The Elixir Method: How To Track What Actually Matters
Journal Prompts & Quests - Or... A Quest™ to make you happy.
This is a Quest. Every Quest is a free essay with extended benefits. A Heroine's Adventure Guide (read it on your phone) and a Workbook (print it, write in it). The essay explains the thing. The Quest gives you the system to do the thing.
It was the professor who led my Master’s program who convinced me to pursue a PhD. She offered to be my Supervisor and said she was curious where my research might lead next (I didn't even know what my research was or if I even knew how to research). But she'd dangled a shiny new toy in front of my face, and I am known for being unable to resist shiny new toys (I'm getting better).
The title alone glowed in my imagination: Dr. Cabrelli.
For a first-generation college attendee, that level of education and the identity that came with it felt like an impossible goal. But I decided I would do it. And once I decided, I got serious. I project-planned. I systemized. My supervisors were impressed, and the thesis monitoring committee swooned. This was gonna be a cake walk. I had the whole thing in hand.
But then I didn't.
COVID hit.
Instead of spending my days in the library and meeting the other candidates for coffee, I was alone. And everything seemed impossible and irrelevant. Why was I spending hours poring over another complicated academic sentence I couldn't understand, when the world was falling apart around me?
Unlike most paths I’d walked - corporate analyst, business creator and owner, the PhD wasn’t amenable to a killer project plan, or a carefully constructed process based on reliable data. It wasn't a staircase I could climb step by step. It was a trail of mirages (I started more things than I finished), deep wells (I fell down research holes I couldn't climb out of), and loops (I found myself re-reading papers I thought I'd dismissed a year earlier). And the process was long. The finish line didn’t get closer; it disappeared into forks in the road and dead-end paths.
Progress is my comfort zone. I'm calmed by measurable movement. But this? This wasn't a straight path to a single destination. It was cyclical. I was wandering.
And it changed me.
I began to discover that the path was the point. Instead of achieving a single goal (like a hero on an epic journey), I was collecting elixirs (like a heroine who journeys, not to enrich herself, but to brighten the kingdom). More than a degree, I was collecting insights, skills, and moments of shift. The journey was no longer about the title. It was about the learning.
When the traditional academic methods of notetaking failed me (my process queen screamed in agony at the post-its, piles of PDFs, and colored sticky tags I couldn't remember), I went looking for a more technology-based solution. I eventually found Roam Research (and later Tana). These tools didn’t just help me finish my research; they transformed how I thought.
So, I documented everything, created a guide, and shared it on Twitter, thinking a few people might find it helpful.
That unadvertised $99 course went on to sell $50,000+ in 18 months while I wasn’t even looking.
The point?
You may start with a goal (a PhD). But the real story lives in the unexpected gifts you collect and then pass on. You brighten the kingdom.
That’s the elixir. These are the gifts you collect on your journeys. And the world needs yours.
However, both you and I know it's sometimes tough to recognize these gifts on the roads of our journeys. Even if an elixir jumps out of a tangle of bushes and lands in your arms, you still may dump it back on the road (you know what I mean, "I'm carrying too much already. I'm not holding that as well.") That's why it's helpful to have an official process (Hey, I told you I was the process queen!) to capture your elixirs as you journey.
I do all this work in Tana Inc., but you can use your bullet journal, a stack of Post-its, or any system you choose.
Share Your Elixirs
Objective:
Build your own Weekly Elixir Report system to help you name, track, and share what you’re really learning and creating each week.
Use this for:
Personal reflection & development
Substack or blog content
Coaching or client sessions
Legacy-building
You are the Heroine. Your job is to return with the Elixirs, even if no one has asked for them yet. Ready to create your Weekly Elixir ritual? Start with Day 1 below. I'd love to hear about any elixirs you didn't even recognize you were holding! Please share them in the comments.
DAY 1: IDENTIFY YOUR ELIXIR TYPES
Create your own categories of meaningful progress. Here are the core types I use, along with examples from my week.
#glow Moments of joy, gratitude, connection, beauty, or personal truth
I repotted the peonies from the Italian front garden to carry them back across the sea to Scotland.
#build Progress made: drafting, decision-making, effort that doesn’t look finished but matters
Sent Heroine's Circle group coaching announcement to all groups (paid, founder, comp) with polls
#spark Insights or realizations from books, posts, conversations, and inputs
"For too long, we’ve lived in a world that favours the linear over the cyclical, a patriarchal structure that measures worth by productivity, output, and constancy." Rosie Peacock 🦚
#signal External resonance: replies, restacks, comments, reviews.
