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As a child of the 50's and 60's I was encouraged not only to read but to write regularly. The art of letter writing, thank you notes and the quaint pen-pal past time were not lost on children of my generation, especially girls. Diaries were very popular. They could be obtained in cute pink leather, with an artists version of your favorite actor or singer (Elvis anyone?) on the cover, floral patterned and all sorts of other decoration. No diary would be complete without the requisite lock and key which kept your diary contents a secret from all but anyone with a bobby pin to pick it with.

Whatever you did inside that diary, pg rated or not, you locked it up and then hid it in your most secret place. Of course you often lost the key but that would be when you discovered for yourself the good old bobby pin trick your mother knew all along. That's right! Your MOTHER. She most likely was an avid reader of your diary because face it, she knows where your hiding places were. Your younger or older brother however, probably took a little long to find it. Trust me, they eventually did.

At a very young age, your diary entries probably ranged from gushy, cute descriptions of the passion you had for a particular movie star to the sad tale of how you want to eat worms because your best friend made a new friend. If you power up those entries through the years you can see where this is going!

Journal keeping is simply an adult form of diary keeping. Career people may keep one of all their appointments for their business day, business appointments or not or both. A smart business person learns to write in their personal code because this type of journal often winds up open on a desk somewhere. In other words, they wouldn't write: "Sunny Breezes Motel at 1 with Jane." That entry would be more like: "SBM at 1 lunch with J." The same goes for entries like: "Meeting with the old bat at 4." Can you say fired? Please change that to: Meet w/ boss at 4." Lesson 1, learn a journal code especially for your daily business journal.

Personal journals, you know the type, they are the ones that are taken out late at night when you can't sleep and just have to write something down. Unfortunately many people probably write about their troubles, the very things that are keeping them from sleep. Financial troubles, marriage troubles, the frequency of your marital sex, confessions of a lie, the kids school work, a love affair gone wrong, what ever is keeping the light burning that night. Oops! Did

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