My Success Journal, a random find on a spontaneous book store trip, shows all signs of a game-changer!
As I’ve described before, I’m all about goal-setting and planning. I love a good schedule, a color-coded calendar, and of course, a trusty to-do list!
However, like plenty of others, I struggle to stay motivated, and try as I might, I don’t always succeed at accomplishing all my goals in the time frame I desire.
If you look at any entrepreneur living their best life on Instagram (rather, on the beaches of Cabo that they share via Instagram), they’ll tell you that journaling is fundamental to their progress. Some profess a reliance on morning pages. Others create a priorities list. Some may document gratitude and manifestations for the day. No matter what floats your boat, journaling sails the sea of success.
I’ve tried journaling before, to start my morning routine, and I wasn’t great at it. Some mornings I’d write, and then I wouldn’t write for weeks. I didn’t have much of a goal when writing, I wrote just to write.
To clarify, I think that writing just to write works as great practice for writing. However, in the morning, when the sun hasn’t risen anymore than I, rolling out of bed and wracking my brain to just write something felt like a waste of time. That was time that could have been spent getting fifteen or twenty minutes of sleep, or working out, or perfecting my makeup to look presentable for the workday.
In today’s lockdown world, however, journaling gets a second chance.
A little less than a month ago, I found myself at a Barnes and Nobles bookstore. Almost symbolically, I didn’t know what I was looking for as I browsed the aisles. I found myself looking at a section in the store that contained a few guidebooks on Hygge. In the same section, there it was: The Success Journal – A Productivity Goal Planner.
Created by Matthias Hechler, this journal breaks down goal setting and ways to build on your ambitions. Rather than starting with your first day of attempts at productivity, the journal asks the reader to reflect (and write down) what matters to them: core values, relationships, and similar priorities. This journal gives you about two weeks worth of content to consider before you even start the actual calendar tracking part! The day-to-day agenda gives you space to plan what you will do to get closer to your goals. The journal suggests picking five goals to complete in the short term (think less than five years)! Once you’ve got those goals, you’re ready to go.
I can easily say this journal has stuck the longest of previous attempts. To clarify, that’s a low bar. However, it’s still worth noting that writing in The Success Journal quickly became an established part of my routine.
Here are three things I love about this Success Journal:
- The Success Journal tracks habits. Before jumping into day-to-day planning, the journal allows a page to write down five habits to track over 100 days. These are separate from a different part of the journal where you document your five short-term goals.
- The Success Journal motivates. You ever start a project, then slowly run out of motivation? This journal regularly asks you why you want this goal. It’s not a magic snake oil, but it does keep your motor running.
- The Success Journal keeps you on track. Each page has a margin for weekly reflections, where you can recognize your patterns, failures and your successes. It’s a great way to stay. connected to yourself when you start your day. I feel like when it comes to meeting goals, we start strong, then go on auto-pilot until we slow to a stop. That’s not good enough! The Success Journal makes me feel like each goal has a pulse.
Once again, I will clarify I’ve only used this for less than a month. However, I have noticed that when I deviate from the habits that keep me focused, I establish the connection that I know I can do better. That tends to make the next day better as a result!
I’m confident that this guideline will help me achieve what I want… to an extent. After all, the work has to come from me! I’ll be a billionaire with a four-hour workday yet.