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Journaling Ideas To Help You Seize The Day

Journaling ideas aren’t the magical cure to what ails you. They won’t cure your anxiety, banish your depression, or make you more money. 

They can help you discover great ideas. Or get to the bottom of a problem that’s been troubling you. The right journaling prompts can help you make sense of the busy day ahead of you and make you more productive. I like to balance my journal prompts by threading in bits of gratitude, reflection, and living purposefully.

Journaling ideas onto paper (or in Google docs) keeps my mind decluttered. It filters out my noisy inner critic and helps me stay focused on what’s truly important. It’s such a simple ritual that takes so little time but provides immense clarity and purpose to the day ahead.

Ryan Holiday wrote an excellent article on how the emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius, conquered stress, and anxiety. One passage, in particular, stuck out to me:

“Marcus Aurelius worked hard to be a good friend to himself. Although he was firm and strong and self-disciplined, he did not whip himself. He knew that it was inevitable that he would mess up. We all do.”

The idea of being a good friend to yourself feels strange. How often do you reflect on how you treat yourself? Deep down, we know what it feels like to be a good friend to others. But what about being a good friend to yourself? What does that look like?

A good friend would point out what you have to be grateful for and why today is an opportunity. A good friend would remind you of all that hard work you’re doing and celebrate the fantastic things that you’ve accomplished. They’d also point out where you could do a bit better. Not in a mean or demoralizing way, but in an uplifting and enthusiastic way.

Journaling Ideas

Journaling can help you be that good friend to yourself. Not just once or twice, but every day. These journaling ideas are on heavy rotation for me lately:

  • What are you grateful for?
  • What amazing things happened yesterday?
  • How can I make today better than yesterday?
  • Are all of your obligations today real or are some imagined?
  • How are my thoughts lately? Are they serving me or holding me back?
  • What are the words you need to hear? What would a good friend say to you today?
  • Why is today an opportunity instead of another day to get through? What will make today great? 
  • If you were forced to work for just one hour per day, what would you work on during that hour to be most effective?

My list evolves as I find new and exciting questions, ideas, and journaling prompts. Some months I’ll remove questions temporarily, and some months I’ll add a couple more.

I’ll leave you with a quote I’m taking to heart: 

“Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter. And lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.” —Jack London

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Stop Giving Yourself Options

Like many of you, I collect words to live by. If something catches my eye in a book, I jot it down. The same goes for podcasts, YouTube videos, and movies. If something moves me, then I save it for later. I use them in my writing, and I read them when I need guidance. The stories and quotes I accumulate bring me comfort and inspiration when I need it most. They also bring life and depth to my work.

One mantra I’ve had on repeat lately is:

“Stop giving yourself options”

As I analyze successful entrepreneurs, athletes, and authors’ habits and routines, I keep coming across a recurring theme of persistence. Their goals aren’t that different from ours, and most of them aren’t any smarter than we are. The key difference is that they show up every day. 

Rain or shine. Healthy or sick. They show up.

They don’t give themselves options.

Their determination is what sets them apart. The athlete knows the day will never come when they wake up pain-free. Every day they have to play injured, tired, or sore. They beat on their craft relentlessly and seem superhuman as a result. 

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer” – Albert Einstein

Where most people, myself included, fall short is giving up when times get tough. Or worse, when success doesn’t come as quickly as we hoped. We do things when conditions are perfect. When we feel motivated, well-rested, and free of distraction. Therein lies the problem.  

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar

Anytime I start something, I focus too much on the result. I think, “once I lose the weight, I can go back to eating Domino’s Pizza and drinking Guinness.” I give myself options when it comes to working out, eating right, writing articles, you name it. On the off chance, I make it to the finish line, I slowly lose my momentum and give up my hard-earned results. My epiphany is that you never “make it.” And even if you do, you can’t let up. You set your eye on the next thing, immediately. 

David Goggins says, “Life is one big mind game, there is no finish line. Don’t push yourself now, just to relax in the future, push yourself your entire life! You never arrive, don’t be satisfied, don’t be soft.”

