SELF DEVELOPMENT

We all have within ourselves at any moment, thoughts that can provide us with inspiration at a moments notice. When bored or not feeling up to snuff, we can remind ourselves of the successes in our lives. We can decide to do things we know will make us happy, focus on our life goals, or remember a favorite joke.

ON THE PALMTOP

For this example, lets create a custom database that documents the high points in our life and describes our personal successes. The example shown below worked for me, but you may want to set yours up differently.

To define a new database, open the DataBase application and press (MENU) File Define New Database. The actual steps for creating a custom database are described in the HP 100/200LX Users Guide (see database, defining new in the index for a page reference). You'll need to add the following fields to your Success database:

Success Database : Graphic
 
 

• Event (a text box) -- The name of your success (e.g. traveled from England to Japan by myself.)
• Date (a text box) -- The date the success occurred. The reason to choose a text field for the dates of your success is because the Date box option only allows you to enter one date and not a range of dates if that's what your success needs (i.e., 2/5/1975 - 3/16/1978).
• Age (a text box) -- The reason to choose a text box rather than the Number option is the same as above. A Number box will not allow you to enter a hyphen if your age entry needs to be 16 - 18.
• Category (a category box) -- I categorize my successes under: Personal, Physical, Social, Spiritual, and Financial.
• Learned (a text box) -- The most valuable things you learned from the experience (e.g. self confidence).
• Contacts, Notes, and Memories (two labels). These are labels for the note box described below. Because this phrase uses more characters than you can fit in the Field Name field, split the phrase in half, make two labels, and line them up next to each other.
• C (a note box) -- Put things in this field like names of people you met, phone numbers, memories (e.g. Almost got mugged in Hampstead Heath in London) or notes (e.g. visit Cornwall next time). The title associated with a Notes field always goes to the left of the field. If I had titled it Contacts, Notes, and Memories the field displayed in the individual Data Item view would have been very small. That is why I chose to create the two separate labels above and use a single letter (C) to title this field.

 

 

 With your Success Database you can reflect on your successes whenever you need inspiration. You can create Subsets to view your successes from different perspectives, i.e., all the successes you have had in the social area of life. And you can see how much you've grown by reviewing the lessons you've learned in life, or remind yourself of people and places you want to visit again.

 Paul Merrill

Associate Editor, HP Palmtop Paper