Journaling is just for little girls? No way, because a success diary can be a powerful tool. Although there is a wide range of prejudices su...
The reason? Very simple: Our everyday life is becoming increasingly fast-moving and there is often a lack of the right place and the right time to reflect on what has happened and to observe one's own development in different areas of life.
Above all, smaller successes and milestones that we achieve in everyday life often disappear from our memory after a few days without being documented.
It is precisely these small achievements, which can be booked almost unnoticed every day, that are important building blocks on the way to our goals.
After all, we achieve big projects by consistently winning the smaller battles in everyday life.
A so-called success diary offers the ideal opportunity to record exactly these events. But what exactly is behind it?
What is a success diary?
Despite numerous prejudices, a diary is a popular tool for self-reflection for many. For this very reason, there are numerous variants of the diary today that go far beyond the well-known classic - the notebook with the blank pages.
There are now meditation diaries, sports diaries, pain diaries, dream diaries, in short: diaries about everything that we want to document and observe over a longer period of time.
The success diary is also characterized above all by the content that we record in it, because: As the name suggests, the success diary is about big and small achievements, positive experiences, moments of happiness, and pleasant experiences in everyday life. This includes successes from all areas of professional and private life.
Classic examples of success in professional life are a raise in salary, the completion of a project, a presentation that went well or convincing an important customer.
In private life, successes such as beautiful moments with friends, a tingling candlelight dinner, seeing old friends again, but also achievements such as a successful 10 km run can be noted in the success diary.
After all, everyone can decide for themselves which events end up in the success diary. It is only important that the noted experiences are perceived as success according to one's own definition because this is how the success diary ultimately develops its positive effects best. But which ones are they actually?
The benefits of a successful diary
The success diary provides a number of benefits that make it the perfect tool on the way to achieving professional and personal goals and to strengthening one's own satisfaction, self-confidence, and mental health. They can be summarized as follows:
The magical effects of positivity on the body and mind
A study from Warrington University in Florida shows that writing down pleasant aspects of the day every day can have numerous positive effects.
These include reducing stress, increasing creativity, and even physical benefits like better sleep and fewer headaches.
The reason for this is that dealing with positive events releases happiness hormones that have a positive effect on well-being and one's own physical condition.
A real boost for self-confidence and self-esteem
In addition, a success diary increases both self-confidence and self-esteem: those who are literally aware of their successes know what they have already achieved and what challenges they have already overcome.
In the best case, the success diary even manages to dissolve existing negative beliefs about one's own performance and one's own life.
For whom sentences like “Oh, nothing good is happening to me anyway!” or "I'm just not good enough!" are old acquaintances, it can help to use the success diary to remind yourself that not everything is as bad as it seems.
The result: As soon as the knowledge of one's own successes has become second nature, pride in oneself grows, self-confidence is strengthened and one's own charisma changes into something positive.
In the end, your own charisma changes bit by bit, and the courage to strive for new challenges and goals grows.
The optimism returns
And by the way: If you are serious about keeping a success diary, you will quickly find that even your own worldview changes: We all know the feeling that every day feels the same and meaningless.
Everyday life creeps in and life quickly becomes monotonous. Finally, with the success diary, attention can also be paid to small success stories.
The consequence is that the world and life itself seem more multifaceted and positive to us - full of little highlights.
At the end of this worldview, there is a positive attitude towards life and fundamental optimism.
The ultimate weapon against mood swings
Finally, a successful diary can serve as the ultimate weapon against low moods - after all, the entries also serve as documentation of one's own development in terms of professional and personal progress.
Owners of a success diary should therefore take out their journal regularly and use it to take a look at their own path and achievements - especially when an extra portion of motivation is needed.
Speaking of the journal: the 6-minute success journal is a daily planner that we can recommend to you. The purpose is to achieve your goals in a more relaxed and focused manner.
This is how the success diary works best
So many good reasons to start your own success diary! However, especially those who have had no previous experience with journaling are often not sure how exactly they should keep a successful journal. The following tips can be of great help.
