The reason The Big Idea Journal: A Tool for Facilitating Change and Bringing your Idea to Life exists in physical form is actually because I used The Big Idea Journal to publish it. More specifically, I used the organizational tools, framework, and reflective prompts of The Big Idea Journal to guide me to focus my efforts and to identify what I needed to do to complete and publish my first workbook.

I’ll explain.

This past spring, I had taken a semester-long community leadership program. The course required a capstone project, something that was meaningful to us to help others in the community.

I decided I was going to help people access skills and tools to enable their success. As a clinical psychologist, I wanted to apply what I knew that could help others identify and overcome barriers, set and achieve goals, and create behavior change.

Soon I had created an early draft of The Big Idea Journal to pilot test on a sample of some of my classmates. This draft contained the overview, theme, structure and contained reflective prompts. I wanted to see how individuals with ideas (the ideal user) would respond to this framework and how effectively it had guided them through their process. I learned a lot through this experience of pilot testing my tool, but the biggest lessons came when I pilot-tested The Big Idea Journal on myself.

Though my vision had been to eventually publish The Big Idea Journal, I actually had no roadmap of how I was going to make that happen. I realize the irony in this, looking back now. But I had been taking an evening class after a full workday, and my primary focus was on meeting the program’s project criteria and designing a useful and research-informed product.

Early feedback from my pilot testers was encouraging. One day, about one month before the program graduation, the program coordinator asked if I would be interested in printing this early version of The Big Idea Journal as a graduation gift for my cohort. I thought about it and then replied that I loved the idea, but thought that their gift should really be the full version of the book. This version would incorporate user feedback, have a proper introduction, and would be edited and reworked into the format I had envisioned. I then decided that I would self-publish The Big Idea Journal in time for graduation. I snapped into action. I grabbed a blank draft version of the tool I had pilot tested and put it to action with my own idea, starting at the beginning.

Once I started writing in The Big Idea Journal, the ideas flowed. I found clarity in my vision and direction in my actions. I had a clear purpose and a clear plan. It was eye-opening and energizing. It was the springboard that I needed to do what I needed to do to self-publish a workbook in just over one month that would be ready for the world.

I got to work. I used the timeline I created with the Big Idea Journal and it guided my actions. I wrote copy, edited, utilized my own network for support when needed, neglected some other projects, no doubt, but I remained focused on what I needed to do. And then…. I made it happen! (yes, I had already given the spoiler in the title of the blog post).

As a behavioral scientist, I loved every bit of experimenting on myself. See for yourself what it can do for you!