Now that I’ve wrapped my head around this concept, it makes the daily grind easy to tackle. Like you though, I still have my rough days. I still get caught up thinking about the results instead of enjoying the journey. When you have rough days, make an effort to push forward anyway. Getting through a half-ass workout or writing a few crappy pages is better than nothing. Momentum is everything.

P.S. H/T to David Goggins for inspiring this post.

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How To Carve The Path To Success

Above the desk in my office, I have an abstract painting of Epictetus framed with the following quote:

“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?”

I purchased it as a New Year’s present to myself for completing what I considered my first successful year as a writer. 

Being my best self and ensuring I’m on a path to success is something I think about a lot. I know life is short, and the thing I fear the most is wasting my potential. If I sit around on my butt all day eating chips and salsa watching Netflix, I’m afraid that life will pass me by. 

Like you, I have big aspirations. And like you, I push a lot of them off. Instead of today, I choose tomorrow. I’ll eat better tomorrow. I’ll workout tomorrow. I’ll write that article tomorrow.

Sometimes I’ll get my shit together and sprint after what I want but rarely in a sustainable way. Like you, my life is a series of false starts. I’ll make progress, then I’ll backslide. Rinse and repeat.

Let’s break that cycle together. Not tomorrow, but here and today. Here’s how I’m going to do that:

Decide What’s Truly Important

James Clear wrote about Warren Buffett’s “2 List” Strategy, which I highly recommend everyone read. To sum it up, Warren suggests everyone create a massive list of things they want to do in their life. Everything big to small that comes to mind. 

Do you want to learn the guitar? Start a business? Write a novel? Learn Spanish? 

Great! Write all that down.

Then prioritize it and pick your top five. Now put all your effort into doing or becoming those five things. The most important part here is avoiding the other stuff at all costs. They’re merely a distraction. Be more selective and say no more often.

We can’t do it all, and if we try, we’ll fail miserably. Derek Sivers puts it best:

“More people die from eating too much than eating too little. Most of us have too much baggage, too many commitments, and too many priorities.”

Create A “Could Do” System

Creating that list is a great start, but we both know you’ll never stop wanting. Neither will I. The “could do’s” will pile up, and that’s okay. Just find a home for them and think of them differently. I keep a massive google doc of cool ideas, places to travel, habits to form, things to buy, you name it. 

I’m not saying never to these things. I’m saying not right now. 

That way, they don’t weigh on me.

In a weird therapeutic way, it’s freeing knowing I don’t “have to” do these things anymore. David Allen gets it:

“When looking at a large to-do list, you feel a mixture of relief and grief. These items represent agreements you haven’t kept with yourself. What happens when you break too many agreements with yourself your self-esteem plummets.”

Turn Your “Shoulds” Into “Musts”

With the “could do’s” tucked away, I’m now faced with my “should do’s” list. Here’s where life gets complicated. We know what healthy food looks like, but we still opt for fried foods. We know how to save money, but we still spend money on stuff we don’t need.

How do we break that cycle? How do we live more purposefully?

We have to turn our “shoulds” into “musts” and find a way to get it done.

Tony Robbins says, “We don’t hit our goals, we hit our musts.” 

Must means “no matter what.” 

Must means getting okay with being uncomfortable.

Must means sacrificing sleep sometimes or forgoing things that feel good.

Must means putting in the hours.

Unfortunately, the hours won’t suddenly appear. You’ve got to steal them from comfort. Anything you were doing before was comfortable. This won’t be. You’ll be very uncomfortable. You’ll feel awful on the surface, and chances are you’ll be fighting that inner voice telling you to “take the day off” or “you can have just one donut.” 

But if you do the work consistently, you’ll get a deeper satisfaction from finishing what you said you’d do.

Clear The Path To Success

The only way to change your body and mind is to change your standards. Here are a few tips that are working for me:

1. Surround yourself with people playing the game at a higher level than you. Who you spend time with is who you become. Find successful entrepreneurs to mentor you on starting your business. Make friends that have accomplished your fitness goals. In-person is great but even chatting with people 

2. Schedule your success. Literally, make time in your schedule to accomplish your “must do’s.” I have time blocks on my calendar to write from 5-7 every morning. The same goes for my morning cardio session and my evening workouts. I start and end my workday with workouts. That’s a rule. Try to find consistent times for your “must do’s.” Then they’ll become habits.

