Journalling for Women
If someone were to ask me when my life began to change, here is what I would answer – my life began to change the day I bought a journal. It sounds so simple, and in fact it is. I had no idea that the day I bought my journal, would be the day my life really began to change. The day I bought my journal was the first day of a massive roller-coaster ride of personal growth. And once you get on, you don’t want to get off. It’s like an addiction I might say. There really is no telling what your future could hold for you. I guess that’s the exciting part of it all. You’ve probably heard the thought that we choose our own destiny. Well – writing in a journal only speeds up the whole process.
If you ask me, I don’t know what could be more therapeutic at times than writing in a journal!
When I refer to journalling, I don’t mean you just write out what you did that day, or what he or she said. It’s not that you can’t do that – it’s just that that’s not the purpose.
When I speak about journalling or writing I am speaking of major personal transformation and total transcendence on some level. It’s a transcendence that takes you to a whole new level in this so called game of life. The kind of writing I’m speaking about isn’t something you learn in writing 101. In fact, it’s not really something you learn – it’s something you do.
The writing is an overflow from within, and becomes an extension from the heart – the place that knows total truth. Writing does not lie. Writing brings out the truth, and nothing but the truth, as scary as it might be. To write is to listen. And to listen is to find. Is this not what we all want? To find ourselves? Getting to know one’s self is a lifelong journey, a journey full of life-long complexities.
Journalling aids us in sorting through these complexities and mass confusions. Once you get all this stuff down on paper, life becomes a whole lot easier. In some respects at least, – believe me.
Writing opens up new realms of possibility, and new ways of thinking. There’s no one judging when you write. Only you.
As you begin the journey of self-exploration on paper, you feel total nakedness. You feel total vulnerability. Writing isn’t always easy. No one said it was easy. It takes nerve to be able to explore the unknown realms of yourself.
As you begin to understand yourself, you begin to understand the world around you, and ultimately where you fit in.
Sometimes when we feel we need guidance and help – we feel we should turn to the outer world. We believe in this notion or misconception that the answers are somewhere out there. One of the breakthroughs in writing comes when you realize that all the answers are inside yourself. It’s up to you though to go inside and find them. Unleash your answers. Find the truth and as they say – the truth shall set you free.
One of the first things you will learn as you write, is that you have choices in life. We’ve all heard before that we have choices. It’s as if we’ve heard it so many times before, that we no longer understand the phrase for what it truly means.
As you write, your focus is channelled into that which you are writing. You are totally tuned in to what’s being explored on paper. Your inner essence. As we write, the business of our own lives is lost. We are totally present to the moment, and we are now fully able to live in the moment.
Writing allows us to focus our energies on what is going on inside our crazy, busy brains. Sometimes it’s not really a manner of understanding something – but it’s a manner of expressing something. Writing allows you to do this very well.
In a nutshell, I think writing allows us to get our thoughts out of our heads, and on to paper, so that we can move onto the next thought. It allows us to deal with this lesson, and to then move onto the next. Perhaps what one person may take a year to explore or find, you can discover in one evening of writing.
Writing allows you to connect with your dreams and follow your heart. Writing is not only a means to an end, but is a lifelong journey.
The expression of writing into a journal is like conversing with your best friend. It listens forever, and does not judge your remarks. It simply reflects back to you what’s going on inside of you. Some of the best therapists simply reflect back to the client, what the client has already been expressing. And when we write – that’s what we do. We reflect on our feelings and our thoughts.
Myths about Women’s Success and Leadership
There are many myths about what make women happy, successful and great leaders. Read this fantastic article by Marcus Buckingham, posted in Bloomsberg Business! Click here to read the Ten Myths about Women’s Success
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Goal setting for Women Over 50!
Everybody has dreams to achieve big goals, even more mature women over the age of 50. Just because you’re over the age of 50, it doesn’t mean that it’s too late to achieve your life goals. I’d rather achieve something later rather than never.
Often times, women over 50, finally find the time to focus on themselves. Their children are grown up, and now they can focus on their own dreams and goals again.
Try watching this fantastic video by Susan Tolles, all on the power of goal setting for women over 50! Regardless of your age, you will be inspired by Susan Tolle’s fresh ideas on goal setting. Click here to listen to Susan Tolles on Goal Setting over the Age of 50
Cheers,
Ali
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Evolving Achievements Binder
How to Organize Your Brainstormed Ideas and Goals
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Do you need a place to capture all your big dreams, ideas and lofty goals? I’m going to share with you my secret on how I organize my many goals and dreams.
