Journaling is a powerful tool, an expression of what is happening on the inside that few people take full advantage of. It can seem like a silly waste of time to some. I thought that way for years. However, I’ve found through my Unbeatable Mind practice, journaling provides many benefits, and a surprising number of highly successful people make journaling a daily habit.
You can learn a lot about yourself and gain a lot of insight into your life. Journaling helps us externalize our lives and see how we think they live versus how we truly live. There’s something magical about writing that thinking alone doesn’t have.
While you can type your journal into your computer, most people find it more effective to use actual paper and write. There is something cathartic about writing versus typing, it helps us slow down, it may increase our attention span and focusing capabilities, and even stimulate different parts of our brain when compared with typing.
Journaling facilitates rapid vertical development when applied daily as part of your morning and evening rituals and in conjunction with training within the five domains of development: physical, mental, emotional, intuitional, and spiritual.
Use these tips to take advantage of journaling to gain insight into your mind and your life:
1. Make journaling fun.
Create and customize a personal journaling experience.
- Get a nice journal and pen.
- Brew a cup of tea.
- Light a candle.
- Turn on some music that stimulates your creativity.
2. Recapitulate your day.
Look at your day and make some notes as part of your evening ritual. This will assist in preventing leakage of important events, information, experiences, and insights.
- What happened?
- What was a moment you appreciated today?
- What did you learn?
- How could you have made today better?
- What mistakes did you make?
- How can you use this information in the future?
- How can tomorrow be better than today?
- What micro-goals do you need to carryover to tomorrow?
3. List progress toward your goals.
Think about your goals and list the progress you made toward each. If you did not make any progress toward one or more of your goals, note that, too.
- Be proud of the progress you’ve made.
- Uncover the reason for your lack of progress.
- Become more determined by the lack of progress and connect to your original reason for setting your goal.
4. Address your fears.
Write about your fears. What are you afraid of? Why do you think you’re afraid of those things? How do your fears impact your life? What is your plan to address those fears?
- FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real.
- Are your fears just false stories running ramped in your mind?
5. Choose one way to enhance yourself.
Pick something you want to work on and work on it. Write about it in your journal. Perhaps you want to lose 10 pounds or strengthen your communication skills.
- Choose something that would enhance your life and write about your thoughts, plans, your reason, and progress.
- Is your reason, your why strong enough to sustain you through the inevitable challenges you will face?
- Choose something powerful from each domain of development: physical, mental, emotional, intuitional, spiritual.
6. Uncover your life’s passions.
- What sets your hair on fire (other than fire)?
- What would you do with your life if money and time were not an issue?
7. List your micro-goals each day.
Writing down your micro-goals each day is a powerful way to stay focused on them. Write your 3 most important micro-goals each day, these are the goals that will move you toward completing your main goals the fastest today. Notice how they evolve over time.
8. List five things that make you feel grateful.
What are you grateful for? Make a list of several items each day and notice how your perspective on life changes.
9. Write about the obstacles in your life.
What’s standing in your way? List the obstacles in your life that you believe are blocking you from happiness or achieving your goals.
- Focus on the perceived obstacles that are within your control. These are the ones you can affect.
- Now focus on the ones that you can affect that will move your towards your goals the fastest.
10. Make a plan for the future.
Aside from your specific goals, what does your dream life look like? How are you planning on getting there? Think about it and sketch out a plan.
11. Write about what is causing you to feel negative emotions.
What is getting you down? What are the situations, people, habits, and beliefs that are causing you the most grief? Why do these things bother you? What can you do about it?
12. Use journaling prompts.
There are literally thousands of journaling prompts online you can choose to use at any time. Here are a few examples to get you started:
- Make a travel bucket list.
- List five things you appreciate about each member of your family.
- Describe your ideal day.
- If I could speak to my teenage self, I would say…
- I wish that others knew I…
- I wish I could say no to…
Journaling each day can take some time, but it’s time that’s well spent. Develop a routine that incorporates journaling into your life. It won’t be long before you begin noticing the benefits. Do what the most successful people in the world do and write about your thoughts and your life.