Be Patient.

Take your time.

Some of you might feel compelled to keep writing and empty your mind in one session. If this works for you, that’s great. However, the process I followed was different. The first sessions were the hardest: there is so much to write about!, so much you can share!.

You might feel you have a decent version of what you would like to accomplish after one weekend, one month, or like my case, after one year.  

Be Honest

Be Yourself.

Don’t be ashamed to share with your loved ones what you really think. Don’t deprive them of this knowledge. Let them understand You so they can understand themselves better.

There will come a time, if not now, when your children will be hungry to know what was going on inside your head, “what did my father/mother really think?”. “what was his/her motivation?”.

You don’t have to be Shakespeare

There could always be a better way to say what you want to say. It doesn’t matter. Write it in your own words, just as if your son or daughter is sitting beside you and you were to read to him or her the words you just wrote.

Write it in a word processing software, not in a notebook

Thanks to technology, you can now easily change, delete, move a paragraph or a whole section, translate, choose formats, fonts, colors, etc. Take advantage of the tools we have available right now.

You might wonder, why not using video then?. If you would like to use video for a certain topic, one that you feel comfortable you aren’t going to change constantly over time, or even as an introduction to this document, by all means do it.

However, by the sheer nature of what we would like to accomplish, I find writing the best way to have a tool that can easily be improved, changed, and shared over time. It is also versatile: You might be at work, think about an idea you would like to add, open your document, write it, and finish in minutes, knowing you can always build on the idea and improve it at a later date. 

As this is something as personal as it gets, a document also gives you the opportunity to create a password you can only share with those you love.

While using Microsoft’s Word, there is a feature called “Map of Document”, this will allow you to automatically create an index so you or your children can immediately go to a certain topic without scrolling the document up or down.

Make a back up copy!

For some of you, this advice might not be necessary. The bottom line is that you don’t want your work, ideas, and the time you spent to be lost.

Read your work at least once a year

This process would hardly be completed. I like to believe that as individuals, we evolve as we go on with our lives. In doing so, there could be ideas you might want to add or content you feel need to be changed.

Depending on how organized you are, you might set a specific day each year when you know you will have the time to read and improve your document, around an event (like Christmas or New Years Eve), or a month. Just take into consideration that it is likely you will need some time to do this and also some peace and quiet.

After you complete your annual review, also update your back up copy. 

Storing and sharing

I have my own copy in a sealed envelope with the password of the document inside the envelope. It is addressed to my children. I have not shared this document with them yet because they are small. My intention is to share it once they are in high school, since there are topics and ideas that hopefully will have a positive influence in them by that time. Let’s see.

Again, even if they decide to disregard each and every idea on all subjects I write about (which is unlikely), at least it will help them understand themselves better by knowing who I am and what I think and believe in (in other words, where they are coming from).

One very important thing to remember: make it clear that once you leave this world, no changes or additions should be made to the document.