This week I’m revealing why journaling is my secret weapon for success, what kept me from journaling sooner, and how you can start your own journaling practice.

I’m not exaggerating when I say journaling is the one thing that’s made the biggest difference in my life -and business- in the last decade.

You read that right. The biggest difference in my life did not come from a course, seminar or training. Or from a coach, a mentor, or a consultant.

And funnily enough, it’s something I could’ve been doing since well before I was in a position to afford courses, mentors, consultants and anything else you might have thought about.

Now, if you’re not the journaling type, I know you’re about to move on to the next email in your inbox but if you hang on for another minute or so, I think I can help you reconsider.

Journaling Is My Secret Weapon

You see, just a couple of years ago, I too was a non-journaler. I used to roll my eyes whenever someone mentioned journaling as a “great practice”. I remember being genuinely confused as to what was the benefit of recording my day to day activities… Isn’t that what vloggers do? And don’t we all find them annoying and self-absorbed?

If you’ve ever thought something along those lines, let me assure you, you’re not alone.

But also… you’re missing out and don’t even know it!

Here are a few of the benefits I’ve experienced since I began journaling several years ago:

Mental Clarity Around My Goals And Ideas

I no longer suffer (as much) of “shiny object syndrome”.

As a solopreneur, the hardest challenge I’ve had to overcome is staying focused on the task at hand. Since I can work on anything, it’s tempting to try and work on everything. Unfortunately, doing so is a recipe for mediocrity. Yet it’s quite hard to avoid when you don’t have a boss or a clear structure to your days.

This is where journaling (more on this below), has helped me stay accountable to myself and my lifestyle goals.

Improved My Ability To Be Present – At Work And At Home

I used to just carry everything on my mind.

Tasks, to-dos, events, ideas… Everything. This was easy when I had a regular job where I’d clock in, see the patients for the day and clock out. Work stayed (mostly) at work. And the rest of my life stayed outside of work.

But when I went out on my own, everything blended together.

As a result, my mind constantly felt like a browser with too many tabs open… And the worst part is this happened gradually so I was not aware of how bad it was – much like a frog in boiling water.

Acknowledge And Analyze My Feelings

As a guy this is something I never thought I needed.

Aren’t we supposed to just “suck it up” and keep going? Well, I’m happy to report journaling has allowed my stubborn ass to not only acknowledge but analyze the feelings I’m feeling as I go through life. But if you’re anything like me from a few years ago, you might be thinking, “yeah, ok but… what do feelings have to do with building a lifestyle business?” After all, that’s why you’re reading this post, isn’t it?

Well, it turns out becoming a parent (2x), moving to a foreign country, tumbling down several tax brackets, entering mid-life, and a long list of etceteras trigger A LOT of feelings that unless explored are weighing you down without you even realizing it.

So if I’ve triggered enough curiosity in you to give this a go…

Here’s How To Start Journaling If You’ve Never Been A Journaling Person

The first thing you should know is journaling is kinda like meditation: there is no “wrong” way to do it.

Sure, there are ways that are better than others but even the crappiest form of journaling is “good” journaling. Having said this, here are 3 mistakes that kept me from starting this practice several years before I actually did:

1. Thinking you need to have a specific prompt or template to follow
2. Giving yourself unrealistic goals
3. Not doing it daily

The reason these are mistakes is because they keep us stuck in “wanting to journal” instead of simply journaling.

Now, in order to start with your journaling practice, you just need to do the the opposite of these mistakes. Let me show you:

1. You Only Need A Notepad And A Pen

I remember thinking I needed to have some prompts in order to journal.

Which of course would lead me down a Google rabbit-hole looking for said prompts. And when the first one didn’t feel right, I’d go looking for another one. And another one. And one more for good measure.

Next thing I knew, I had spent 30 minutes looking for journal prompts and it was time to start the day and get some work done.

Instead, here’s what I began doing (and which I still do today) when journaling:

Imagine You’re Having A Conversation With Someone Who Cares About You. Like A Parent Or Mentor

Since I journal first thing in the morning, I simply start by writing about how I slept.

I flip to the next blank page, write the time of day and the date on the top line, and then simply start writing about my sleep like I would tell a person who cares about me while sipping our morning coffee. Seriously. For example, a few days ago, I began with “first day of summer and we’re all off to a lazy start! Although summer holiday has begun for the kids, it’s only Thursday and I have a full day ahead.”

This simple sentence gets the “conversation” started in my mind and gets me going.

From there on, I like to explore the following:

1. What I did yesterday
2. What I’m currently working on and whether what I did yesterday got me closer to it or not
3. What -specifically- do I intend to do today (just one or two things).

And that’s it. I often end up throwing something / someone I’m grateful for, things my kids did or said that made me feel proud or happy. Or angry.

But remember: it doesn’t have to have a set structure.

Perhaps one day you’re feeling particularly tired so you just talk about that and maybe try to figure out why you’re tired or what you can do to not be as tired the next morning. Or perhaps you’re worried about losing a big client (asking for a friend 🙈) so you allow yourself to go into the thing you fear will happen.

Which brings me to the second mistake to avoid,

2. The Goal Is Not To Write X Number Of Pages Or For X Minutes

This is another thing that kept me stuck for a long time.

I had read in The Artist’s Way about “morning pages” and completely missed the point about the exercise and instead only focused on the recommended 3 pages of free-flow writing. As someone who had never journaled -and hadn’t handwritten more than the occasional phone number since high school– this was a high bar to meet. As a result, I gave up after a day or two of trying.

Instead, I found the solution to be much simpler: just lower your standards. I explored this idea (originally from Neil Strauss) when talking about writer’s block and procrastination but the principle -and why it works- is still the same. Read that post here.

What it looks like when journaling: get rid of the metrics and simply aim to log an entry.

If it’s just one sentence, that’s good. If it’s 10 pages, that’s good too. This removed any excuses of “not having time” while also giving me freedom to go longer if I felt like it.

3. Do Not Miss A Day

Probably the most important tip I can give you is to not miss a day.

And if you do, never ever miss two days in a row. That’s it. There’s really nothing more to this. Specially when you put it together with the previous tip.

When you know all you need to do is log an entry and it can be as short as a single sentence, you have no excuse to miss a day.

And I’ll even give you a bonus one:

Bonus Tip: Keep It As Simple As This Until You’ve Installed The Habit

There’s something magical that happens around the 5th or 6th day of daily journaling: you start experiencing its benefits.

Oftentimes it’s in the form of more mental clarity. For me, it was realizing how much more of the important stuff I was getting done by having some accountability. For others it’s the therapeutic effect of offloading their feelings into a notepad.

But whatever IT is for you, you’ll end up feeling ecstatic about it.

So much so, you’ll want to do more of it. You’ll start thinking of adding some journaling in the evening. Or perhaps exploring more elaborate prompts. But I’m here to tell you to not do it.

Keep at it on its most basic form for at least 90 days. In most cases you’ll see you don’t need to do more of it to still get the benefits, and you’ll be more likely to stick to it for the long run.

That’s it!

As always, thanks for reading.

Hit reply and let me know what you found most helpful this week—I’d love to hear from you!

See you next Saturday,

🤟🏻 Dr E