Frequent restacks from Suzanna
#create Finished artifacts: guides, posts, prompts, quests, videos.
Adventure Quest - Rewrite Your Backstory: The Lost Manuscript of You.
These are just examples of the types of elixirs I collect. You can invent your own based on your strengths, knowledge, skills, whatever you are picking up on your journeys that will make the kingdom brighter.
DAY 2: PLAN YOUR TRACKING SYSTEM
Jot down how you plan on tracking your elixirs (a mobile version and daily tracking form).
You know when you say to yourself, "Oh, I don't need to write that down. I'll remember it."
Did you remember it? Nope.
Have a method to capture elixirs on the go as well as your main tracking form. I use the Tana app on my phone, but am also partial to carrying around one of these cute little notebooks.
DAY 3: DECIDE ON FORMAT AND DISTRIBUTION
On Fridays, I go through my elixirs and decide if there are any worth sharing. I have an audience to share with (both here on Substack and through my personal author email list), but you don't need a large audience to brighten the kingdom. Perhaps your kids would benefit from your weekly elixirs? Your co-workers? Your friend squad? Maybe a weekly elixir report would bond you to your partner?
This is what mine looks like right now. Yours doesn't have to match.
This Week’s Story Arc:
My from/to for the week (ex, from hesitation into motion)
Field Notes from the Elsewhere:
From wherever I was, to wherever you are.
Tags: Gratitude (glow moments), Homework for Life
Content: Personal reflections, updates, or stories from my travels
Purpose: Travel/personal anchor. Builds relationships with heroines.
Tools for Your Journey:
What I built or released this week to support your path—printables, posts, quests, or story-medicine.
Tags: Quest, Midlife Elsewhere, Media Articles
Content: All work that heroines have early access to because they are members of The Library, and also a reminder of anything I released. One-sentence benefit statements per tool so it reads like a gear list, not a paragraph dump.
Purpose: Provide value. VIP Access to the Heroine's Adventure World
Behind the Scenes: In the Workshop:
Modeling Momentum: What I’m shaping, testing, or sketching right now
Tags: Build
Content: All work I've been doing during the week
Purpose: Provide value. Provide valuable insights into the process and business work.
Sparks + Realizations:
Insights from the world outside.
Tags: Note
Content: Ideas and explorations that emerged from the collection process. “Why this matters for you” after each spark. These ideas don’t just change my perspective, they’re potential elixirs for my heroine’s own reframing.
Purpose: Provide Value. From outside the Heroine's Adventure world.
The Echoes
What resonated. Quotes, messages, restacks. A look at what sparked.
Tags: Signal (repeat this series in every week's post)
Content: Screenshot quote from a reader, notable reply, unexpected spike in a post. Add a CTA once/month: “Want to echo something back? Just hit reply.”
Purpose: Social Proof. Community Building.
Heroine Spotlight
Sharing your elixirs.
Tags: Spotlight
Content: Updates and success stories from paid heroines.
Purpose: Community Building.
The Dispatch Board
Your turn. A quick poll or insight request, because you’re not just the audience. You’re part of the lab.
Content: A poll with a question to dig deeper into heroine needs.
Purpose: Product Development Insight.
*My Elixirs are frequently shared in my weekly Midlife Elsewhere post which is a glimpse into my daily life and what happens behind the scenes of a Messy Middle.
DAY 4: MAKE IT EASY TO REPEAT - WRITE IT DOWN
Choose your rhythm:
Weekly review ritual?
Friday check-in?
Sunday night wind-down?
Then:
Add a recurring reminder
Name the ritual
Consider closing the week with: "What am I carrying forward?"
REMEMBER:
You don’t need to wait for the PhD, the book deal, or the client win.
The story’s already happening. The elixirs are already arriving.
Your job is just to notice them and share what matters.
Want the Guide (read on your phone) and the Workbook (print it, write in it)? They're yours as a paid subscriber. Download both below.
If you think this Mini-Quest will help a friend discover all the magic she already has in her life, please share Call for Heroines with her.
This is amazing. Thanks for sharing. I have been a member for some time and need lots of catching up. Where would you recommend I start?