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Why would jotting down your issues, thoughts, and feelings be of any use?  Isn’t it just like complaining or wallowing in your problems?

Not when it’s High Performance Journaling!

When you have an issue or problem you are dealing with the problem is you are in the problem.  As Einstein so eloquently stated: The significant problems we face can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.  To go a bit deeper, in our minds, problems are thoughts.  Thoughts have boundaries around them – that is what defines them, gives them shape, and holds them in place.  When we are currently inside the boundaries of a problem and trying to solve it, it is much more difficult to see solutions.  This is why it’s easier for someone not associated with the problem to see solutions for it because they are outside of the problem’s boundaries and have a different perspective.

So the question is how do we get outside the boundaries of our own problems?

Every day we experience life differently.  Some days we are up and some days we are down.  Some days we are motivated and some days not so much.  So if we could take a snapshot of our thinking while we are deep in our problem and then look at that snapshot on a day when we are outside the boundaries of the problem in the snapshot we may have a different perspective and see solutions that we did not see when the snapshot was taken.

This is where journaling comes in.  When you are journaling you are in essence taking a snapshot of the problem on that day.  Having some book full of snapshots doesn’t do you any good.  That is where High Performance Journaling comes in.  At the end of each week (whatever day you decide that is) you take your journal and read the previous week’s entries.  Then you journal about what you just read.  The chances are that you will not be in the same state of mind that you were in each day of the week prior and therefore you will have a bit more perspective on your week.

As you read over the previous week’s entries look for patterns.  Notice what you are repeating or avoiding.  Be curious and try to look at yourself from a detached point of view.

Now don’t stop there.  At the end of every 30 days (again, when you decide that is) read over your weekly observations and make an entry about that observation.  And again, at the end of the year review your monthly observations.

High Performance Journaling will help you gain perspective on yourself and in doing so you will have awesome feedback to help you steer your life toward your goals and dreams.