I like Havi Brooks. A lot of her craziness rubs me the wrong way, and I'm pretty sure there's no way I'll ever be into Shiva Nata, but she's very much worth listening to.
She recommends keeping a [Dammit
List](http://www.fluentself.com/blog/stuff/more-ways-to-use-the-dammit-list/)
– a bunch of things that you will or will not do, dammit. I like this
idea, because I could do a much better job at remembering who I am and
what I stand for. Some readers will recall the [Resolutions of Jonathan
Edwards](http://www.apuritansmind.com/christianwalk/ResolutionsOfJonathanEdwards.htm),
which is only fair.
Havi also recommends keeping a [Book of
You](http://www.fluentself.com/blog/stuckification/the-book-of-you/) – a
kind of record of your own patterns and habits that you can use to
better understand who you are and how you work, and perhaps even help
you to change for the better. It's a little bit like informal scientific
observation, and a little bit like the advice you'll find in [John
Owen](http://www.johnowen.org/)'s works, particularly "[Of the
Mortification of Sin in
Believers](http://www.ccel.org/ccel/owen/mort.html)".
I don't know what to make of a zany Yoga-teaching, Shivanaut pirate,
duck-wearing blogger sharing ideas with two heavy-weight, dour, rigorous
Puritans. I'm sure you have better ideas than I do.
If I had to say something, it would be that there are not that many good
ideas in the world. When you take old wisdom and present it as new,
people listen – really listen – in a way that they don't when you merely
repeat the words of dead wise men. This is why weekly sermons and [TED
talks like Alain de
Botton](http://blog.ted.com/2009/07/a_kinder_gentle.php)'s are such good
things.