Journal To Make Plans for the Future

When you think about becoming happier in your normal life, what do you think about?

Chances are, you think about what you can change. Not necessarily what to change about yourself – though that is definitely part of it – but what you can change in your life.

Journaling is a wonderful tool for this, because not only are you learning more about yourself and how to make positive changes and work on a more positive mindset for happiness, but you can also identify and achieve your goals.

Don’t Think About it as Being Better – But Happier

There are some mindset tricks that can make you feel better or worse about yourself.

You shouldn’t think of yourself as flawed in a negative way. Don’t tell yourself you want to be a better person, but just a happier person.

Someone content, and more fulfilled, in your daily life. Someone who has found peace in who you are and what you do and the people you surround yourself with.

This mindset shift is very important moving forward.

Personal and Work Goals

This is an easy place to start in your journal, since you probably already have an idea of some of your goals.

However, just journaling every day can help you really delve into this and find new goals you didn’t even know you had.

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself here – just write in your journal daily, and you will most likely have a long list of things you would love to accomplish.

How to Start with Your Goals

If you are having trouble knowing where to start, just start small. Think of what your current goals are. You can mix and match personal and professional, or just do one category at a time.

Do you want to go to college?
Are you looking to advance your career?
Is there something in your personal life you want to achieve?
Looking to start a business?

List any and all goals you currently have on your mind, no matter how big or small they seem.

Remember they might seem inconsequential, but even goals like completing a home renovation project or calling a long-lost friend are something to strive for.

Once you have listed your current goals, you already have a better picture of who you are and what types of aspirations you have in life.

As you begin your journaling every day, you will start to add to this list, and possibly even modify other goals you thought were important, but are now overshadowed by something more important in your life.

Improving Yourself

This can be a tricky one, because there is a delicate balance between accepting who you are, and wanting to change.

There is definitely a middle ground where you fully accept and acknowledge all of your traits, but still want to work on yourself.

Think about it like this – you want to be come the best version of yourself. Not
different, not better. You still want to be you, but at the peak of who you are and what you can accomplish.

How to Do This

This requires a lot of self-reflection and clarity, which is what you are going to get from journaling. It is also not something you will learn the first day you write in your journal.

This is more of the long-term process of journaling, where every day, you understand more about yourself, flaws you don’t like, things you love about yourself, and things that you believe changing will improve upon your life.

Set a 5 or 10-Year Plan

Now for the fun stuff – long-term goals! While short-term goals are great, don’t forget about things you want more in the distant future.

Creating a 5 or 10-year plan lays out everything for you. You begin by setting the main goal, which is what you want to accomplish in a certain amount of time.

Ask yourself this question – Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What about 10 years?

Once you can answer that question with certainty, you can start working on your 5 or 10-year plan right in your journal.

Write down your goal, what it would take to achieve, and always have realistic expectations about it.

Wanting to be a millionaire in 10 years is a lofty goal, so try to be a bit more realistic given the time period you have for whatever goal it is, going step by step with choices to make in your life in order to achieve it.

Every time you make a step toward that 5 or 10-year plan, write it down in your journal.

This not only helps you with mindfulness and keeping on track, but you can look back at your older journal entries and remember your progress.

Give it a Month

As you read through all the potential benefits of journaling, it can start to be more intimidating, instead of motivating.

If you find that you aren’t sure journaling is right for you, don’t worry. It might not be right for everyone, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying!

However, if you are all in, here are some tips to help keep you motivated in the
beginning.

Start Slow with Journaling

While it is great to journal every day as part of your routine and to document your life, it is by no means mandatory to benefit from it.

Some people prefer to just journal every once in a while at first, then when they start thinking of more to write about, they will write in it more often.

Take it slow in the beginning. Get a journal and a pen you would love to use, and just start by talking about who you are or where you are in your life right now.

Or maybe you just want to use some journaling prompts in the beginning.

This is YOUR journaling experience, so it is perfectly fine to cater it to your own personal life.

Don’t Give Up – Give it a Month

Before you give up on journaling and assume it isn’t for you, just give it a month. One month. Write in your journal every day or at least every couple days for one month.

Make note of the day each day for the month until you reach at least 30 days and see how you feel.

Still not into it? That’s ok! Keep the journal around in case you ever feel inclined to write in it again.

But don’t give up after a few days because you don’t have this magical clarity and self-awareness you keep talking about.
It rarely happens that quickly.

Think of it as a Journal, Not a Diary

One more thing before we go – if you are thinking of your journal like a diary, you might not get the full effects of it. It is great to write about your day, but don’t just leave it at that.

Really focus on your thoughts and feelings, goals, dreams, and aspirations. Go a step beyond what your childhood diary was like and really delve into who you are and who you want to be.

This could be the very change you are looking for. Have fun journaling your life!


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Cheers, Helene Malmsio

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