Journaling For Personal Growth
One of the best ways to gain clarity about your life is by journaling your thoughts and feelings. Especially if you’re feeling conflicted or confused about certain situations, writing your thoughts out can be incredibly enlightening!
You don’t have to be a “writer” to journal effectively. In fact, your writing skills don’t have to be good at all. Just the act of putting your thoughts into logical order and translating them to written form can help you to understand what you’re feeling, and why.
Here are some tips to help you use journaling for personal growth:
1) Keep it simple. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on a fancy journal. In fact, unless you’re an experienced journaler, I recommend using an inexpensive, lined notebook. Then you won’t feel so much pressure to be “perfect” in what you write. You won’t be afraid to scribble and scrawl whatever happens to flow onto the paper.
2) Don’t hold back. When you journal for the purposes of personal growth, don’t try to edit yourself, or make your writing understandable to anyone else. The most freeing technique is to put your pen to paper and just write whatever comes to mind. No one else will see it unless you want them to, so let ‘er rip!
3) Focus on the feelings. If you find yourself stumped about what to write in your journal, begin with the phrase, “I feel…”. This will usually get your thoughts and feelings flowing, and you will be better able to express them in writing.
4) Guided journaling. Another helpful technique is guided journaling, which means providing a prompt for yourself. Especially if you’re struggling with something specific, you can more easily get the words flowing with a nudge in the right direction. Some example prompts would be, “Describe your perfect career and the reasons it would fulfill you.” Or, “Think about the most painful experience in your past and write about the ways it has affected who you are today.”
5) Review your entries periodically. Going back to look at your journal entries can be very illuminating and provide amazing clarity about yourself. With time and practice, you will likely begin to see patterns in your thinking, behaviors, and beliefs. The most important thing is to keep an objective mindset while you look at your entries. Don’t judge or belittle yourself. Keep the focus on personal growth and development. Instead of beating yourself up or cringing over your latest rant, ask yourself, “How can I use this knowledge to improve my circumstances now?”
If you’re not a natural writer, journaling may seem like a lot of effort at first. But it is so worth it! Because I am a writer, journaling is something I’ve always done. As a child, I kept written diaries that focused more on my day to day experiences. “Dear Diary, today a cute boy smiled at me and I melted!” In my twenties, I decided I wanted to understand myself better, so I began keeping written journals with a focus on self-discovery. That practice has paid off in amazing ways over the past decade or so.
You can also keep journals for other reasons besides personal growth. For example, you can begin a gratitude journal to jot down a few things you are thankful for each day, which will help you to feel more positive about your life. You can keep a spiritual growth journal to record prayers and meditations that were effective for you. You can keep a dream journal to learn more about the messages your dreams hold. The possibilities are endless!
If you really don’t like writing with pen and paper, you can also keep an online journal in the form of a blog. There are many providers that offer free membership accounts, with easy-to-use interfaces. Two popular choices are http://Blogger.com and http://LiveJournal.com. However, if you keep an online journal, you might want to make it private so no one else can view it. It’s amazing what search engines can find nowadays, and you don’t want your neighbor or employer coming across your private thoughts. Most blog hosts allow an option to keep your blog non-viewable to the public. Or you can simply stay anonymous with your blog, but allow others to read it. Use a pseudonym and don’t give any identifiable information about yourself.
Finally, don’t feel that you have to follow any set rules with your journaling. Do what works best for you, and enjoy the journey! 
Goalsetting for Success - 12 Winning Goal Smart Strategies
There is a lot of goalsetting for success guidance being offered on the net today. However, it never cease to amaze me the extent of the over-strenuous emphasis on the term ‘failure’ or ‘failing’ by many so-called ‘personal development’ advocates.
I have encountered numerous such dubious approaches, some of which I perceive downright dis-empowering to individuals who are desperate to bring much needed positive change into their lives. Statements often run along the lines of ‘Do you want to quit being a loser?’, or ‘Are you failing…?’, or ‘Do x y z or you will continue to fail’.
True commitment to any individual’s personal development should not be centred around perceived past or present ‘failings’ but should instead focus on the positive aspects of the individual’s potential, as well as being borne out of a genuine desire to promote his or her personal growth and the positive changes s/he can bring into his or her life.
As I see it, the only ‘failing’ being done is on the part of some of these irresponsible people, whose only motive would appear to be the promotion of their products and/or services. It sounds harsh but so is preying on someone’s vulnerability.
Look at it this way. Whether implicitly or explicitly, if a person is told from the outset that s/he is a failure or is failing, this can only serve to reinforce any negative view s/he already hold about him or herself. That seed is already there but it is now being given further reinforcement to sprout. Don’t under-estimate the power of this kind of suggestion.
