankly in the past, I’ve not been successful with journaling and keeping up with it on a regular basis. However, The Open Mind Journal is an easy to follow, structured set of exercises which sets it apart from your typical diary. Each section is designed to help you dig deeper into your own understanding of your thoughts and help you identify your unique patterns. ~ Yany Rivera, Maryland, USA
Open Mind makes a case for and provides a method for self-initiated lifelong learning and personal growth. It aims to improve your chances of designing more integrated and meaningful work and life through self-reflection, discovery and direction.
Open Mind is an interactive guide that provides a variety of information and content to help you:
- Make informed choices to bring about more focused alignment with your values, interests, talents, and aspirations.
- Become more self-aware of the things that drive you, positively and negatively (e.g., emotions, activities, things for which you are grateful, thinking patterns).
- Promote insight into unhelpful behaviors and thoughts that limit you in your daily interactions, or even in your life’s overall direction.
Use this journal to become the central force in your own development and destiny by:
Developing your ability to learn from the experiences of your life. Through interacting with the content and exercises of this guide, you will be better equipped to answer questions such as:
- What am I missing at work that would bring more satisfaction, meaning, and/or use of my talents?
- How do I inadvertently contribute to the very things I wish to avoid? What can I learn to prevent a reoccurrence?
- What do I have to reframe or unlearn in order to get the results I am seeking? How can I choose differently?
This Open Mind Guided Journal will help you understand yourself better and continuously over time.
We are all a work in progress, now and forever. This guide provides a way to track and develop your self-understanding and self-management, leading to a more resilient self. For example, in working through this journal you should be able to gain insight into:
- How am I feeling today and why?
- How are my thoughts, feelings and experiences connected? What patterns over time can I observe?
- When am I most engaged? Most fulfilled? When am I bored, disengaged?
- What traits and capabilities do I have that I might leverage in some important or fulfilling way? How can I lead a more meaningful life?
Use what you learn from Open Mind to make journaling a life practice. Consider the power you have to bring about a more desirable path in your life.
Just think how our world as we know it might be different if most people could discover meaning, balance and fulfillment in their work and lives? Maybe we would see more innovation in our organizations for the seemingly intractable issues that confront our society? Perhaps the availability of family members or friends to each other might be greatly enhanced? Maybe there would be more happy people?
There’s also a chance to do this for a higher purpose, i.e., a purpose beyond your own self-interest.
Do it as a role model for the many who decide to settle for less when their own initiative might prove otherwise. Do it for the sake of organizations that struggle to live the lifespan of an average human being. And perhaps most importantly, do it for society, which takes the brunt of underperformance and under-utilization of human potential in the form inequities and injustices for so many.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Orientation to Open Mind
- Getting Started Exercise: Today’s AM/PM Check-In
- Learning Defined and The First Observation on Learning: “Know Where You Are Rooted and Practice Variety in Your Life”
- Exercises for “Know Where You are Rooted and Practice Variety in Your Life”
- The Core Values Tapestry
- Prompts for Positive Action
- The Second Observation on Learning: “It Takes Courage to Learn So Find the Courage and Keep Learning”
- Exercise for “It takes Courage to Learn So Find the Courage and Keep Learning”
- Building Emotional Competence
- The Third Observation on Learning: “Think of Yourself in a Limitless Way and Use Your Imagination”
- Exercise for “Think of Yourself in a Limitless Way and Use Your Imagination”
- In Conclusion: Be Mindful About Your Learning
- Two Weeks of Additional Journaling
- Lessons Learned Summary Forms
- Reference Classification of Emotion Chart
Buy Now! When it comes to you and what comes next, foster an open mind. Both your life and the world are waiting.
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About the Author: Toni M. Pristo
Toni Pristo always wanted to be a psychologist.
She started saying so at the age of 10, noticing her father’s eyes brighten at her early vocational proclamation. It was his affirmation, and her deep curiosity in relationships and human behavior that set Toni on the path that would define her career. Toni had the good fortune of growing up surrounded by a large family–American parents of Italian and Bohemian descent, their own parents, four trusting and extraordinary sisters, precious nieces and nephews, an army of cousins, —and also a close-knit neighborhood of childhood friends. These bonds encircled her like loving arms, sparked spontaneous joy and laughter, and buoyed her through times of great sadness and struggle that are part of every existence. Pursuing and understanding human behavior and the value of strong relationships became the hallmark of her personal, professional, and academic life.
Today, Toni M. Pristo, PhD is an organizational psychologist specializing in organization and leadership development. She is guided by a passion and interest in the development of human potential in an increasingly challenged world. She created Pristo Consulting in 1996, after 13 years of prior, related experience as an internal consultant (Amoco Corporation and Keebler Company) and external consultant (Hay Group).
Toni is co-author of Best Boss! The Impact of Extraordinary Leaders and author of the NEW Open Mind: A Guided Journal for Employees and Leaders Pursuing Their Potential exclusively available through the IAJW.org.
