How I Monk #23 - Jocelyn's Story

April 23, 2025 Monk Manual

This is the twenty-third in our series of emails called “How I Monk.” In this series, we will be highlighting + celebrating members of the Monk Manual community as they’ve meaningfully applied our tools and resources to find peaceful being and purposeful doing in their everyday lives. If you’d like to be featured in a future “How I Monk,” share your information with us here… #HowIMonk

Name: Jocelyn Ring

Occupation: Brand Strategist and Leadership Coach

Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelynring/

Location: South Carolina, USA

A bit about who you are and how you spend your days:

I am a brand strategist and leadership coach and equine facilitator. I work with organizations and solopreneurs to help them figure out their strengths, uniqueness, and leadership style so they can confidently execute toward their goals. My work is really about listening, observing, and reflecting the brilliance back to the client.

Do you have a favorite prompt or section?

“I’m looking forward to” because I can get caught up in the here and now and the urgent tasks of the day. I’ve been guilty of working for long stretches without taking breaks. If I have a reminder of something that I’m looking forward to, it can remind me to make plans for the future AND plan something fun to take a break.

What originally drew you to the Monk Manual?

I'm a recovering overachieving, type A personality who was really searching for a way to figure out how to solve the problem of being vs. doing. I took a field trip to Mepkin Abbey near my home in Charleston, SC and found the book "Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks" by August Turak. That led to some reading about Monks and Mystics, and a Google search brought me to the Monk Manual. I purchased my first set of 90 day planners in 2020!

Practical Monk Manual Tip:

I’ve added a prompt to the “one way I can improve tomorrow.” If I have a problem that I’m noodling on, I’ll write a question that I’d like an answer to in the next day or so. By writing that down at the end of the day, my subconscious goes to work on it while I’m sleeping or in the background during the day.

When you were first getting started, what part of the Monk Manual did you struggle with most?

My perfectionism! The Monk Manual itself is a beautiful journal, and I didn’t want to mess it up or do it wrong. I initially used it as I’ve used every other “planner” with to-do items in order to get started. Once I had some momentum, I started re-reading the “How to” guides, I began to use it in a way that brought beingness to the forefront. I also gave myself permission to fill out the sections I felt drawn to and in the cadence that worked for me (i.e., I use it mostly during the week and skip the weekends).

How has your life changed since using the Monk Manual?

It helped me take a more holistic view of my day and life. My first attempt was to use the Monk Manual as a traditional planner and to-do list. But, the questions and prompts helped me think about being and slowing down and eliminating the unnecessary.

For example, if I kept pushing a task to the next day and the next day, it prompted me to get curious about whether I actually needed to do the task, or if I had some procrastination around.

I think the most impactful lesson from the Monk Manual is that it has helped me SLOW DOWN and be more intentional which has actually helped me be more present and mindful at work AND more present and mindful in my non-work time.

The other piece is that the Monk Manual has helped me make friends with "reflection." I used to avoid reviewing things because all I could see was what went wrong. Or, If I had poured my heart and energy into a project, it was almost painful to take a second look after it was complete and only see what didn’t work. That was an old pattern that the Monk Manual helped me break.

The daily reflection takes the pressure off looking back at something–I can look at things in much smaller increments (days) vs. at the end of a project and I can see what’s not working, but also celebrate what IS working.

Again, knowing that I'll be capturing “Highlights” and “I was at my best when” moments, I slow down and take notice of them. It has helped balance out the things that didn't go right or made me feel uneasy AND helps me learn from the highlights and lowlights to try something different tomorrow or the next time I'm confronted with a similar situation.

Looking back over the past few years, I can see how this Monk Manual has helped me grow in the being department which has led to growth in the doing department. Flipping through past volumes of the Monk Manual, I see that I've asked myself some pretty good questions!

What suggestions would you give to new Monk Manual users?

Just start. Make a mark on the page. There’s no wrong way to do it. And, if you find that you don’t do it consistently, that’s OK. Just pick it up and start again.

If you’d like to be featured in a future “How I Monk,” share your information with us here.