3. Destroy your “all or nothing” mentality. There will be days you are sick, injured, or slammed at work. Days you won’t be at your best. Make it a rule to never skip your “must do’s” twice. Skipping two days in a row starts a new habit—a habit of skipping. Implement make up sessions. For instance, if I miss a workout, I don’t beat myself up, I just schedule two workouts for tomorrow.

4. Create personal accountability. I love technology and use it to my advantage. All my to-dos go into Things 3, and I keep my “must do’s” in my Done app. Both have reminder functions, which I use often. Done helps me keep “streaks” going, which I find motivating. I don’t want to break the chain.

5. Know exactly what you want to do ahead of time. Writer’s block doesn’t come from not knowing how to type. It comes from not knowing where to start. Think about it. You know how to run. That’s not the hard part. It’s setting the conditions for your run. Making sure you know when, where, and how far you’ll go. Find time in the day to plan tomorrow. Plan your workouts, healthy meals, work tasks, and what you’ll wear. Make doing the right thing feel easy.

6. Create contingency plans. Life will get in the way. It’s inevitable. A lot of things that will torch your progress are avoidable. Find time each week to look ahead for obstacles. Are their meetings, trips, or personal obligations that might trip you up? Front-load and do more work on other days. Look at the menu ahead of time so you can make a healthy choice now. 

7. Make personal contracts. The worst thing you can do is give yourself options. There’s a time and a place to quit, but it’s best to schedule that too. Decide now when you’ll review your goals and systems. If you’re going to give losing weight everything you’ve got, then tell yourself you can revisit your workout plan and diet eight weeks from now. Until then, you’re all in. That will keep you on track and prevent you from switching things up too often. 

How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?

What’s holding you back?

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Fire, Ready, Aim

The Right Way To Start A New Project

You Overanalyze Everything

Well, maybe not you specifically… actually, who am I kidding?

Yes, you.

You’re probably just like me.

You get bright ideas to do something life-changing and follow the classic “Ready, Aim, Fire” strategy. You come up with an idea, you determine the perfect execution strategy, and you launch.

Except you never launch, do you?

You intend to launch, but you get stuck in the planning phase.

As you grind away in the “ready” or “aim” stage, trying to perfect your idea or craft a foolproof launch strategy, you slowly lose steam. You encounter roadblocks, and that little voice in your head makes you doubt yourself.

Maybe this goes on for days, weeks, or even months, but eventually, you lose interest and abandon the idea altogether. Sound familiar?

Is that why you never lost the weight? Launched your startup? Or wrote that novel?

The Solution: “Fire, Ready, Aim”

Launch before your ready. Launch then iterate and improve over time. Putting in the work and optimizing as you go along provides much-needed momentum, builds confidence, and gives you real results.

Here are a few strategies to help you fire first:

End Your Quest For Perfection

Don’t let perfect become the enemy of good enough.

“If more information was the answer we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs” – Derek Sivers

Let’s say you want to lose weight or put on some muscle. Would obsessing over finding the perfect workout routine and diet plan for days or weeks on end be the best route to go?

Or would downloading MyFitnessPal to help count your calories and going for a run today work better?

Stop Looking For Shortcuts

For one, you’re wasting precious time trying to find your silver bullet. Secondly, you likely won’t find one. Finally, even if you find one, it’s likely too extreme to provide lasting results, or everyone would do it.

Sure, you’ll see results with the Whole 30 Diet or setting strict rules like not eating out at all, but for how long? How likely can you go against the grain and deprive yourself of pizza or sweets?

Chances are you’ll stick with it for a while, spiral out of control, and gain all the weight back.

A better alternative is finding a middle-ground. Something that will outlast your emotional sprints. Put differently:

The good-enough routine you stick with is better than the perfect routine you never start or can’t sustain.

