Celebrating Girl Power with A GIRL ON THE GO!

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Executive Editor Matt Sutherland Interviews Lisa Goich, Author of A Girl On the Go Guided Journal

It stands to reason that the person you spend the most time with will also be your best friend and favorite person. Of course, that person is you—you’re a 24/7 companion with yourself and all that time you spend alone with your thoughts can and should be some of the most valuable, edifying time of your life.

If that idea seems a bit far-fetched, Lisa Goich is here to talk about a powerful practice you can use to overcome pain and trauma, achieve goals, reduce stress, calm the chatter in your mind, and be happier.

A Girl On the Go Guided Journal is Lisa’s tried and true approach to helping you improve your relationship with the fabulous you. Foreword‘s Executive Editor Matt Sutherland recently caught up with Lisa—not so easy, she’s always on the go—to learn more about her beautifully illustrated guidebook and why she feels so strongly about putting pen to paper.

Let’s get a picture of a girl on the go. Who is she? What personality traits does she have? And, where exactly is she going?

A Girl On The Go® is a creative media and publishing company that creates books and products to inspire, guide, and motivate girls twelve and up. From our VIP Club Motto:

A Girl On The Go is…

Adventurous

She welcomes new challenges and experiences.

Fearless

She doesn’t let anything stand in her way.

Curious

She is full of wonder and loves to learn.

Inspired

She finds ideas in all that she sees and hears.

Driven

She keeps going regardless of what obstacles stand in her way.

Kind

She knows that living with kindness is good for the heart.

Giving

She values charity and giving to others.

Humble

She knows that modesty shines brighter than vanity.

Why journal? Please offer everyone an explanation of why you believe journaling is such an effective tool?

Journaling has been around since the beginning of recorded time. What are Egyptian etchings on walls but a way to document a thought or a moment in time, and share a story? From the childhood lock and key diaries of the ’70s, to guided journals and journaling prompts of today, all share a common goal: getting your thoughts from your head and your heart onto paper (physical paper for those of us who still love the feel of a pen on paper, and virtual paper, for those who prefer to journal via their computers).

Studies have been done on the positive effects of journaling. Some of the benefits include:

Healing pain and trauma
Organizing thoughts
Practicing mindfulness
Setting and achieving goals
Stress reduction

In a 2006 study conducted by the Holistic Health Care Program at the College of Health and Human Services at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, researchers found that:

“The psychological effects of writing versus drawing about a stressful experience were compared. A measure of psychological symptoms was completed before and after two 15-min sessions. The results indicated that participants in the journaling group had a significantly greater decrease in their psychological symptoms than those in the drawing group or the control group. Journaling was also found to have a more positive effect for participants who initially had higher levels of psychological distress.”

I am a lifelong journaler. My first self-published book, The Breakup Diary, was a guided journal before guided journals were a “thing.” I had trouble selling it to publishers because, “Why would anyone need a guided journal to tell them what to write?” And look where we are today. Journals, journals everywhere! A Girl On The Go Guided Journal is my third published journal. The second was a guided grief journal titled, I Wonder… (Savio Republic).

Can you also talk specifically about the importance of writing as a life skill?

In a world of 280-character Tweets, emojis, and text abbreviations, I think it’s more important than ever to promote writing as a life skill. Before emails, most of our business discussions took place by phone. Emails have now replaced phone calls, and texts have abbreviated what we need to say in emails. But all involve writing. Not to be dramatic, but, without basic writing skills, I don’t think 21st century humanity can survive.

And that includes the art of physically writing.

The elimination of cursive writing in schools is a tragedy, in my opinion. As of October 22, there were only twenty-one states in the US that still taught cursive as part of their curricula. According to Melissa Holman-Kursky, founder and director of CognitionSF, a San Francisco-based educational therapy service, “Cursive improves fine motor control, is known to have a positive impact on memory and is often an easier way of writing for children who struggle with printing,” she said. “The hand doesn’t have to stop and start as much when writing in script.” She adds, “Additionally, cursive writing requires more hand-eye coordination and strength.”

