Journal writing is a powerful tool that can help you overcome challenges in all areas of your life: health, relationships, career, money, or wherever your stumbling blocks lie.
Documenting your vision and goals in your journal will make them more real than if you just daydream about them vaguely. Clear your mind of distractions, clearly state your goals in writing, and revisit them frequently, and you'll be surprised how effective your efforts become.
Use the following five steps to keep you motivated, focused, and accountable as you progress.
1. Clear Mental Clutter.
It's very hard to envision a better future when the problems that exist right now monopolize your brain. Productivity guru David Allen encourages his students to have "a mind like water," calm and ready for anything.
How do you clear your mind? Empty it into your journal! Your worries, your to-do lists, your fears, and those bright ideas that pop into your head as you're falling asleep: let them all tumble down into the pages as you write.
Clearing your mental clutter makes way for your creativity to blossom. It lets you notice new opportunities that come your way and envision new possibilities instead of being obsessed with everyday overwhelm.
Journal Prompt:"What's on my mind right now?" Write, without taking your pen from the page, until you've purged your thoughts.
2. Set Your Intention
If you don't have a clear picture of what you want, how are you going to get it?
If you want more money, for example, you also need to know how much you want, and how having that money would change things for you. How would you feel; how would your world be different?
Or if you want a new love, can you describe in detail how having a new love will make your life better?
Use your journal to collect all your thoughts and to specify your intentions on all levels. By being crystal clear about what you want, you actually bring it closer to you.
Journal Prompt:If I had X in my life, I would be happy.Now write a page in your journal that describes a day in your life with X in your life, and how it makes you happy.Focus on the feeling that you get when you know you have the thing you want.
3. Create SMART Goals
Now that you've cleared your mind and made a detailed picture of your objective, use your journal to define SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Use these straightforward criteria as you plan your approach to whatever your challenge may be.
Specific: Be as clear and detailed as possible in describing your goal.
Measurable: So that you'll know whether you achieved it or not.
Attainable: Let your goal be something within your reach, setting you up for success.
Relevant: Make sure you've created this goal by choice, not out of obligation.
Time-Bound: Give yourself a deadline.
SMART goals don't have to be complex and wordy. If you've used your journal to imagine yourself living a healthy lifestyle, you could write down the SMART goal, "Quit smoking by the end of this February." Go down the checklist: Is it Specific? Yes. Measurable? Yes. And so on.
Or your goal might be, "Double my income by the end of the year." It's specific, measurable, and time-bound but is it really attainable? And if so, is it something that will solve problems for you, something that will be a relevant answer to your needs?
Journal Prompt:Write three SMART goals relevant to your intention from step two. Write the next action you will take toward each. Breaking them down this way will make them more achievable.
4. Hold Yourself Accountable
Obviously, since you have used your journal to clear your mind, set your intention, and create SMART goals, you now have a written record of your progress.
While you continue to add to this record, recounting your experiences as you work toward your goals, return often to the first pages of your journal, where the original thoughts are displayed.
This continual refreshing will help to keep you committed to your objectives.
5. Celebrate Your Victories
Lastly, maybe the best benefit to journaling: it allows you to cross off your accomplished goals. You can use exclamation points and smiley faces liberally.
Congratulate yourself and take a moment to re-read the pages and see how far you've come. For satisfaction, self-confidence, and pure joy, few experiences can compare!
You'll be amazed at how effectively you can master challenges with the help of your journal.