I’m using fitness to stick with a theme here, but you can apply this logic to anything. For example, you could spend all day looking for strategies to make your brand go viral, or you could focus on getting five new people to subscribe to your newsletter today.

Give Yourself A Deadline

Contrary to popular belief, constraints can be a good thing.

Twitter launched with plenty of competition but found success by limiting users to a 140 character limit. It forced creativity and satisfied our short attention spans.

A deadline is one way to provide a positive constraint.

“Always demand a deadline. A deadline weeds out the extraneous and the ordinary. It prevents you from trying to make it perfect, so you have to make it different. Different is better.” – Kevin Kelly

Pick an arbitrary date to lose the weight by and find a way to reward yourself. Pick your birthday. Plan a vacation and make it your motivator.

Take a week off work and launch the MVP of your startup. Sign-up for NaNoWriMo and write that novel in 30 days.

Seek Out & Embrace Criticism

Any new venture or project will create its fair share of haters. Doubters criticize because it’s easier than doing something interesting or daring themselves.

“If you absolutely can’t tolerate critics, then don’t do anything new or interesting.”— Jeff Bezos

Firing first requires thick skin and relentless positivity. Actively seek out people’s opinions, hold onto what’s useful, and discard what’s not. Knowing you launched before you were ready makes things easier since you know it’s not perfect and are happy with that.

Start Now

Seth Godin places “shipping” in high regard because shipping something requires finishing it. Shipping is the most critical part of any new project, and without it, all our work means nothing.

Start that thing you’ve been putting off.

Not tomorrow. Not next month. And definitely not at the new year.

Start today.

Eat a lighter dinner and clear the cabinets of your junk food. Write 500 words of that novel and join a writing group for inspiration. Lace-up and go jog as far as you can go.

Do something and do it again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day.

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The One Thing Book Review

Writing The One Thing book review enhanced my view of what a successful day really looks like. Appearing superhuman is about completing one truly important task daily. It’s that simple!

 

The Focus Question

If you take nothing away from the book this is it:

What’s the One Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

That simple question asked every day can have a profound impact on your productivity.

The focus question encompasses the macro and the micro:

What’s the One Thing you can do this year such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

[break that down further]

What’s the One Thing you can do this month such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

[break that down further]

What’s the One Thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

[break that down further]

What’s the One Thing you can do today such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

As you can see if you start with the macro you can easily work your way to the micro. Figuring out your One Thing for the year can help you figure out what progress you can make this month, this week, and finally today.

To stay on track I have started using Momentum Dash in Chrome each day as a result of reading this book. It asks you your focus each morning and then you see it every time you open a new tab.

Time Blocks

Adapt the mindset of someone seeking mastery. Doing so requires not a sickening work ethic that ruins your diet and keeps you up all night working. But rather, a deep understanding of what’s truly important and effective towards reaching your goal. Then scheduling long, 2-5 hour time blocks to work on them each day and fiercely defending those time blocks.

The idea of the Maker’s Schedule and Manager’s Schedule by Paul Graham also appeared in the book which I found to be an extremely pragmatic approach to working. The idea isn’t complicated at all. There are two types of schedules:

The Manager Schedule is where you schedule in one-hour time blocks throughout the day to accomplish single tasks. This schedule is perfect for meetings, admin work, phone calls, and managerial work.

The Maker Schedule is the schedule of people who make things, such as designers, writers, and programmers. Typically, they prefer to use time in units of half a day at the very least.

When operating on a Maker’s Schedule, a meeting in the middle of your half-day time block can be a disaster. It can ruin your creativity by taking you out of your state of flow, or worse can prevent you from really starting or finishing your One Thing for the day.

I’ve since adopted a Maker’s Schedule for the mornings between 4:30 and 7:00. This time block is where I get the bulk of my writing and creative work done. The Manager’s Schedule takes up the rest of my day at work and when I get home I perform admin work for my writing like researching, editing, and publishing articles.

A Tale Of Two Brothers

One of my favorite stories from the book was an exchange between two brothers.

