Hi everyone! I hope that you all had an amazing week.
Every Sunday I send you 3 things; an article about the world of work, an inspiring quote, and a journal prompt that encourages personal reflection. My goal is to help you redefine the relationship you have with your work, making it something that serves you rather than something you tolerate (or worse) dread.
A member of the community inspired the idea for the major piece of content in this week’s newsletter. He confided to me he had tried journalling before, but found it difficult to keep up as a practice. He asked for tips about how to go about journalling. So I thought I would share my approach and some tips; hope that it is helpful!
Feedback is always welcome; simply respond to this email. I love to hear from the community, to know how I can better offer value to you. You may find that I pull something together specifically to address a concern you have!
One Simple Habit That Can Transform Your Life
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Journalling is a powerful tool for helping achieve success, both personally and professionally. It can help you explore your thoughts and feelings, lower your stress levels, and gain valuable insights. The best part is that it is a very low-cost and simple habit to implement that can propel you forward.
Benefits of journalling.
- Journalling can provide clarity and focus. We usually have all kinds of thoughts swirling around in our mind, and thoughts bounce around and collide like the snow inside a snow globe. That makes it very difficult to see what is going on; there is simply too much happening. Writing your thoughts and feelings can help you calm the noise in your mind, bringing greater clarity.
- A journalling practice can help you identify and manage stress. Writing your feelings can help you process and reflect on difficult situations, allowing you to better manage your stress. It can also help you identify potential areas of improvement and strategies for managing stress. Since you will be the only one that reads it, you can freely vent; journalling can provide an outlet for you to get the emotions out, causing no harm to your relationships.
- Journalling can help you connect things you hadn’t connected before to unlock new insights. It is amazing how ideas will inter-relate once you take the time to get them out of your head. Once you see your ideas in the open, you can play with them and allow them to intermingle with other thoughts and feelings.
- A consistent journalling habit unlocks your ability to “time travel”, which is one of the tremendous benefits that I have experienced. When you spend a few minutes each day capturing how you feel, what is on your mind, and what you are struggling with or feeling great about, you are amassing a lot of information. I go back at the end of each month and scan through my entries for the month. This helps me see how much progress I have made. My usual tendency is to feel that I haven’t accomplished as much as I would have liked, so going back and seeing how far I’ve come and what I’ve learned along the way is a real positive. I write up a “monthly summary” that I review at the end of the year as well. Being able to get a bird’s-eye view of how you felt and what you were focused on over a year is so valuable, and is one of the key benefits that I get from journalling.
Approaches to journalling.
There are many approaches to journalling. I have tried several out and then settled on the right blend of techniques that works for me. The key is to just get started without worrying too much about it. Just start capturing your ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Over time, you will refine your approach and develop it into something that works for you.
Some common approaches are:
- Gratitude journalling. You record a list of things that you are grateful for. I do this as part of my practice. One thing that I noted is that at first, I regularly repeated the same things. Over time, I learned to note much simpler things to be grateful for, and that is when I found this to be more helpful.
- “Morning Pages”. Julia Cameron popularized this approach in her famous book “The Artist’s Way” (a highly recommended read!). This technique has you write 3 full pages as quickly as you can, first thing in the morning. It is “stream of consciousness” writing, the idea being to just get all the clutter out of your mind. I have used this approach as well, and sometimes still do. It is amazing how hard it can be at first; 3 pages does not seem like much until you try to do it without stopping. The key principle is to avoid any editing or filtering, which can allow you to realize things you may not have otherwise realized.
- Dream journals. A dream journal typically is used to record of nightly dreams, personal reflections and waking dream experiences. People sometimes use this approach in the study of dreams and psychology. I don’t have any experience with this type of journalling practice, as I seldom remember my dreams.
- Habit tracking. Many people use their journals to track habits. While I agree whole-heartedly with the idea that tracking habits is the key to implementing a desired habit, I don’t do this in my journal. I tried this approach before, but for me, I like to treat my journalling time as more sacred, more of a time for connecting with my deeper self.
- Prompted journalling. This approach has you responding to interesting questions that are presented to you. I like this technique, as I believe in the power of questions; interesting questions can provoke some powerful insights. It means that you need a source of prompts; I collect interesting ones I come across and share one each week as part of my newsletter.
- Reflection journalling. This type of journalling involves just writing about whatever is on your mind, what you are feeling, ideas and thoughts, anything at all really. Just getting it all out. It is similar in approach to the Morning Pages, but with no need for it to be at least 3 pages.
How to journal.
It is simple – start writing. The technique that you decide to use is not important. The tool you use does not matter. You can always adjust later. In fact, I highly suggest that you adjust your journalling practice as you figure out what works best for you.
You can use a pen and notebook or do it digitally. Personally, I do it digitally, as I enjoy going back and being able to search without having to re-read everything. Plus, my typing is so much better than my writing; when I write with a pen, I often can barely read my writing when going back to notes I wrote by hand.
There are a variety of approaches to doing this digitally as well. You could use a standard word processor like Microsoft Word. Or you could use a note-taking app like Evernote or Notion. If you really commit to the journalling process, you could even use a dedicated journalling app like Day One (that is what I use).
In terms of “when” to journal, I think it is a very personal decision. The key is to have at least 10 minutes of quiet time, where you can be on your own and with no distractions. I enjoy doing it shortly after I get up in the morning. Doing it early in my day allows me to reflect on the day before while it is still fresh in my mind, as well as helps me to set myself up for a successful day. It helps to put me into the right frame of mind, which is so important for being effective.
Conclusion
Are you looking for ways to take your career and life to the next level? If so, journalling could be the key. Journalling can help you reach your goals, providing clarity and focus. It can allow you to manage stress, gain important insights, monitor your progress, and improve your thinking. With regular journalling, you’ll be able to unlock levels of success that you never believed possible for yourself.
So, why wait? Start journalling today and achieve the success you’ve been striving for.
Quotation that I have been pondering
We need to put systems in place to be effective in our careers and lives. Automation helps, allowing us to be deliver results more efficiently. Much like trying to navigate your way through a dark forest, getting to your destination is much easier if you follow a well-worn path.
However, there is a downside to this. Following the same path will always lead you to the same destination. That is fine when that is where you are trying to go; by following the existing path, you will get there with greater ease.
But what if you’re trying to get somewhere else? Following the path isn’t likely to work for you and you need to do something different.
That is why I liked this quote from Catherine Booth:
I like her choice of the word “disturb” because making changes is quite disturbing. It can be scary. You won’t be sure that you can succeed and your competence will be in question.
But without doing something different, you can’t possibly change.
If you want to change your life, you need to get off of your well-trodden path and explore the dark woods. It may be scary, and it almost certainly will be hard. But that’s where change is to be found.
Journal Prompt
We often blame other people or circumstances for blocking the path to what we want. However, blaming others gives them all the power. You can’t take control of the situation if you don’t take responsibility for where you are at.
Which leads us to this week’s prompt, which is rather challenging:
This may feel uncomfortable, but take some time to reflect on this idea and note what comes up for you. Taking ownership of the issue will allow you to affect change.
Getting clear about how you are standing in your own way is an extremely powerful exercise.
Have an amazing week!
If you need support in figuring out how to rediscover joy in your work or life, I would love to help. Book a FREE consult to learn more.
Better is always possible.
Tim
