A year's worth of insights from daily journaling

Daily journaling is a habit I started two years ago, and I believe this habit is a contributing factor to my growth, happiness, and success.

There are no rules to journaling. The structure and content are up to you. My journaling often includes details of the day’s experiences and outcomes, accomplishments/successes, goals, crazy ideas, lessons learned, empowering questions, affirmations, gratitude thoughts, and even reflection on stuff that doesn’t make much sense at the time. I also identify and include a WORD OF THE DAY with my journal entries, which either strike me at the start of the day or the day’s end with a summary.

To kick off the year of daily journaling, I select WORD OF THE YEAR which provides focus and direction. In 2023, my word was TRANSFORM. (FYI: this habit started in 2018, replacing the dreaded New Year’s Resolutions.)

After taking several days to read, process, and reflect upon the words written, I am grateful for this habit as the insights gained validate the power of daily journaling. Below are twenty AH-HA’s from 2023:

1. Go to bed with empowering questions for the subconscious to work on. Let your brain work on things while you sleep.?
2. The words we use make a big difference in how we think and act. Example: “I get to” versus “I have to”.
3. We are all worthy of a seat at the table. The belief starts within us.
4. How we frame our past and present experiences shape our thoughts and beliefs that impact our "future self". The good news, when those stories hold us back, we can reframe and rewrite them. And we can do this anytime. This is critical because I’ve discovered our “future self” vision DRIVES how we act and think in the present.
5. ?Play at the level of your future self. We act differently when we know things will happen.
6. Goals achieved set the bar for even bigger goals. Goals not achieved provide opportunities to see what’s not working to course-correct, pivot, and discover new ways for goal achievement.
7. There are no little successes. Growth is growth.
8. There is zero-point value in beating up on oneself.
9. Success-minded people focus on the gains and progress made, not the gaps or disappointments from expectations not met or goals not yet achieved.
10. It’s time prioritization versus time management. What we deem important gets our attention and focus. Where our attention and focus are placed, gets prioritized. If we’re not happy with the results we’re getting at the end of the day/week/month/quarter/year, a decision is required to change attention and focus.
11. Desire and commitment are two different things. Getting clarity about how important “it” is and the commitment level to addressing “it” is key to identifying a clear future on the next steps (e.g., Is this a band-aid issue or a 911 issue?).
12. Challenging the beliefs, assumptions, and B.S. expressed by others in a nurturing way is a GIFT. When shared, everyone rises to new levels.
13. The key to bonding and rapport is to treat others HOW THEY WANT TO BE TREATED versus how we would want to be treated by them.
14. Meet people where they are, then lead.
15. Fire needs air. No air, no fire. Take time to breathe in the fresh air to keep your fire burning.
16. You don’t have to be sick to get better.
17. A trajectory is impacted by the angle, velocity, height, and resistance. Knowing this, I’m discovering one’s life trajectory is impacted by angle/vision and view, velocity/effort and grit, height/the process and cadence, and resistance/support and stories.
18. Success is like growing Chinese bamboo… INVISIBLE GROWTH OCCURS over a long period BEFORE VISIBLE GROWTH IS APPARENT. When growth becomes visible, it’s massive and explosive. ??
19. Reminder to self: I don’t know the answer yet, but it will be fun figuring it out.
20. If it’s not journaled, it’s forgotten. Opportunities to celebrate, create, innovate, reflect, and grow are missed.

Journaling is like planting seeds that grow trees; it nurtures potential, and creativity, and provides perspective for growth and development. There’s a Chinese Proverb that says, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now”. ?

Looking forward to the gains and growth in 2024… the word of the year is EXCEL with CADENCE.

Got questions? Shoot me a message.

#journaling #ONEWORD #success