Journaling Techniques for Managing Personal Goals

What kind of an impression do you think that you make?  In the workplace?  With the family?  In public?  With your friends and colleagues? 

Reflective people tend to spend some time thinking about the effect they make on others.  Those who care about making a good impression, being a useful teammate, and demonstrating their best qualities spend time considering the effects they make. 

What kind of an impression would you like to make?  If you could choose what people thought about meeting you, what imprint would you leave on the minds of those you meet?  Would you like to be known for being a confident professional, a strong leader, a helpful colleague, or a gifted artist? 

People do not always see in us what we see in ourselves.  Sometimes they grasp a side of our personalities that we cannot see or they see one tiny element in the complexity that makes us who we are.  They might not recognize who we really are or who we are trying to become. 
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As we move through different phases of life, inevitably we want to change aspects of ourselves—our appearance, our physicality, the legacy we leave, and our impressions.

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Writing about the Future 
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In your writer’s journal, write a response to three of these prompts.  Write 500-2000 words for each one to capture depth, breadth, and detail on the topics. 





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1. What do you want people to see in you?
2. What do you want people to recognize about you?
3. What did people see in you years ago see that you liked? 
4. What do you want to be acknowledged for (doing, creating, or contributing to)?
5. What is the impression you want people to leave with today? 
6. What are five adjectives that you want people to think of when they connect with you?
7. What is the tone that you want to be known for when you connect with others?
8. What imagery and style do you want others to associate with you?
9. How do you want to be known in your personal, professional, romantic, familiar, and artistic life?
10. Why is the impression you seek to impart the real you that you want to share with others?

When we look back over the memories of the past, we sometimes fall into moments of self-criticism.  If I only had that to do over again!  We can look at ourselves through a lens of reflective improvement rather than through one of honest and fair appreciation for who we were.  
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When we look at ourselves in the present, we can sometimes get wrapped up into the complexity of our dizzying lives.  Most people live busy lives that lack the contemplative opportunities to think about what we are doing before taking the next step. 

But when we look just to the future—even a few months into the future—we can be free of the shackles of regret and self-criticism.  Instead we can look forward to the days ahead as though they are overflowing with opportunity, good luck, and auspicious tidings. 
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One of the wonderful things about the future is that since it has not happened yet, we get to create it. 

Mindfulness in Journaling 
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As with most journal writing activities, when we write about the future, we slow down time.  We stop the complicated confusion that tends to cloud our days, and we become mindful when contemplating what is happening with our lives. 

Any opportunity that writers can take to be mindful about their writing can turn into a chance to be mindful about our lives and to collect great content in our journals. 

As we know about mindfulness activities (any activity that allows us to be conscious of something), engaging in mindful writing is a means to ease tension and heighten creativity.  Journaling about the changes we seek to make in ourselves is a means for reaching the goals and aspirations we set for ourselves. 

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Self-Image Journal Writing 
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At any point, you may have set a goal for yourself.  Maybe you decided to lose weight, land a better job, write the novel you have always dreamed of, or travel the world.  Whatever your goal is, that goal needs attention to survive.  It will not make it on hopes and dreams alone. 

Earlier, we looked at journal prompts to guide our thinking about how we see ourselves, how we think other people see us, and how we want to be viewed.  This is a valuable journal writing activity because it transforms our thoughts into our goals for the future. 

From multiple research points, we know that words have power.  Knowing that words are powerful, we tend to be cautious with the words we use, but we can use the power of words to our advantage when working towards a goal. 
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As you journal about the you of tomorrow, think carefully about the words that you will use to describe this incredible person.  How will you describe this dynamo?  How will others perceive this shining light of a changed you?  We can take the power behind using words to describe intentions and use it to an advantage as we work on realizing the goals we are working towards (the goal can be anything—writing a novel, losing weight, landing a better job, getting into nature more often, etc.) 

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In your journal, respond to three of the following prompts.  Try to write 500-2000 words for each one to capture enough depth, breadth, and detail about the topics.
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1. Explain what your goal is that you are working towards achieving.
2. Describe what three tools would help you on your path towards meeting this goal.
3. What will life look like and feel like once you meet this goal?
4. How will meeting this goal change the person you are? 
5. How will meeting this goal change the way others see you, interact with you, or react to you?
6. What possibilities could open up after you reach this goal?  How might this goal be a jumping off point to much greater opportunities?
7. How might your tone, style, or beingness change because of meeting this goal?
8. In what ways will you be a more fulfilled person by reaching this goal?
9. What three steps could you take today that would lead you towards meeting this goal? 
10. What five steps could you take in the coming week that would lead you towards meeting this goal?

Writers can harness the postulating power of words when working towards a goal to increase the likelihood of achieving that goal.  Our writing journals are a perfect location for this type of writing.  What type of goal is unimportant; we could work towards getting the house cleaned up, learning a new skill, or achieving a life-long dream.  Small or large, our goals can be met with we are better prepared.  By journaling about our goals and the paths we take to our goals, we are more likely to be successful.

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