When The Going Gets Tough Use Your Daily Journal
Posted by admin on February 17, 2010 · 5 Comments
I am a great fan and advocate for the daily journal as a part of the personal development and self awareness journey. I have cultivated journaling each day as a habit and over time have developed an array of very useful tips for assisting to keep the daily journal interesting and stimulating. There could be nothing worse for me than to have a habit which is mundane and boring. And I coach people using the daily journal as a key element to attract and maintain life success. I am even in development phase for a commercial product around a daily journal.
So it came as a great surprise to me this week to discover that 6 days had passed since I had made an entry in my daily journal and 10 days had passed since I had written about my thankfulness, gratitude and appreciation for life. It happens that I had been feeling a bit low in mood and unmotivated over the last three days and yesterday I decided to explore that in my journal. I opened up and noticed how many days since I had made an entry. Well, I thought to myself, be your own coach!!
So I went through my daily habit, entering in my journal what was happening and working through how to move forward, going over my years goals and writing about how I was working towards them, listing my gratitude for what I have right now and what is coming to me in the future. Lo and behold, it worked, got me back on track and I decided on a couple of processes to help me through this low motivation phase. My mood lifted almost immediately.
For the moment, my daily journal will consist of decisions on the actions that I am taking towards my life goals and I will check back over that each day to see my progress. With that inspiration, I completed 2 of my 3 tasks yesterday and one that was not on the list but the time was right. Today I am well on the way with the 4 that I committed to for this day.
Learning? Sometimes it helps to just go back to the basics and I know that the daily journal is one of those basic but essential habits. Oh and just for a bit of fun I had a look back to where I was this time last year. Happily, much progress has been made and some of my big life decisions are coming to fruition right now. Attract success – you betcha!!
Hey,
using a journal is really a nice idea, It keeps us focused and motivated. The only difference is – I call it my PSJ i.e Personal Success Journal
even I have realized, sometimes on some days when I dont write in my PSJ, i feel a little less motivated and a little less focused…. u see, its part of life. but the good part is people like u and me are trying our bit, by keeping a journal
indeed, writing down your thoughts and your goals in a daily journal can really help step you up to become a better person because you can always go back to it and see how far you are towards achieving your goals, whatever they may be. you will also be able to identify what mistakes to correct and what obstacles to overcome. to become successful, in the real sense, you have to be a better person. if you feel good about yourself and your achievements, and you have done all things without stepping on anyone’s toes, that to me is success already.
nicely put – couldn’t say it better myelf
I was recently watching a youtube video about an OIympic champion from the 60’s who won the 10,000 meter race. He was an underdog, came from way behind in an amazing finish. He talked about his training journal, where he wrote his positive affirmations, visualizations, and personal victories and learnings. In the same way, we can use the tool you are talking about to achieve the same level of performance success in our own lives.
I have just started to keep a journal – putting into words helps to make me realise exactly how I feel and helps to keep me on track.