Hi ,
Been away on some great high level training lately in London, if I could share tool I have used over 15 + years, that would make a significant difference to your life, what would it be?
Well, the winning answer has to be To Keep A Personal Journal
Now people get slightly confused and think if it as a dairy. Something we use for scheduling or writing down our feelings on a daily basis. The truth is a journal is something entirely different and if used currently is more of an extension of your mind, sounds deep, I know but let me explain.
Your memory although can be very good in some cases, will always let you down, you will lose your tasks, thoughts and ideas, we all have had a great idea come to us while doing some mundane task and then it faded away to the depths never to return.
The same can occur with our intentions and plans, this is where a journal comes into its own it.The perfect journal should be strong, and ideally leather bound, so your pages don’t fall out and lose a potentially lucrative idea or action step.
Some people have slips of paper, loose leaf pages and all sorts of notes, but most of these will fall by the wayside or get lost for sure. Being organised is important, and you should treat your journal as something of value.
So how do you use a journal as most people are unsure, a journal is a living tool to record your plans, progress, ideas, projects and manage your life.
The most important detail is to record dates location and events on the top of the page so you can use it to measure your progress or lack of it. Not putting dates in or specific details causes the entry to have no point of reference.
For example, writing the statement "I want to lose 20lbs in bodyweight" on the page with no date attached cannot be measured -simple, but also a common mistake. The same error could show up for wanting to earn a fixed sum of money if no date attached, it's not measurable.
You can look back and see all your goals and outstanding tasks with a timeline and reprioritise them to get the most important ones done.
I also do a weekly sweep up of what was accomplished and what I need to focus on next week; this can be highly beneficial and not relying on your memory is key, as it frees up your mental ram once your brain sees it backed up. Some people are worrying far too much stuff in their head when entering it into their journal will do a far better job and take some pressure off too.
Your journals become highly valuable as when you complete a project with all the fine details. You can use it again as a historical reference guide on what you did right, wrong and what can be improved.
It can also add to your confidence when you look back on what you have accomplished. People have been able to use that information to produce a resume or assist in dealing with some emergency that popped up.
Succesful people think on paper that is a fact having dealt with many over years. Its a common theme and they are always writing and thinking. It's good to do a sweep up on all open loops you have and write them down be systematic and go through areas like finances, relationship, business, health, etc. If you have not done so already, set your ideal goals in these areas and look at often remind yourself why you're doing all this.
Lots of people use electronic versions on laptop, mobiles, etc. but personally I have found it not to be as effective. The problem is devices go flat, get problems, lose data, etc. The old pen and paper are far more reliable.
Make a habit of having a journal with you most of the time or ion the car as you never know when you'll get sone great idea or be waiting for an appointment and have time to plan or review your progress.
I have personally along with those I worked with in past who adopted the practice found a journal to be the single best tool in self management and aid to keep things on track.
My recommendation is to go and buy a decent A4 size one and implement it in your life it will pay you back ten fold. If you need more direction go to iTunes and purchase the audio by the Great Jim Rohn “How To Use A Journal” may also be on Youtube free.
Finally, those who do this will get great value and although a simple idea and concept it works exceptionally well. Only yesterday at a meeting I noticed people who were trying to rely on their memory to remember a huge amount of information.
Only to find on the 2nd day review that they had lost 90% of the information covered. If they were smart and took some good notes in their journal, they would not have lost that valuable information.
hope this helps
kind regards
Simon
#The-Power-Of-A-Journal
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