I’ve decided to keep track of every whimsical goal that I’ve pondered.
For years, I wasted so much time and money on buying pretty journals and notebooks for writing down my goals. I’d end up not only writing down my goals, but I’d use those notebooks as a journal as well. So, my goals and other thoughts all became mixed up with no real functional order. Also, it became difficult to add in new goals, and delete my old irrelevant goals. It was also challenging to put all my various goals in different categories.
Of course, when those notebooks became full, I ended up throwing many of them out. After all, I had no need to keep all my journal entries, and I figured that I would just re-write out all my goals in the next notebook that I would buy.
You can avoid all these problems by putting together an ‘Evolving Achievements’ Binder . This is an easy to use, practical filing system that allows you to easily maintain, update and delete goals as you see fit. You will devote this entire binder to your goals. Think of it as a landing place for your ideas, desires and wants. The key is to capture those ideas so that you can evaluate them at a later time. I’ve decided to keep track of every whimsical goal that I’ve pondered.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1) A nice 3-ring binder
2) Lined paper to go inside your binder
3) Tabs or dividers
It’s so simple and easy to maintain, and since I’ve converted to this Evolving Achievement binder, I’ve never gone back to using journals for the purposes of organizing my goals.
Also, having the dividers or tabs will allow you to organize your goals by various categories that make sense to you. Whenever you think of a new idea, you simply find the tab/divider that corresponds to that type of goal, and add it in.
From time to time, because we are busy woman, there will be phases in our lives when we get side-tracked and abandon some of our goals. When you have your goals all organized in one spot, it prevents you from misplacing and forgetting or about your goals. It might sound a bit ludicrous to suggest that someone would forget about their goals, but it happens all time.
For instance, think of your to-do lists that you have. Imagine that you’ve written some of your errands on a few sheets of loose paper around the house, while some are in your journal, and others are in your calendar. When the list of errands is scattered all over the place you are bound to misplace, and thus forget about what you need to get done. You easily lose your focus.
It’s really no different with our goals. We need to keep them all organized in one place, – a place where we can be sure to find them! This way, when a period of time goes by and you haven’t attended to your goals, you’ll be able to pick up right where you last left off, without any delays.
The ‘Evolving Achievement’ binder will also allow you to insert your plans for how you’ll achieve your goals. Whenever you come across new resources, services, or other ideas about how you can achieve your goals, you’ll insert them in the same section along with those goals. As we’ll discuss later, once you have brainstormed and set your goals, you’ll need to devise a general plan or at least outline some steps that will allow you start taking actions toward your goals.
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Just as people forget about their goals or get sidetracked, the same thing happens even after people have committed to their goals. They start taking action, and then they run into a few barriers. Once they get stuck, confused, or frustrated, they lose their focus, and forget about their plan and abandon it. When your plan is written down, you’ll never forget what your next steps are.
If you have multiple plans written down, you will always have something to return to, along with many other ideas for what you might try next to achieve your goals. Having a binder dedicated to achieving your goals will increase your confidence that you can indeed achieve those goals.
For me, the binder is like a concentrated source of energy that fuels my goals and propels me to take more and more actions toward those goals. This happens because it provides a person with a clarified focus. Everything you ever wanted to be, do or achieve, will be contained within this binder. The ideas have already been turned into something concrete and tangible. This helps you perceive and think about your goals more seriously just because you can see them! Then, the mere act of reading your goals over and over again, imprints them deeper and deeper into your subconscious mind.
So, what are you waiting for? Start your own ‘Evolving Achievements’ Binder today! Don’t loose sight of what is important to you.
Definition Goal Setting
The word “goal” is only one piece of language that describes goal oriented behaviour. The definition goal setting, is not clear cut in my books. That is, there are many different ways to think about what goals are. I’m afraid though, that for a lot of people, the term has negative connotations. People think of deadlines, time committments, and last but not least – the idea that failure is possible. So, to help move away from this typical way of thinking about goals, I want to provide several pieces of language, or other ways of thinking about goal setting. There is obviously more than one definition. Goals can also be thought of as:
Do any of these words or ways of thinking speak to you? If so, then I want you to think about one of these particular words as your definition. Goal setting is most effective when you have a way of understanding what works for you!