I personally feel that handwriting in a journal is the best way to get your heart on paper. There’s something about the physical movement of writing that literally dumps your troubles outside of your body, into this book, and—when the book is closed—your problems are locked up with it. It’s kind of magical!

Through dozens of writing prompts—the greatest influence in my life has been; apologies I owe; my ultimate, fabulous dream job would be; this is how I plan to make a difference in the world—you lead your young journalists on a journey of introspection. In a sense, developing a rich inner life requires that we do the work of constructing it and there’s only one way to do it: spend lots of time alone with your thoughts. Please expand on this journey within and its benefits?

We are all healthier as humans when we truly know ourselves. I think teaching young girls how to tap into that inner dream world is a skill that will take them wherever they want to go in life. Strengthening our soul-core makes us stronger all around. I think it makes us better listeners, better friends, better employees, better leaders, and better citizens of the world.

The book also features subtle affirmations and prompts for principled, even virtuous personality traits—be humble; start each day with a moment of gratitude; no is not a bad word; worry less about what people think of you and more about what you think of yourself, for example. Do you feel the media and society at large doesn’t often provide young women with positive messaging to support their growth into adulthood?

One of the prompts in A Girl On The Go Guided Journal is to “Turn your camera outward.” We are living in a selfie society. Selfies, by the way, do not equal self-reflection. Selfies are superficial messages that we put out into the world, laced with fake smiles, filters, unrealistic lifestyles, and impossible standards to meet. Most influencers don’t even live in the homes or environments they photograph themselves in—it’s all fantasy to portray an image that doesn’t exist in real life. It’s an impossible hill to climb.

Young girls, especially, are victims of this unrealistic image that the media pounds them with every single minute of every single day. If you don’t have 100k followers on TikTok or Instagram, you’re nobody. If you aren’t an influencer, your life doesn’t matter. These are the messages we are sending to our young people, and our goal at A Girl On The Go is to flip that message to one of purpose, passion, and self-confidence.

What has your own experience with journaling been like?

As I said previously, I’m a lifelong journaler. I start my morning journaling, I end my evenings journaling, and I mark every annual milestone with a goal-setting exercise. I believe that journaling has kept me alive. There have been some particularly dark moments in my life when I’ve turned to my journal, unloaded my pain, and the next day it was all better. When you don’t want to burden your friends with your problems, and a therapist isn’t available to talk to you at 2 a.m., your journal becomes your best friend and sounding board. I can’t speak highly enough about journaling. Would it be too much to say that, if the entire world journaled, we’d all be better for it?

Who inspires you? What women role models, famous or otherwise, put you on your own path? Please recommend a few biographies or books that readers may look to for guidance on being an adventurous, fearless, curious, inspired, driven, kind, giving, humble woman?

One of my earliest life influences was Helen Keller. I can still remember reading The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller, in grade school and just being so inspired by her resilience, tenacity, and optimism.

An earlier fictional influence was Alice in Wonderland. I think Alice stoked my creativity and set my imagination on fire. My parents bought me the 1960 book The Annotated Alice, by Martin Gardener. It’s still on my shelf today. As a kid, the annotations especially interested me, and the illustrations were just fabulous.

My biggest writing influences include Nora Ephron and Carrie Fisher. Surrender The Pink, by Carrie Fisher, sparked in me a whole new style of writing. Nora Ephron’s collection The MOST of Nora Ephron sits by my bedside today, and is basically my bible. And on a, “I wish I could be her!” scale, it’s 100 percent Jane Goodall for me. What a fascinating life and life choice to dedicate yourself to the study of chimpanzees in the wild. Ahhhh … if I could do it all over again. Goodall’s Reason For Hope is a must-read.

And of course, no list would be complete without The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. This should be required reading for young girls everywhere.

What’s next for you? Are there more books we can look forward to?

Next in the line-up for A Girl On the Go are: A Girl on the Go-Go-Goals! and Would You? Could You? Have You? Did You?: 200 Secret-Sharing, Convo-Starting, Inspo-Stoking Questions For Friends. I’ve also just completed manuscripts for my first two picture books that I hope to have traditionally published in the near future!

Other books by Lisa Goich: