Journaling 101 – Just Begin

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Research shows that taking just a few minutes each day to make a short journal entry, greatly increases your chances of moving beyond just knowing what you would like to do, and actually start doing what you know. Journaling is an individual activity that has great power. It is one of the most meaningful behaviors you can learn to accelerate your professional growth and development. Journaling can help you reduce stress, capture your thoughts, set professional goals and record your daily experiences. Your journal is a compilation of your unique ideas, thoughts, inquires, actions and reactions. It is a tool to aid you in capturing your conscious and subconscious thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. There is no right or wrong to journaling. It is an instrument to aid you in nurturing your heart, soul, and mind as you discover the wisdom you possess within.

How

Keeping a journal only takes a few minutes each day, but to be effective it must be something that becomes part of your daily routine. If you are like most, you will have many demands on your time and it is all too easy to bump journaling from your schedule. Therefore, we suggest that you choose a set time each day, such as straight after lunch. When you come into your office, take a few moments before you make a phone call, before you meet with a colleague, and before you tackle your inbox. The following are some suggestions for use of your journal around leadership development:

  1. Organize your thoughts and capture your ideas so you can access them on demand.
  2. Reflect and glean lessons from your experiences that day.
  3. Connect insights from different experiences into a more holistic experience and wisdom.
  4. Help you develop new habits (i.e. time management, assertiveness, diet, emotional intelligence) by giving you a place to record your notes, goals, progress markers and resource list.
  5. Assist your thinking by helping you clarify ideas, analyze issues, and make better decisions and record tasks.

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