It's spring! It's spring! The birds are throwing seeds out of the bird feeder for the squirrels. The dog wants out every 10 minutes to chase said squirrels. (At least he's getting his exercise!) And I'm taking photos and sketching, trying to get to the studio to paint and taking long walks by the river with my hubby instead...
And you... how are you doing?
Recently I was doing a review of my goals - a little bit late this month - and I did some journaling in that process. I thought I'd write and tell you how I use my journal to track progress and design a path of growth for myself personally, in relationships and in my business.
At the beginning of the year I sat down for several days with my journal and some other notebooks and set some goals for myself.I wrote them all down and outlined my plans for making them happen. One of those goals was to track my painting more carefully through this year. Another was to enter ALL the local art shows I could and a couple that were further afield. So this month I have been busy painting to meet those goals.
Every three months I have marked on my calendar to review those goals and see just how I'm doing and what course corrections I need to make.
When I actually got around to doing this in April, I took myself out for a date at a local coffee shop with my notebooks in a tote bag and started to write down all the things that happened in March first. Just a list of accomplishments, events and things that went well. Then I noted some things that didn't go well and then I wrote about why and what happened (briefly) to stop me in my tracks.
Then I looked back over the pages I wrote in Jan and February. I was a bit surprised at all the things that have happened since the beginning of the year. In spite of being sick for 4 weeks in the middle of that time, I still got a lot done! And I AM making progress toward those goals I set . That made me feel great!
I think we tend to forget the good and we remember too much of the 'not so good'. Why do our brains do that??? It's good to look back and remind ourselves of our progress and collect the GOOD memories in our journals!
After reviewing my goals again, I wrote down what I needed to do in the next 3 months to work towards them for the next three months. There are areas of my house and areas of my business that need to be more organized so I made lists of things to do to bring that about. There are relationships I want to keep working on as a regular thing - my kids, my grandkids and my friends. I thought about things I might do with them or for them in the next little while so I'm consciously building and maintaining with those people who are very important in my life. Being purposeful...not just letting it drift.
Then I looked ahead to my year. There are some things now coming up in the fall that I need to prepare for today. There are some goals I let slip because I was much busier than I had thought I would be and I made adjustments to those long term plans. I always seem to bite off more than I can chew. At least there's forward motion! That's the aim. Plan for growth. Plan to accomplish stuff. Plan to be... what I know God wants me to be.
It's all about tracking what you've done, and then planning where you're headed for. I think a lot of journal keepers are planners like this - or wish to be!
There are all kinds of things we track in life. When I was a little girl we tracked our height on a doorpost to measure and see in black and white how much we had grown. And in our journals, we can still keep track of how much we've grown. You are also able to design a path of growth for yourself
- not just physically (although a weight loss journal is good!) but also as a way to keep in front of your eyes those written down goals and ideas for things to achieve and aim for in all the other areas of life too.
Here are some examples of practical things to track in your journal:
Books you have read. Write about them and what you thought after reading them
Make a page for recording decisions you have made - why you made them and then draw up a chart to measure your stick-to-it-ivness.
Every month have a sit down with yourself (in a nice coffee shop :-) ) and record your goals.
Measure how you are doing with monthly or weekly checkups. Reset your course accordingly.
Make a template on a sticky note with questions to answer on each day's journal page - especially if you're trying to break or remain proactive about habits you want to change or to add.
Keeping a journal is a great way to look back from time to time to see how far have you come. In art after a person has been painting for a good part of their lifetime, they will have a retrospective show that shows their favourite paintings. You will see the key paintings in their life that showed them new growth in skill or genre or subject matter. You will see the paintings that meant the most to them.
If it's important to you, include it in your journal. It's your own personal "Retrospective."
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