The Things You Must Journal About Daily

“How do you improve yourself?” asked the young business man to his mentor “I really feel like I want to get better each day. Some days I feel like I keep doing the same stupid things over and over and making the same mistakes”

The mentor looks at him as if to go on. The young entrepreneur continues “Its like I am in this cycle, I keep reliving the same arguments, the same problems each day. I wish I can have someone tell me what I did the day before that needs to change and had a daily reminder about what I can improve.”

The mentor smiles and asks “Have you ever considered journaling each morning?” The young man sits up and leans back. Breaks eye contact and says “Of course not, I am not a teenager that needs to have a journal. Seems like a waste of energy and resources. I just need to do more and get more done. I don't have time to waste on writing my feelings and thoughts.”

“You know, you are pretty fortunate” Says the mentor “You can see your problem, you can see your solution and you can see the obstacle in front of you too. The question is, will you jump over that obstacle or just stand there and complain.”

“What do I even write about?” The young man sighs. “I never write anything and I just don't know where to start.”

“Here, let me know guide you. “ The mentor fires up a linkedin article he once read, written by the CEO of a digital marketing agency in Brooklyn who started journaling and changed his life.

“Read this article, this guys is full of great ideas about how to get started.” He continued. “I suggest you also watch some of his videos on Facebook, they are very informative and inspirational.”

Things you must be journaling about if you want to improve.

(Print and place in journal.)

Each day you need to be writing your thoughts so you can analyze them at a later date. We all have expectations and want to know that we are progressing in our life. You need to inspect what you expect. Doing the same things over and over and expecting different results is what we call insane.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results” - Albert Einstein

Here are ten ideas that will help you get fired up and journaling each day.

The Day: The great thing about the 24 hours of the day is that it keeps happening over and over. Each day that we go to sleep and wake up refreshed is another chance we get to improve. It’s a mini milestone and we need to cherish each day like it might be our last.

We never know when the day will come that we are summoned to return to our maker. Let's spend some time reviewing our day. What happened? What worked, what didn't work and want needs to change? Who did we interact with, how did we feel when we interacted? Who did we think about? What did we really appreciate in our day. Write down whatever comes to mind.

Comment on the most interesting part of your day. You might regret it, if you forget it.

The Relationship, Partnerships: It's the other people in our life that enrich us and allow us to have meaning and purpose. We live to love, to serve to progress.

If we are in a relationship that is not gratifying or that is amazing, we need to write about it so we can improve those relationships and get more out of life.

Life is shorts and relationships matter. Take the time to document who you care about, why you care about them and think about those people.

Your Goals:, Tasks and Todo take up our mindshare. We need to vent them out each day and make sure there is a place for them.

Sometimes writing them down in our journal can give us perspective about why we are doing them in the first place. They remind us about our goals. It's important to have written goals and we don't always have time to write them down.

Take a few moments and write some goals down that you can review later on. Make it part of your journaling process. It will help you get closer to your outcome.

Your Business, Passions: We spend a huge chunk of our days working to earn a living. For the lucky ones, they love what they do. If you love what you do, write about how much you love your business.

Write about what you love about your business, what your passions are and how you can take that to the next level. Make your passions be known to yourself and realize the ultimate way to do business.

Take some time to write ideas about how you can infuse your business with even more of your passions.

Your Desires, Dreams, Hopes: We all dream, some of us don't know it, some of us stop ourselves from being aware of our dreams. Your journal is the perfect place to write whose dreams down.

Imagine what is possible if there were no limitations. What do you hope for? What do you really desire. Think about what your needs are and what you want. Write it down and watch it become a reality.

Sometimes we don't get what we desire because we are not clear about what we want.

Deepest Fears: Boo, Got you! We all get scared from time to time. We also all have deep rooted fears that paralyze us from taking action. You need to document those fears so that you can challenge them and overcome them.

When you find yourself standing on the edge and not wanting to jump because you don't trust your ability to bounce back. You need to see what you can learn from that.

The only way to challenge those fears is to see them for what they are. They usually melt away under inspection and when they are analyzed. Go ahead, watch the fears melt away.

Overcoming your fears will unleash your power and make you unstoppable.

Family, Kids, Parents: There is nothing more important than our family, our parents, our kids. Whose are the people that will be around for us when everyone else is gone.

Knowing that they are there and thinking about them in a surface level is one thing. Writing about them and how you feel for them is a whole new level.

For those that want to take those relationships to a whole new level, journal with the family in mind.

Biggest Problems: Solutions are just looking for problems that they can solve. The biggest problem people face is not knowing they have a problem to begin with and so they can't summon the solution to come and solve that problem.

We need to spend time and ask ourselves, what are our biggest problems. Just asking that question and writing down what comes to mind on that particular day can open up new opportunities we did not think possible.

Looking Forward To: Think about the next couple days, weeks or months. What are you looking forward to? Is it dinner with the family on the next big holiday? Is it a big vacation that you plan on taking? Are you looking forward to something way ahead in the future? Maybe the day that you will find the love of your life or the new opportunity?

Dare to look forward and bring that day in the future into the now. Start enjoying the benefits of having a bright future and you will see it get closer closer.

You must write down what you look forward to so that you can actually look forward to things and feel happier.

Good things happen to people who focus on good things.

Gratitude, Memories: This might be the most important part of your journaling. If you only have 5 minutes to journal, this is where you should spend your time.

Writing down the things you are grateful for will make you more grateful and people who are more grateful are happier, more positive and they also get luckier.

Good things happen to people who focus on good things. Its simple as the law of attraction or as some call it the law of vibration. When we bless things and show gratitude we start putting out higher vibrations and we attract those things that are at a higher vibration as well.

Try it and see what starts happening in your life. Warm memories of the good things in our life give us so many things to be grateful for. Summon up your good memories and relive them, write down what good things you remember happening to you. Watch them increase and new amazing things start happening.

Now you have some things to journal about. Hope this helps you take your life to the next level. See you there!

Feel free to comment with some journaling ideas yourself.

BIO: Joe Apfelbaum is the CEO and co-founder of digital marketing agency Ajax Union. He is a public speaker, certified Google Trainer, and published business author. Joe enjoys speaking and writing about a broad range of business topics in his seminars, webinars and articles. Joe is a member of the Board of Directors of the Entrepreneurs Organization in Brooklyn, a group with over 11,000 CEO’s and a contributing member of the Business Owners Council, a community of the fastest growing companies in the United States. Joe is proud of all his accomplishments, but most of all he is proud of his successful foodie wife and beautiful four kids.