Journaling Challenge: Week Four

Welcome to week four of our journaling challenge! As we move from this theme and on to the next, I’d like to talk a little bit about how we can use journaling to grow our grit. If you have any questions about what I mean by “grit”, you can check out this great blog post by Dianne.

I use my journaling time for a lot of things. Some things are working through thoughts and feelings, and organizing my day. People use them to track their days and record their dreams. And recording your dreams is kind of what we’re going to examine today. One of the ideas behind grit is that skills can be developed, regardless of talent, and pursuing our passions with dedication and effort can help us achieve our goals. What if we could use journaling to grow our grit?

Visualization

Visualization is the act or process of interpreting in visual terms or of putting into visible form. What this means for our purposes is imagining yourself succeeding and thriving in what you’re trying to achieve. I know what you’re thinking, “How does imagining my success bring about my success? ” Does this really work? Studies show that it does! This study following weight lifters who visualized their workouts gained more muscle mass than those who worked out alone. The brain is a muscle that can move the world, if you put it to work for you.

By writing in your journal and visualizing doing the dang thing (whatever that thing may be), you are activating the power of visualization. It activates those areas in the brain that are working when we actually are doing the tasks we are visualizing. Athletes have been using visualization for years, with great success. Put it to work for you by writing down your mental imagery in your journal.

Perseverance

I try and make time to write my hopes and my dreams down in great detail every day. It seems like such a little thing, but visualizing (as far as your brain is concerned), takes mental energy, and I don’t always want to do it. Sometimes I’m tired, and I try to rationalize a reason why I don’t have time or energy to journal today. But honestly, by using my brain to visualize my success every day, I’m building grit and skill at the same time! Why pass up the opportunity to better myself in such a beneficial and healthy way?

Perseverance is a key element of grit. By continuing to do the dang thing, even when you don’t want to, you are building up those muscles that help you to get the job done. Not just your body, but your brain! Just like anything else, if you want to get better at something, you need to practice it. By practicing visualization and recording it in your journal, you are building those neural pathways in your brain to set yourself up for success. It’s no different from physical training, it’s just training your brain!

How to Journal Visualizations

So how do you get started? Here are some simple tips on journaling out your personal visualizations.

• What do you want to achieve? Write down what you want! Journal your dreams down, adding to them every day. You can just do a little each time you pick up your journal. They don’t have to be big dreams, but they do need to be fully articulated to be realized.
• Describe what it is you want! Do you want to get that promotion? Are you trying to lose weight? Don’t feel like writing it down is futile. Be specific in what it will be like when you’ve achieved what you want. Record all this in your journal and believe that you can do it. If you don’t believe at first, fake it until you make it.
• Do a little each day. Make strides towards your goal every day. It doesn’t have to be earth shaking, but you need to make progress, and record your victories and your failures (this is how we learn) in your journal. By examining where we’ve gone wrong and celebrating your little victories, you come closer to your goals, little by little.
• Don’t give up! What stands in the way between you and your goals? Use your grit to persevere past the road blocks that life sets up in your path. Obstacles are part of the journey, and getting past them is possible if you just keep trying new approaches to find out what works. Journal down what stumbling blocks could keep your from your dreams, and ways to overcome them.

Journaling for Success!

By keeping a journal about visualizations, you are training yourself for success, a little more each day. Thanks for going along with me on this journaling journey. I’ve learned a lot about myself and about grit and perseverance. I hope that you were able to start a journaling habit that will continue in the years to come.

What are some of the things you’d like to visualize coming to be in your life? What are some of the obstacles that you foresee having to overcome? Please share your experiences, strengths, and hopes below. Until next time!