Alex Van Halen would go out each night and Eddie Van Halen would be in his room practicing lead guitar. Alex would come back many hours later from a party or visiting friends and find Eddie in the exact same spot he left him practicing guitar.

That short story is a really cool testament to something we all face which is Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO). What makes the story really cool is that even though Eddie Van Halen was likely experiencing the desire to want to go out and be like his brother he instead stayed true to his craft and kept working on his One Thing. This work ethic is likely what took him from being alone with his guitar on Saturday nights to selling out arena’s not too long after.

Building A Bunker

My final note on the idea of time blocking is I that loved Gary’s idea of “building a bunker.” The bunker you build is where you go to work on your One Thing with minimal or no distractions.

It has necessary elements like the tools you need to work. For me, it is my laptop or tablet. But it also includes things that you might otherwise be forced to leave to acquire in a time of need like a sweater if you get cold, a glass of water, snacks, headphones, pen and paper, your research materials, etc.

This bunker should be figuratively impenetrable when you are in the zone each day.

They even went as far to include a door hanger for your bunker that you can rip out of the book.

Challenge What’s Possible

How much did I make freelancing in 2017?

Think about how much effort it took to get there. If you didn’t give yourself options and doubled that effort to focus on the right One Thing each day could you make double the income?

Gary Keller says to double it again, then triple it, quadruple it, and keep going until the number scares you.

Is it possible? Can it be done?

The book also pushes you to find a coach or teacher in everything you do. Find someone who has done what you have set out to accomplish and learn as much as you can from them.

Asking The Right Questions

I’m a big fan of the Socratic method which in short is the disciplined practice of questioning our assumptions often so we can better determine if they are valid or not. Utilizing the Socratic method really stimulates critical thinking and can draw on some truly amazing realizations and even change the way we think and approach our learning experience.

Gary Keller’s book is riddled with really good questions that get your mind racing and debating itself. Voltaire said, “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.” This book has got me starting to make lists of excellent thought-provoking questions. Ones that push right through all the bullshit I feed myself, right past any excuses or limiting beliefs and gets down to the core of what I’m capable of doing and what I should be doing.

The One Thing Book Review Summary

The One Thing Book review was fun to write because it really drove home all the wonderful concepts from the book. To be honest, it is one of the best books I have read since first reading the 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss back in 2012. This isn’t a book that I’m going to read once and let it sit on the shelf. I can see myself reading it at least once a year. I’ve already recommended it to friends and

Buy your copy on Amazon. [no affiliate link]

What did you think of the One Thing?

Tell me in the comments below.

or we can discuss these two quotes I found really thought-provoking:

“Anyone who dreams of an uncommon life eventually discovers there is no choice but to seek an uncommon approach to living it.” – Gary Keller

“Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls– family, health, friends, integrity– are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.” – Gary Keller

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Pareto Principle Examples To Live By

The Pareto Principle

It all started with the Italian engineer, socialist, economist, political scientist, and philosopher: Vilfredo Pareto.

Photo of Vilifredo ParetoHe’s most famously known for the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule. Vilfredo first observed this phenomenon when he was performing an investigation into the distribution of income amongst economies and concluded that 80% of Italy’s total land had belonged to just 20% of the population.

While initially surprised by his findings, he soon was astounded to find that his conclusion was the same in all the nearby countries as well. This, of course, spilled over into his everyday life where he noticed this 80/20 rule applied to nearly everything. He even noted that just 20% of the pea pods in his garden produced 80% of the peas.

How can you start using the 80/20 rule in your everyday life?

The Pareto Principle can apply to every facet of life:

  • Your job
  • Your goals
  • Your hobbies
  • Your family
  • Your health

Pick an area of your life an ask the following questions:

  • What are the 20% of activities or individuals that are producing 80% of the results or positive emotional states that I desire?
  • What are the 20% of activities or individuals that are producing 80% of the failures, wheel-spinning, headaches, pain, and negative emotional states I want to rid myself of?

