Successful Leaders Journal - Really?

Do you Journal?  Apparently successful people do.  But really ….is journaling not out of date?

I almost did not listen to this podcast on “Journaling” as I thought it was indeed out of date.  In fact, they kept my attention at the beginning by making fun of journaling, as being for Victorian era schoolgirls.  They had me laughing -- so I listened on.

Apparently incredibly successful people journal! 

Here is why journaling helps you be successful.  (of course, I am simplifying for this post)

In summary:

1) Successful people set out their objective for the day in their journal. (not to be confused with a to do list) – they set their intention on the big thing or things they want to tackle.

2) Then at the end of the day they reflect and give themselves a grade.  A, B, C oops a D 😊

3) If it is not an A then they reflect on why not.  And write this reason down in their journal.

4) Then they repeat this process for several weeks and go back to reflect on their overall performance over time.  Most importantly they consider their remarks about what stopped them from getting an A each day.

 5) The theory is a pattern or patterns should be apparent for why they were not successful.

When you see those patterns, you will learn what you need to start or stop doing to get that A grade.

The speaker said, and I loved this “hindsight – leads to insight ---leads to foresight – leads to resight”.

Simple right?  But with all the great things they take time and patience to achieve……

…….so will you journal?

 While I don’t journal, (officially yet) I do reflect at the end of the day as to what got in my way from accomplishing what I set out to do.  In general, for me it’s about trying to do too much and getting pulled off my # 1 task.  (not every day but enough for me to see a pattern – I am working on it)

Here is the podcast if you want to hear the episode.

Podcast 278 – “The Modern Manager” - Why Journaling Improves your Leadership Skills with Antonio Garrido