The Journal Writer's Companion

•Write a one-sentence journal entry at the end of the day, summarizing the important moments of the day.

•Explore one current, ongoing aspect of life, such as a relationship, a job or your parenting skills. Add comments, thoughts and reflections over time. On different days, you will have different perspectives, but keep returning to the topic as new material arises in daily life. This will help you bring reflective self-awareness to the situation, and after a while you may find yourself acting more mindfully and skilfully without working on it too hard or even discussing any of it with the other people involved.

•Write down, under organized headings, everything that is bothering you about one specific situation, for example, list the facts, your worries and concerns, your questions, specifically what you need to resolve, and the timing. Then write the answer to this question: How would you feel if this problem/situation was resolved in the most benevolent way possible? Describe how you would feel, and how it would all look if this was no longer a problem. Then close the journal and leave it at least overnight, and if possible for a few days. When you go back to it, read over what you wrote, then write yourself a timed plan of action to actively support the best possible results you can hope for. Follow up the actions according to the timing, and report back on your ongoing progress. If new consequences emerge, then journal them too.

•Deal with any procrastination that is bugging you by taking a different approach. Write about what life would be like if you never did the thing you are supposed to. How does it feel if you let yourself off the hook? Or how would it be if you only did it when you felt like it?

•Be a witness to your everyday moments. Every day has different qualities and it is a unique day for you on planet Earth! At the end of the day, recall a few moments. Write in an accepting style, without any self-criticism or judgments.

•Celebrate all the things you did today, and the personal qualities, skills and strengths you applied and demonstrated today.

•Write a confidence-building journal. Identify a few areas where you work on developing your confidence and set yourself small, manageable targets and ‘action experiments’ to gradually develop more confidence. For example, if you feel underconfident about your ability to socialize, make dates for events to go to and make the effort to meet people and start a conversation with them. Report back to your journal about how it went and adjust your targets as you go. Give yourself praise and feedback on how your action experiments worked out.

Journalling is a powerful tool for (a) training your focus on the things that really matter to you, and (b) consistently improving your state of mind.

This is all about focus. In a journal you can develop, step by step, a constructive attitude, and build your strength, momentum and clarity. One of the most basic and enduring challenges that can severely limit success in any area of life is that we hold ideas, beliefs or thoughts that are contradictory.