“Journaling is like whispering to one’s self and listening at the same time.” — Mina Murray, Dracula
Some of the world’s top-performers swear by the practice of journaling - and for good reason. This powerful practice goes far beyond recording the events of your day for prosperity. Instead, journaling is a practice that will help you become your best self.
Keep reading to discover SIX reasons why...
Reason #1 - Free up creative bandwidth
Jim Rohn says “Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.”
Here’s an interesting fact… the average person has between 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day. That’s up to 50 thoughts a minute [yup, I can’t quite fathom that either!]
Here’s the thing…
A lot of those thoughts are repetitive or low-level. You become what you think, so if you’re constantly repeating the same thoughts, you’ll keep recreating the same reality.
Thinking ruts keep us stuck in the status quo, making it less likely that the mind will wander down a tangent that delivers a door-opening idea.
Here’s where journaling can help - HUGELY.
You can use your journal to close up some of those repetitive thought loops. In turn, you free up bandwidth and create some new space to think. As a result, you’re more likely to discover something new.
Reason #2 - Boost your emotional intelligence
In a nutshell, emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize, understand, and manage your emotions.
As you can imagine, emotional intelligence is a pretty crucial skill if you want to be your best self.
Your emotions are messengers. They give you an insight into how you’re feeling that goes beyond what your logical mind wants you to know.
Emotions can give you insight into specific experiences, people, and situations.
They can help you understand your triggers too.
The better you can navigate, process, and express your emotions, the more powerfully you can show up for yourself and for other people.
Of course, journaling can help you here too - because you can use your journaling practice to work through how you feel. With the help of your journal you can write about and process your emotions.
Helping you to feel more connected with yourself and with others.
Reason #3 - Better know yourself
Your journal is a brilliant place to get to know who you really are.
Think about it…
Unless you’ve lived a very intentional life [where you’re conscious about why you have the beliefs you have or why you make the decisions that you do], then a big chunk of how you show up is determined by your hard-wired beliefs and habits.
It’s not unusual for these instinctive patterns to have been shaped by influences outside of your choice - for example:
• Meeting the expectations of your parents or teachers as a child
• Showing up in a way that got you accepted by your peers
• Behaving in a way that earned you brownie points with your boss, teammates, or clients
A lot of these habits WILL serve you - but some won’t.
Your journal is the perfect place to differentiate between the two.
Through the process of introspection, contemplation, and self-discovery, you can distinguish between the authentic YOU - and the parts of you that are serving others more than they serve you.
In turn, your journal becomes a powerful catalyst for rapid self-growth.
Reason #4 - Set and achieve the right goals
Are you setting goals that you REALLY want - or goals that you think you should want?
It’s a crazy fact that only 8% of people achieve the goals they set.
There are lots of reasons why people fall short of where they say they want to be - and one of those is because their goal didn’t excite them enough in the first place!
There’s a profound difference between motivation and inspiration.
Motivation is often an outside thing whereas inspiration comes from within.
Ideally, your goals should light a fire inside of you. You should feel inherently driven to do what’s required to make them work.
You can use your journal to figure this piece out by writing to get clarity on what you really want…
And more importantly, WHY you want it.
With a clear direction mapped out, you can put your Reticular Activating System to work - and increase your chances of success significantly.
Reason #5 - Learn from your life
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
This quote is widely attributed to Einstein - [it’s such a good quote that we’ll overlook the fact that he may not have said this at all!]
Have you noticed how life has a funny way of repeating itself? The situation may be different, but the context is often similar…
I think this is life’s way of helping you learn something specific - meaning familiar experiences will continue to show up, until you ‘get’ the lesson!
Once again, your journal is a powerful place to put reflection to work.
With the help of your journal, you can look back over an event, a day, a week, a season etc. to pull out the life lessons.
It’s more powerful to write out your reflection than it is to just think because writing allows you to pull on all the threads of thinking - and see where they go.
When you write, you can join up the dots and make the connections that would otherwise be invisible.
And as you reflect, you learn - and make it more likely that you won’t repeat mistakes - which in turn allows you to grow more quickly.
Reason #6 - Feel more centered
Life is pretty crazy at the moment.
All this chaos, uncertainty, and confusion means the road ahead might not be as clear as you once thought. In turn, stress and anxiety can increase - creating emotional reactions and mental fog that make it harder to make decisions and think straight.
Your journal can help you work through these fears - so you can feel more grounded.
There’s something about writing out your worries and concerns - in detail - that can take the edge off the emotional energy of it all.
Instead of thoughts whirring round and round in your head, you can create closure and clarity - therefore increasing your feelings of empowerment.
Journaling inspires you to get focused - and that can calm your wandering, worrying mind and create some much-needed relief.
Pretty cool, right?!
Who’s have thought you could extract all of those mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits from capturing a few words on the blank page.
Yup, journaling really is one of THE most profound practices that you can adopt - and best of all, it’s so simple to start. All you need is a pen, a notebook [I recommend the Scribe], and your wandering mind.
So get to writing NOW.
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