What would you do if you kept a daily journal for 50 years?

“Every morning, rain or shine, work day or vacation, I’m out of bed before 6am, flip on the coffee pot, sit alone with my thoughts for 15 to 90 minutes, and scribble down whatever happens to bubble up. I blinked and somehow I’m looking back on five decades of continuous work – and this daily self-reflection has been my most valuable tool to help slow time down, allowing me to observe and savor and extract the most out of each moment.

This daily practice has helped me align my life to my values, and infused everything I do—whether at work or at home—with a transcendent sense of purpose. In essence, journaling has made me a witness to my own life, recording my experience through daily handwritten notes. Not only has journaling provided me with an ongoing sense of clarity, confidence, and calm, but through the process I’ve created a personal set of inner tools to help navigate our complex world.”

“When I’m gone, they’re all yours.”

While recovering from surgery in 2023, Ken Inadomi’s daughter Molly stopped by to check on him, and they got to talking about the value of journaling and self-reflection for both physical and mental recovery. Ken casually told her, “When I’m gone, they’re all yours.”

Molly said: “Dad, thank you, but realistically I can’t see myself reading through volumes of your handwriting. Have you ever thought of going through them and pulling out the best stories and lessons? I’d love to read that and I know a lot of my friends would too!”

In an instant, Ken knew she was right, and the idea for The Pen & The Mirror was born.

The Book

After combing through more than 140 volumes of handwritten journals from 50 years of journaling, we are proud to bring you Ken’s greatest hits – a distillation of the fundamental life lessons and Aha’s that have served him well. It’s five decades of living and learning, asking and listening, reading and observing, trying and failing and trying again.

Readers will find:

  • Raw, unfiltered storytelling and life lessons that will motivate you to build the life you envision

  • Universal lessons, with a special focus on those who feel called—as Ken does—to live a life of impact

  • Why maintaining the reflective practice of journaling over time is a profound, powerful gateway to meaning and living a good life

  • Ken’s best tools and techniques for self-reflection and meaning-making that helped him succeed at Yale and Stanford, build a successful business, and reinvent himself as a social impact and non-profit leader, all while being a family man

When Ken started back in 1973, journaling wasn’t the industry it is today. Come experience the power of a modern day master sharing his deepest and freshest reflections—a living example of what happens when you choose a discipline, practice what you preach, and stick to it for fifty years.