To give you an example of what I mean, let’s say you’re walking across a slippery surface; your goal is to successfully make it to the other side. You’re confident about achieving this and you’re doing just fine until someone point out that you should take care not to fall! What do you suppose happens? You fall of course. In that split second your focus shifted from a pre-determined, positive outcome,
to - (for want of a better word), ‘failing’. Why? Because a seed of doubt was planted questioning your ability to complete that task successfully. That is the power of negative suggestions or negative thinking.
As you can clearly see from the example above, negative thoughts, ideas or suggestions don’t necessarily have to come from you to be detrimental. When you’re feeling vulnerable or experiencing a loss of faith or belief in yourself, the last thing you want and need is someone telling you, you have ‘failed because….’. So be mindful of what is being suggested to you since you might just internalise it - inadvertently making it your reality.
Regardless of what anyone tells you, there is no magical formula external to your own self when you’re goalsetting for success. Your potential for personal growth and your many successes lies within you and no one else. The extent of any appropriate outside guidance you receive is merely to point you in the direction that will help you explore all your available options. You then choose the path that is right for you to successfully achieve your personal goal setting objectives. In a nutshell, goalsetting for success rests with you and you alone in much the same way that non-achievement of your goals will do too. You’re in the driving seat, so it’s you who decide.
So what is the formula to goalsetting for success? It is really quite simple with the right quality of guidance. Goalsetting for success is a process that involve several stages you must work through to achieve your personal goal objective. I refer to these as the 12 winning goal smart strategies for your personal goal setting success.
Development of your self-awareness and self-knowledge is one of the crucial components underpinning your successful and smart goal-setting and is your passport to achievement. It is therefore imperative that you work through the 12 stages, which are as follows:
1. Assessing your personal values to find what it is you
really want
2. Clarifying with yourself that your wants are yours and
yours alone
3. Prioritising your wants in order of importance
4. Writing your smart goals
5. Drawing on your personal resources - strengths, past
achievements
6. Identifying any challenges, barriers or blocks to you
achieving your goal
7. Identifying your development areas - i.e. skills, further
learning
8. Writing your personal goal smart action plan
9. Taking action - carrying out tasks to achieve your goal
objectives
10. Reviewing and evaluating your progress with your smart
goals
11. Rewarding yourself for your personal goals achievement
12. Building further on your achievement by expanding on
your goals
Here’s an elaboration of point number one above and what it involves.
Stage 1: Establishing What You Want
It’s not always easy knowing what it is you want when you’re
embarking on an activity goal setting process. Yet, if you don’t know what you want, it becomes difficult to even begin the task of setting your goals. Here is an exercise to help you with prioritising your personal values.
When you’re goalsetting for success, it is crucial that you take time to think about your personal code, since this is what will govern the value you place on very many things in life as well as how you conduct yourself. For instance, your personal code will influence the weight you put on such things as honor, sense of justice, fairness, truth, marriage, family, career, or even your health.
Consider what it is you value the most, or what is important in your life right now. For instance, if the area in which you want to set your goals is your health area you might consider, ‘mental well-being, physical fitness, or even stress reduction, weight loss or healthy eating as important personal values for you. Remember, these must be your own. You simply cannot choose values that belong to someone else. By that I mean, if one of your personal values is weight loss, it cannot be dictated by the fact that your partner would prefer you better slim or because you want to lose weight to please him or her. Your value will translate into your goal and it must be 100% yours and what you want! This is one of the key goalsetting for success secrets.
Once you’re clear about your important values in our ‘health’ area and about what it is you want, simply make a list of 10 of the things you want to achieve. To get you started, here is an example list but do compile your own list as it relates to you:
1. Good health
2. Emotional and mental well-being
3. Healthy eating
4. Exercise
5. Inner beauty
6. body image
7. Peace of mind
8. Skin care
9. Rest/Sleep
10. Happiness
Take your time writing and re-writing your list. Once you are
satisfied with your top 10 values, rank them in order of importance. Your top 4 values will now form the foundation of your immediate priority goals.
And there you have it,- success! You have now completed stage one of your goalsetting for success activity.
You can access the remainder of this personal goal setting for success guidance plus a free five part course covering all the stages outlined above, as well as the goals forms and worksheets you’ll need, by visiting the link below.
Overall, the personal goal setting course contains a great deal of information and is designed to help you throughout the entire activity goal setting process. Do put it to good use by taking decisive steps in setting and achieving your personal and health goals.
7 Ways To Stay Motivated
You know what it’s like. You set yourself a goal, something you want to achieve. You are excited and ready to take on the world, and then a few months later you can’t even be bothered to spend 10 minutes working towards achieving it. Well welcome to being human! It is so easy to go from excitement to complete apathy but there are things you can do to ensure you stay motivated towards your goal and following are seven great ones!
1. Is Your Reason WHY Large Enough?
When I wanted to lose weight setting a goal to look great in clothes was not big enough, what didn’t help was the fact that I loved who I was and what I looked like, but my health had begun to show signs of being affected by my excess weight and this is the WHY I used to ensure I stayed on track. I started with 6 weeks of no diary, no wheat and red meat only once a week. Do you think I needed a big why to stay committed to such a regime??!! I knew that health is my true wealth. Having been unwell for 6 months and hardly able to walk had taught me that without my health my goals were useless. So maintaining a healthy body that would allow me to enjoy the fulfillment of my goals was the big WHY that kept me on track.
