The Personal Cannon

A while ago, I found the idea of the Personal Cannon from David Cole, and bookmarked it for later...and then forgot about it. Last night, I was looking through my bookmarks when I couldn't sleep, found it again, and knew it was time to think about it and talk about it.

Cole defines the Personal Cannon this way:

These are the pieces that I find myself referencing regularly in my work life. Big, small, philosophical, practical, and between.

He has links to things in his cannon, and they're mostly work and life related; I'd expand it to include also the fictional things that define who you are and how you think about things. So I'm adding a new tab to the top bar: my personal cannon.

Here's why I think it's important:
It's like another layer of reminding me who I am. When I'm down and feeling lost, it can tell me exactly what my goals are, where I want to be, how I want to act, how I think about things--it can give me guide posts to get back on track.

It can help others to understand me, but listing exactly the things that matter most to who I am, how I want to be, what I want to know.

It's a standardized version of "Justify Your Existence". My friend Julie Beth Andrews says she keeps a folder that basically has all the info she needs whenever she's being made to defend something she does or loves or creates; this will be my version of that file!

And it'll be ongoing. It'll adapt and grow and divide itself into categories as I read and watch and learn and evolve, so it'll be a record of that.

What would be in your personal cannon?