From Dreaming to Doing: Journaling Your Way to Success

Are you finding it challenging to turn your dreams into reality? Is setting and achieving monthly goals a struggle? This episode is your navigator towards success, so let's uncover the transformative power of journaling.

We’ll delve into the stream of consciousness writing, a potent tool that enables you to get to the heart of your ambitions. Together, we'll explore a structured process of goal-setting, from brainstorming and prioritizing to creating an effective action plan and tracking your progress.

If staying consistent with journaling feels like an uphill battle, this episode is your panacea. I'll share enlightening tips to establish a journaling routine that feels natural and enjoyable.

You'll receive insights on how to seamlessly assimilate journaling into your schedule and discover a method that truly resonates with you. This episode isn't just about gaining clarity and achieving monthly goals; it's about kindling a profound journaling practice that can catalyze healing and profound insight across all facets of your life.

So, pick up your journal and join me on this empowering journey to create the life you've always aspired to lead.

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Transcript

Behnaz: 0:00

Are you frustrated of not getting what you want in your life? Do you want to take the first step and start moving in the right direction? Are you ready to explore your potential, gain clarity on your goals and take the first step towards success? Then I invite you to join me for a free 30 minutes success mindset discovery call. During this call, we will talk about your goals, challenges and aspirations. Also, we will talk about the next step that you can take. Success is within reach and I am excited to explore the possibilities with you. Let's take the first step together. You can find the booking link in the description and in the show notes. Get ready to be inspired, motivated and empowered. Welcome to the whole Happy, successful podcast, where we will talk about positivity, mindset and different tactics and strategies to be more happy and successful. I am your host, Behnaz Vala, and I'm on a mention to help as many people as possible to be more successful through a positive mindset. Whether you are looking to improve your career, strengthen your relationships or find more happiness and fulfillment in your life, you will find the guidance and inspiration you need right here. Join me in this fascinating journey and become more home, happy and successful. Welcome to the beautiful world of the power of mind and positive thinking. Let's start our journey together.

Behnaz: 1:43

Journals are one of the most powerful tools at your disposal, providing you so much more than just self-reflection and exploring your own emotions. They can also be used for setting goals, from the brainstorming stage to actually helping you to create a plan for achieving your goals. You will have a variety of goals, but monthly goals are one of the best options because it helps you prioritize what you want to achieve and set a deadline to get them done. This takes general ideas of what you want to accomplish and turns them into accountable goals you are going to reach. Here are some tips for using your journal to set and achieve all your monthly goals. And before we dive into the details of your goals, I want to share with you some tips for your goals. And before we dive in, I have two gifts for you. The first one is how to journal consistently, which will help you get a better understanding of how you would love to journal, and the second one is daily review, which will help you journal every day. You can find the links in the description and show notes. Ok, let's go ahead.

Behnaz: 3:04

Stream of consciousness to identify what you want. Starting with a stream of consciousness in your journal before you choose your goal is a great way to get started with this process. This should be done before the brainstorming stage, since it will give you an overview of what you really want to accomplish in your life. Stream of consciousness is a style of journaling where you simply write anything and everything on your mind. It is a breakdown of all your thoughts, emotions and feelings, without any rules other than just being authentic and honest with yourself.

Behnaz: 3:49

Think about your life, what you want to achieve, what you feel your purpose is and what would truly make you happy. When writing in your journal, think about not just your goals, but changes you want to make in your life that would bring you more fulfillment. What is not currently working out in your life? What is a big life goal you have always had and never swayed from? What is something you can do this month that would make a dramatic difference in your life? Now that you have a general idea of what you want to achieve in your life and why, you can start brainstorming some goals. The brainstorming phase is meant to take this vision of your ideal life and help you figure out goals that would allow you to turn that dream into reality.

Behnaz: 4:44

Make a list of goals you want to achieve With your stream of consciousness in mind. Start by making a list of all the goals you want to achieve. You are not yet narrowing the focus to what you can get done in a month or even what is the biggest priority. By turning your thoughts into a list of goals you know you want to accomplish in your life, narrow down your list to 3 to 5 main goals. Now is the time to start prioritizing your goals. Take the list of goals you made and narrow it down to no more than 3 to 5 main goals. These are the goals that are either the most important to you, would make the biggest impact on your life, or the ones that seem most achievable at this time in your life. Choose the goal that is the most important to you this month. If you want to focus on just one main goal for each month, then take a list of goals you just made and choose just one of them that you want to accomplish this month. This not only helps you see what to focus on, but also helps you prioritize even more and know what is the most important to you right now.

Behnaz: 6:03

Brainstorm how you can achieve this goal. Finally, with a goal in mind, spend some time brainstorming how you can achieve this goal in a month. This includes what tasks need to be completed, what resources you might need and details about how much time it might take and what you will need to accomplish to make it happen. Prioritize, create task lists and track your goals. By now, you should not only have a list of your top goals to be completed, but also a narrow focus for the month ahead. It is now time to put your plans into action and start working on achieving and tracking your goals.

