The joy of leaving footprints

I don’t think it will come as a secret to anyone: I love to write and to create content. Whether I end up sharing them in posts or not, I usually spend my days writing down my ideas, my worries, my goals, my feelings, and most importantly my achievements. I value the idea of leaving footprints of what I do and think so I can come back to them later. Here is why I think you should too!

Why you should leave footprints

Take a snapshot of the present

Think of it like the pictures you parents took of you when you were a kid. I mean what was so important in the moment to take a picture? Most likely you — wanting to play and do your thing — didn’t want to stop and smile at the camera. Yet now, 20 maybe 30 years later these little images fill your heart with joy and memories when they resurface. You can’t remember everything but you can imagine how you felt.

If you grew up in France with the story of « Le Petit Poucet » by Charles Perrault, leaving footprints revolves around this idea: leaving breadcrumbs on your way so that when you are ready, you can find your way back. It’s about taking a snapshot of the present so that you can use it later as a reference.

Inspire others and find your community

If you choose to share your thoughts and your ideas with others (like through a blog, a YouTube Channel, a book), you might have the ability to inspire and guide others in the process. People who might be on the same path as you and will be able to follow your marks as you maybe followed the steps of others before.

Group of People Huddling

By making “noise” in the fields that matter to you, by showing how you do things, you don’t only inspire other amateurs but also attract the attention of potential recruiters or business partners. The more of your creative endeavors you’ll show publicly, the more you’ll be able to find your community, people who are as passionate as you about the things you care about.

Use your footprints as a later reference

In technical or creative fields, it’s particularly important to leave footprints or breadcrumbs of what you do, so that you can retrace your steps and find where the problem comes from or use what you learned/discovered once, as a reference for another problem later on.

Finally, for me, the most important part of leaving footprints is that... It will all make sense in the end: when you will be ready to look back, you’ll be able to see the patterns. So, on my end, I’d like to leave as many footprints of what I did, what I learned, what I experienced and achieved so that, when the time will be right I can look back at a life well-lived and maybe have a few good anecdotes to tell my grandkids 👴🏾.

How to leave more footprints in your daily life

If you were convinced and want to keep more lasting memories of what happens in your everyday life, it doesn’t have to be complicated, you can…

1. Keep a journal of your thoughts or of your achievements. You can include photos you have taken or pretty much everything.

2. Launch a blog (or a YouTube Channel, or a podcast) so you can talk about your ideas, your achievements, your discoveries, "put them out there".

3. Publish an e-book or a poem, or a website, or.. something that you have created with your own hands and open yourself to possible critics.

4. Keep a journal or a note of what you learn in some fields, or build yourself a little “wiki”. So that you can learn more effectively.

Start the practice of journaling your thoughts and discoveries

It doesn’t have to be much, it doesn’t even have to be consistent/regular, and least of which does it need to be perfect! All you have to do is just be yourself fully, in the present. It’s all that matters now and all that will matter.

Let’s chat

Thank you for reading, I hope you liked this post. What do your think about leaving footprints (or breadcrumbs), is it something that you currently do or would like to do more? I would love to know more in the comments!