part0044

I feel like I’m saying this with almost every piece of advice, but dang it—if it’s true, it’s true! Because this can make such a gigantic difference in your day-to-day life. The trajectory of the entire course of your life can be changed by implementing just this one habit.

The quickest way to better yourself is journaling. Why? I think it makes everything objective—you’re stepping outside of yourself to take a look at your life in ways you just can’t perceive from the inside looking out. Writing about your life almost as a third person looking at your life creates a process, something you’re working toward. It allows you to be a sort of bystander and work on your life again, rather than working in it.

It also helps us to articulate our thoughts and feelings. In our life, we’re often creatures of emotion and reaction. Journaling allows us a better way to diagnose what’s really happening in our lives and allows things to be more clear.

The best way to journal is to be consistent with it—no matter what kind of journaling you do. The fact that it helps make you a better person is something I can’t really emphasize enough, because—just like most everything else we do in life—the most value we get out of it is the person we become while doing it.

To start, just set aside five minutes for journaling each night, without fail. I prefer night, but you’re going to get benefits regardless of the time of day you choose to do it.

Making it a small goal of five minutes is important. Let me explain with a story I heard recently that goes like this:

Two teams set off to go to the South Pole. One team decided that they were going to cover twenty miles every single day, no matter what. The second team had decided that they would cover more ground when it was nice outside; they’d be able to do forty miles, sixty miles, maybe even more on a clear day, and hunker down and take it easier when the weather was bad or when things didn’t line up or agree with them.

The first group—that group of the twenty-miles-a-day goal—actually reached the Pole and returned intact; they were able to do that while the other team that just did it according to the weather, or how they felt on a particular day, perished.

There’s a little more to the story, but the point is this: You’re a lot more likely to continue with a smaller, more manageable goal that you do consistently, no matter what, than with a bigger goal where you stall and then binge.

Therefore, set a very small goal to get into the habit of journaling for just five minutes a day.

I like to journal at night because it makes my brain work magic while I’m asleep. It also allows me to set the tone for the next day the night before. If I journal about the things that I’m thinking about, some questions I have, current problems, etc., what I find is that subconsciously my mind seems to go to work on it when I sleep. By the morning, I know and understand what the solutions are.

The mind is an amazing tool, and I’m pretty convinced that most of us are not using most of it.

My friend Jesse taught me an effective little trick: write down how you want to wake up the next day. He suggested just one word—it could be energetic , or abundant , or loving , or anything. (In fact, “How would I like to wake up most days?” is a good Idea List for you to work on—even something as simple as this can make a big difference for you.)

Jesse says to then write it out and put it under your pillow—which sounds silly, but it works like magic. You see, the last thought you have as you go to sleep is often the first thought that you have when you wake up in the morning. You wake up and you actually feel abundant, or energetic, or loving, or whatever word you chose. It just seems to work .

I have the same theory about journaling at night: it helps you feel better the next day. You begin the day with many of the problems from the previous night seemingly solved for you.

Another technique I got from Jesse: if you journal at night, you can “save your progress.” You keep track of your wins—your accomplishments of that day—and doing that builds confidence and allows some reflection time. Saving progress means that you can build on that the next day, rather than forgetting about it when you don’t journal—which often leads to taking two steps forward and one step back.

(Quick story: I happened to meet him at the exact week I ordered my first Five Minute Journal. He gave me a signed copy. When I came home from the event, the Five Minute Journal I ordered beforehand was waiting for me. I had no idea that I would meet him, but I think it was God’s way of telling me that I needed to be using one of these bad boys.)

You can get the physical book from their site, IntelligentChange.com; or you can download the app, which doesn’t have the same tangible feel—but there aren’t any special limits to what you can write, and you can add pictures. I have both, but prefer the actual book.

My children, I love you. It is such an honor to be able to pass on this information to you. I thank you from the bottom of my soul for actually reading this to know what your dad has to say to you. Thank you.