Behnaz: 6:50

Your journal is also a great way to do this. Set your main monthly goal in the forefront of your mind and look at what you wrote down during the brainstorming phase. That should already give you a good idea of how you are going to accomplish this goal. Now is when you start noting the details and create an action plan for the month, create tasks and to-do lists. Start by creating a more detailed list of tasks that need to be done this month in order to achieve this goal. Next to each task on your list, consider how much time and effort it will take and how it can fit into your monthly schedule. Being realistic is a big part of setting goals successfully. So that is why creating your task list is such a vital part of this process. Break down into weekly and daily tasks. Next, you are going to take your task list and break it up into weekly or even daily to-do lists. You should even have an idea of the tasks that will take longer and the ones you can get done quickly, scheduling when you will achieve each task in order to have this goal completed by the end of the month.

Behnaz: 8:16

Track your progress. Your goal journal is also the perfect place to track your progress. You can journal every day with what you got accomplished that day toward your goal, any insights you have and what your plan is for the following days or weeks. This is also a good time to make adjustments throughout the month as things come up. Using a journal for monthly goals is beneficial in so many ways, from just brainstorming your goals and writing about what you want to accomplish in your life to choosing the details and creating a plan. Now let's see how to stay consistent with daily journaling. To start a new journaling practice is one that can help bring you clarity, insight and healing in all areas of your life. But to get the most from the journaling practice, you need to be consistent with it. If you have a goal to journal every day but are struggling with consistency, the following tips can really help you create a routine and find your own way of making journaling a part of your everyday life.

Behnaz: 9:28

Create a journaling habit and routine. Every habit starts with a routine and every routine starts with structure. This is why, if you are on a journey to find clarity, set goals or work on your personal growth through journaling, then you first need to create some structure and have a journaling routine in place. Act journaling to your routine. It is almost impossible to start something new and allow a new activity to turn into a habit if you don't add it to your routine first. Being consistent with journaling is about setting yourself up for success, just like you would with any other new habit you want to incorporate into your lifestyle. Choose a time of day when you feel assured journaling practice would fit. This can be stacked with other habits you do around the same time, such as journaling shortly after reading a chapter in your book in the evening, or reading in the morning while drinking your first cup of coffee. Consider when you have a spare 5 to 10 minutes in your routine to write in your journal. Turn in journaling into a habit. By scheduling your journaling practice daily into your routine, you will eventually create a journaling habit. When you become consistent with your daily routine and dedicate time to journaling, before long you will notice it is habitual, to where you don't even have to think about it. This tends to happen naturally and just becomes a part of your lifestyle.

Behnaz: 11:11

Find a style and method of journaling you love. It is also important that you not only find a style or type of journaling you enjoy the most and that will benefit you on this journey, but also the method of journaling. Your style of journaling is a type of journal you have. There are dozens of types of journaling, from a basic daily journal, where most journal entries are a stream of consciousness about your day and how you currently think and I'm feeling, to specific journals meant for the benefits you receive, such as a gratitude journal or goal setting journal. You can choose one style or mix up what you decide to journal about each day, but it is good to take a little time near the beginning of your journey to consider what you want to write about and what you are hoping to get out of journaling to help choose a style that best suits you. Once you find that perfect style, it will be easy for you to stay consistent. The second choice to make is in your method of journaling, which means either writing in a journal or notebook, or digital journaling. Journal journaling can also come in many forms, from using your smartphone to make notes in a digital journal each day to using your computer and documents where you type your journal entries each day.

Behnaz: 12:42

Use journal prompts for inspiration. The final method for being more consistent with your daily journaling practice is to use journal prompts. You can either choose your own prompt to write down in your current journal or notebook each day, or get a prompted journal where the prompts are already printed on the page. Either way, journal prompts offer a great way for you to do more introspection and practice self-awareness. Just writing your thoughts on a blind page isn't easy for everyone. Some people would prefer answering a question or being given a topic to write about as opposed to a brain dump or stream of consciousness. In their journal you can find prompts for just about everything, from bringing up cherished memories and planning the future to gaining more clarity and working on your personal growth.

Behnaz: 13:41

The free daily review I'm offering you today is an example of a prompt From your journal. More consistently, that is when you will see the most progress and benefits from this practice. It allows you to gain more insight into who you are, what you went out of life and what struggles you might be facing that need to be addressed. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with your friends and family. I'd also love to hear your thoughts and experiences, so leave a comment and share them with me. Also, join my free Facebook group Positivity Powerhouse and discover more. The link to join is in the show notes. Stay tuned for the next episode, where we'll continue to explore important topics related to being home happy and successful. I'm so looking forward to talking to you next week. Best of best and the best will happen to you.