Stop and think about your reason WHY? What reason is big enough to keep you motivated at times when you want to give up and/or give in?
2. Create a visual and emotional image of what you want
Writing your goals down is an essential tool but not always enough to keep focused. Writing your goals down and having a visual image of you completing that goal adds fuel to the motivational fire. Writing goals down, having a visual image of your completed goal AND connecting this image with your emotions is the power of 3 that will ensure your motivation remains high. At any point during the day, or at any time when you are feeling in need of encouragement, you can simply stop, close your eyes, see your goal and evoke all the emotions achieving that goal holds for you. Nothing is more powerful!
3. Questions to ask before, during and after!
It is important to know not only why you are doing something but also WHAT. What achieving this goal will provide for yourself and your family. It is easy to believe that what you want is to make a million, but for many it is the lifestyle and the time freedom that this money has the potential to provide that will be the real motivation.
Spend time asking yourself questions that will help you identify what achieving your goal will provide. Questions such as:
Â?What will it bring me?
Â?What will it do for me, my family, and/or friends?
Â?What kind of lifestyle will I be able to have?
Â?What sacrifices will I need to make?
Â?What will be the impact on my current routine?
Â?What will be the impact on my family?
Â?What outcome do I want to achieve?
Â?What contributions will I be able to make
Motivation and staying motivated is easy when you know what the achievement of your goal will provide for you and we only really lose motivation when we lose sight of our goal or end result.
4. Creating a visual representation of what you want
Keep the motivational fires burning by creating a collage with the family of what your end result will look like, or paint a picture, write a poem, sing a song, or whatever creative endeavor excites you enough to complete it.
Whatever you create keep it in a place where you can see it constantly, I remember listening to someone talk about sticking a poster of making their first 100,000 on their ceiling so that as they woke up it was the first thing they saw each morning, and the last image in their mind before falling asleep.
Leave yourself reminders on your fridge door, on your bathroom mirror, in your car. The more places you are able to leave yourself little notes and reminders about what you want to achieve the better. Doing this will help your unconscious mind bring you the results you desire, whilst also supporting you in staying focused and motivated towards achieving your goal.
5.Get Support from people around you
Support from family and friends is important but also consider what other support is available to you. Books, mentoring, work colleagues, life coaching, forums - these are all things that can support you as you work towards achieving your goal. Also think about WHO can support you in staying motivated, can you buddy up with someone, do you have a boss or lecturer who will be happy to help you keep accountable.
One thing I recommend is that you tell as many people as you know about what you want to achieve, this has the effect of keeping you motivated to complete your goal because you have told so many people. However, a word of caution is needed here because it is easy for people to trample your dreams and fail to support you. You must first pick and choose carefully those people you know will want to support you, but also you must gain enough inner personal strength to be able to continue no matter what negative comments may come your way.
6.Develop Inner Personal Strength
Ultimately, the person who will determine whether you stay motivated and achieve your goal will be you. Your thoughts will determine your behavior which determines your results. Developing a strong inner personal strength about your ability to achieve and your ability to motivate yourself when you are in an unproductive state of mind is essential. Being able to see setbacks and failures as opportunities for continued growth and upset and emotional turmoil as opportunities to discover what you want and need, will determine how you view life. One of the best ways to inner personal strength is to read and listen to audios that inspire and motivate you. Continued learning is an essential part of being able to stay motivated.
7. Support from Continued Learning
If you are going to need to learn new skills to ensure you complete your goal then you it is a good idea to identify what learning you will need to undertake as early as possible. If you have planned out how you will achieve your outcome then you will already be aware of any areas where you need to strengthen your skills or out source to others who will be able to fulfill what you need.
There is nothing worse than getting halfway towards the completion of a goal and to be stopped because you are not able to complete something because of lack of knowledge and/or skills. This is a surefire way of dampening your excitement and your motivation.
Make a list of what you can and can’t do and who might be able to help you. Knowing this in advance can help you avoid getting frustrated because things aren’t getting done. If you are serious about developing your personal and professional life then I recommend getting yourself a Mentor or Life Coach, to ensure you stay on track.
You should also look at continued learning as it relates to your own personal development, continuing with your own personal development will ensure you are able to work through set backs quickly and stay motivated.
Staying motivated when you are looking to achieve your goals is essential for ultimate success. I have provided you with seven practical ways to achieve continued motivation and I recommend you use them all. Some of them such as creating a collage will be activities you perform occasionally, but others, such as continuing your personal development will be a continuous learning process. There is not one single thing that will determine your success in staying motivated but a combination of many, finding the combination that is right for you will change from goal to goal and will be an ongoing (fun filled) exploration.
