Journaling is a great way to deal with stress, negative thoughts, and feelings. However, your journal can also be a powerful tool in the quest to achieving your goals. Many people use journaling to organize their thoughts, gain a deeper understanding of themselves, and commit their goals into writing.
When you write down what you want to achieve and reflect on it regularly, you’re less likely to procrastinate or push your ambitions to the back of your mind whenever something new pops up to take your attention.
Today, we’ll look at some ways a journal can help you to successfully achieve even the most complicated goals.
Step 1: Keep one Journal for Every Goal
The chances are that you have more than one target in mind. Some of your goals might be intended for the short-term, such as the next few months. Others will take much longer to accomplish.
The last thing you want to do is clutter your journal with countless different journeys that you need to keep track of. With that in mind, assign a new journal to every major goal.
You can write the name of your goal on the front of the journal to keep you on track or use an image to inspire you.
On the front page of the journal, outline exactly what success will look like for you when you reach your target. Write down why you want to achieve this particular goal. Is it the prospect of a better job or salary? Do you want to learn a new skill that will help your family in some way?
Remember to be as precise as possible with this. Just writing “finish a course” isn’t a good idea.
Use your journal to track requirements, daily tasks, important deadlines, achievements, and so on. Breaking up a big goal into smaller steps will make it less daunting. On the other hand, you will be able to frequently look at everything you have accomplished so far and see real progress.
Choose a date for when you want to achieve your goal. You can create a tentative
calendar or timetable around specific tasks. This will help you stay on track and align your particular goal with your other daily activities.
Step 2: Set Aside Time Every Day
Goals, no matter how big or small, often require constant dedication and patience to
achieve. While you might have the enthusiasm initially to start journaling and bringing your dreams to life, there’s a good chance that you’re going to lose some motivation from time to time.
Having a slot of time in your day every day where you go back to your journal and update your progress will help to keep you on track. One good option could be to set aside time for your journal each night before you go to bed.
You can use this time to review what you’ve accomplished that day and what’s coming up tomorrow. Having a clear plan will provide more structure to your day.
You’ll also be less likely to procrastinate if you have a clear action plan, and you’ll lighten the mental load as well.
Focusing on your accomplishments and letting go of your stresses and worries before you lay down to sleep could mean that you get a better night’s rest. Writing also means that you’re not engaging in any high-octane activities that keep your mind active.
Step 3: Learn how to Journal Properly
Anyone can start a journal, but not everyone will know how to make the most of this practice. The better the quality of your journal, the more you’ll get out of it in the long-term.
Ideally, it’s worth looking for opportunities to practice your writing and figure out how to organize your thoughts in the most productive way.
One option could be to finish your entry in your journal every day with one lesson or thought that you want to take away. This is the crucial meaning or message that you’ve taken from your experiences that you don’t want to overlook.
For instance, you may have discovered one day that it would have been better for you to say “no” to a task that you didn’t have time to do properly, rather than doing it incorrectly.
Write that note clearly and concisely at the bottom of your entry and move onto the next day. These mini-lessons ensure that you don’t have to read through your full journal to re- discover the meaning of your experiences.
They also allow you to keep track of your progress and mental growth more effectively.
Whatever way you choose to set up your journal, make sure it fulfills the purpose of bringing you closer to your goal.
Step 4: Commit to Writing Every Day
Writing in a journal can be a lot of fun, but it also takes work. Committing to constantly relaying your thoughts and feelings in writing is sometimes a lot more challenging than it seems.
Even if you start strong, there’s always a risk that you’ll lose your inspiration or motivation at one point. This means that you’ll start to lose track of the benefits of keeping your journal—and consequently, the goal for which you started a journal in the first place will suffer too.
To commit to writing every day, you’ll need to turn your journaling strategy from a basic activity into an everyday habit. Developing the positive habit of journaling means that you will usually find it a lot easier to naturally open your journal and start writing every day without needing an extra push.
Initially, it might help to set the alarm every day that reminds you when you’re going to deal with your journal and how long you’re going to spend on the activity. After a while, you may not need the alarm anymore.
Step 5: Don’t Censor Yourself
Finally, give yourself the freedom to be honest with yourself when you’re writing in your journal. Outlining your goals on a piece of paper gives you a chance to get into your own head, find out what’s pushing you forward towards success, and what might be holding you back.
Your journal will serve many purposes on your way to achieving your goals. One of them is keeping you accountable to the person who matters most—you.
You might find yourself thinking about uncomfortable things. For instance, you may ask yourself, “How am I going to become a professional writer if I can’t afford lessons?”
If thoughts like that come to mind, don’t just ignore them. Write them down and give yourself some time to develop potential solutions. Brainstorm various ways to accomplish your goals and give yourself the freedom to come back and add more information at a later date.
Writing helps you get in touch with the deeper parts of yourself, bringing things to the surface you may never have considered before.
Being honest about your failures or shortcomings will help you put things into perspective. Once you write down the problem, finding a logical solution will be much easier.
Journal Your Way to Success
Journaling is an excellent way to get your mind focused on a specific task. The more time you spend journaling, the more you’ll discover that writing down your thoughts and feelings can help to push you in the right direction.
Use your journal to track all the activities you need to complete, but leave plenty of room for your personal growth too. Celebrate your small wins and remind yourself why you are pursuing a particular goal.
Over time, your journal will become your own roadmap to success.
Author bio: Lisa Michaels is a freelance writer, editor, and a thriving content marketing consultant from Portland. Being self-employed, she does her
best to stay on top of the current trends in business and tech. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter @LisaBMichaels.
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