Find your own style
As already mentioned, there are many ways to keep a diary. From lined notebooks to pre-printed journals that ask specific questions every day to software programs and apps in which the success diary can be kept digitally - the alternatives are so limitless that everyone can find their preferred format.
Two apps we've also been working with for quite a while are the Diaro Diary on the Google Play Store and the Day One Diary from Apple's App Store.
It is also up to each diary owner to document their own successes in a detailed body of text, in individual keywords, in tabular form, or with the help of drawings. If you are not sure what you feel most comfortable with, you should simply try out several variants.
The routine counts! write daily
The feel-good factor when writing a diary is particularly important because writing should ideally become a daily routine.
Many motivated journal keepers eventually fail because they eventually stop making the time to write. However, those who set aside a certain time window each day to write down their successes are most likely to benefit from the positive effects of the success diary.
If it turns out that it is difficult to take the time to document one's own successes on a daily basis, the format can be adjusted accordingly, e.g. switched from continuous text to keywords.
Choose a time and place for your ritual
Daily practice of writing a diary works best if at least one fixed time and preferably also a fixed place for writing the success diary is set.
While some prefer to write in the morning about yesterday's successes in order to start the day full of motivation, others prefer to write in the evening because they can still remember the day well and can fall into bed full of contentment and pride.
When to write should depend on your own daily routine and preferences. Any place that allows for rest and concentration is suitable as a location – this is what is needed for good self-reflection.
Find your own structure and your own rules
Would you rather write down five general successes of your day or would you rather write down three professional and three private ones? Do you want to write down so many success stories until you can't think of any more?
Simply jot down what comes to your mind or would you rather define specific categories such as fitness, health, job, finances, and family for which you record successes?
The decision is entirely up to you – only sticking to a certain structure helps, because that helps with thinking, remembering, and reflecting.
Nothing can go wrong with these four tips. Or is it? It can happen that you have to overcome some hurdles when keeping your success diary.
Hurdles you have to overcome when writing a journal
Especially for those who are keeping a success diary for the first time, some misunderstandings and hurdles can lead to frustration. You should not be discouraged by the following blockages.
You think you have no achievements to write down
You ponder and ponder, but you can't think of anything worth writing down in your success diary? That happens to the best. Take more time to reflect and write, especially in the beginning.
If that doesn't help, you can take notes throughout the day whenever something positive happens to you and use those notes to keep your success journal.
Need a notebook to write a journal in? Well, that's the smallest hurdle.
You are afraid to celebrate yourself
It is often said that self-praise stinks. Do you find it difficult to write down why you are proud of yourself today? All these small positive moments of happiness somehow don't feel like real successes?
This is where practice makes perfect: get yourself to give yourself written praise even for small achievements – you will see that the whole thing will become easier for you after a few weeks.
You feel stupid writing a diary
Sitting down and writing in a book – that feels kind of weird. Don't worry, many do!
In these moments, remind yourself that many of the great thinkers, scientists, and entrepreneurs of our time are passionate diary keepers.
Maybe this will help you get over the weird feeling at first until you can establish a routine.
You fail to establish a routine
Speaking of routine: Many find it difficult to keep up the daily writing. Some even quit if they haven't written a single word for several days in a row.
"It's just not for me!" Is a frustrating conclusion. These situations simply show that you may need to adjust your routine or the format of your success journal. In the beginning, maybe only five instead of ten successful experiences are enough?
Can't it also be keywords instead of continuous text? And maybe writing in a diary suits you better in the morning than in the evening – or on the way home from work.
Conclusion: The success diary is a powerful tool - and individuality is the key
The fact is: A success diary is a powerful tool for achieving personal and professional goals.
From increasing self-confidence to positive physical effects and a new view of the world, the success diary can bring a lot of positive effects.
These unfold best if you adapt the routine you want to establish for journaling to your personal needs and general conditions.
With a bit of perseverance and adaptability, the success diary can then become a valuable companion - and work true miracles.
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