Do you own a journal?

Decades ago, while attending a Jim Rohn seminar, he said something that really resonated with me, he said “if you want to grow and improve, learn to work as hard on yourself, as you do on your job”.

That one phrase led me to start the journey of personal development, from attending seminars, to listening to tapes, watching DVD’s and reading books; another quote that was also profound was “Leaders are readers, and Readers and Leaders”.

But what I want to share with you today is not just about the benefits of reading and feeding your mind. but more importantly how do you retain that knowledge, how can you prevent yourself from forgetting what you heard or saw 10, 20 years ago?

When I took a step back thinking of all the seminars and information channels that I used over the years, I started reviewing the teachings of Jim Rohn, Anthony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield and so many others; there was one common ritual they had mastered, and that ritual was keeping a journal.

Why keep a journal?

It is a fact that we can’t remember every thing, it’s even more true as years pass, it is my strong belief that building the skill and consistency to write regularly in your journal your goals, the sayings that inspire you, the stories that move you, the quotes etc. You are actually building the best book you will ever read; you are creating a legacy!

How do you write your journal?

There is many ways to write your journal; personally I keep 2 journals, one for travel, family events and another for personal development. I keep my journal with me at work and carry it home every day, I write in it every night, taking 10 minutes when reflecting on my day. If I heard or saw something of interest I want to retain and share, I will email myself, write on napkins, leave myself a voice mail, whatever means is easy for me to recap at the end of the day and capture the information.

There is only one rule to follow, and that is to date your writings, this may seem a real drag, but you’ll be amazed just how useful having each entry dated can be when you look back at writing from 10 or 20 years ago.

Set and write your goals

It has been said many times that people have more discipline in planning a vacation or their weekends, then planning their lives! They don’t plan and yet wonder why it’s always someone else who is living the life they want.

It is crucial that you get good at setting goals and writing them down, the act of writing down the goals is the first step towards achieving them, as far as what type of goals should be written down, I suggest doing the following:

• Set goals you would like to attain in 5 plus years
• Set goals you would like to attain in 1 to 5 years
• Set goals you would like to attain in 1 week to 1 year

Write you goals at the front of your journal, keep some blank pages free to add more, review you goal list weekly, when a goal is attain, mark it as such, use a highlight pen. And CELEBRATE.

Reread what you’ve written.

Make it part of your learning cycle to read what you have written at least once a year, you will be surprise of the introspective experience this will provide, it will allow you to really see your growth in your thought process, your goals and your achievement for the year. On many occasions I also saw how my opinion on some subject had completely changed!

Write to escape, not publish.

Take the time to download and free up your mind, do not focus on phrase creation, typo’s etc., the goal is to transfer to paper, remember that the main person this is being written for is you.

IF YOU HAVE A JOURNAL, TELL US YOUR EXPERIENCE?