Here’s an example involving my writing:

My writing business can be both very rewarding and a real drag at times. Performing the 80/20 analysis and answering these questions showed me that 20% of the jobs I take on come from pitching other writers or cold pitching blogs with headlines.

These two activities take less than an hour to get a few pitches or pulse checks out and when awarded jobs these clients also happen to be the best clients. They pay more, are less needy, and more accommodating when I need further direction or information to complete the job.

Finding clients on UpWork, on the other hand, comes with clients that pay less, haggle with me, expect the moon, and are slow to communicate and pay. On top of that, they pay a lot less and UpWork takes a cut of my pay.

Further probing finds that 80% of my income this year came from pitching myself versus finding clients on UpWork.

Further digging found that roughly 80% of my headaches came from UpWork clients and they only accounted for 20% of my overall income. On the other hand, 80% of my income came from pitching myself and those clients provided me with only 20% of the headaches.

It’s pretty clear what I have to do. Ditch UpWork and double down on pitching myself.

The answers to these questions are what we should focus on changing in our lives. Put greater effort into that 20% that brings you the majority of your results. Chances are the other 80% of your efforts is either spinning your wheels, making you stressed, or just flat out unnecessary.

The 90/10 Rule, 95/5 Rule, 99/1 Rule, and so on

The 80/20 rule seems to be less of a rule and more of a guideline.

I say that because it almost always isn’t exactly 20% that gives you 80%. Furthermore, I find it fascinating to use it to analyze performance or to self-diagnose my current mental state.

Though it doesn’t stop there, you can also use the Pareto Principle as a tool to figure out your priority for the day.

Take the Pareto Principle to the extreme. What’s the 5%, or better yet, the 1% or one thing in each area of your life that produces 99% of your results? From there, your To-Do list can be transformed into what Gary Keller calls a Success List.

Success List from Gary Keller's book The One ThingThe success list is all about eliminating “multi-tasking” and being busy for the sake of being busy. But rather the success list is for finding that one thing, or 1%, that will give you 99% of the day’s results if you can cross it off.

How Pareto Principle examples can eradicate limiting beliefs

Trying to fulfill all of our responsibilities and making time for our goals can be exhausting. But what if with a variation of the 99/1 rule we could reframe the time we have and still make incremental progress towards our goals.

As an example:

A limiting belief I have is that if I don’t make it to the gym that day, then the day is lost. I’ll just have to try again tomorrow. But, what if through an 80/20 or 99/1 analysis I figured out that 8 minutes of interval sprints and 8 sets of pull-ups could give me the full-body and cardiovascular workout I needed in 1/10th of the time my normal workouts take.

Why can’t I make time for a 15-20 minute workout anywhere in the world no matter what else is going on?

I have this idea of creating my to-do list for the day (complete with my One thing) and having a secondary column as my backup plan for when the day gets away from me. When other people interfere with my schedule or things inevitably take longer than expected I can fall back to my Plan B. Here’s an example to-do list:

To-do List:

Plan A: Grill steak and veggies for dinner

Plan B: Eat a Lean Cuisine or order a healthy item from a specific restaurant I drive past on my way home

Plan A: Write 500 words for an article due that night in the morning before I go to work

Plan B: On my way to work use Evernote’s audio note function to capture ideas and a rough outline for the article I have to write that evening

Plan A: Go to the gym after work for 1 hour full-body workout

Plan B: Sprints in my apartment parking lot followed by push-ups in the living room to failure

As you can see, the obvious choice is doing A. But when life gets in the way you can usually still make time for B. After all, what’s the alternative? What’s C? C is doing nothing. C is making no progress or worse backsliding and losing momentum.

At least plan B doesn’t break the chain. It keeps us focused on our end goal, and at the end of the day, you are usually happier for doing something.

Plan B could mean also getting creative with the time you have. You can start chunking activities to kill two birds with one stone.

Didn’t have time for a workout but promised your partner you would spend time with them? Go for a walk or a jog with them. Go to the gym with them instead. Find something active you can do together like rock climbing, swimming, or disc golf.

As you can see, the Pareto Principle has a wide array of uses and is a potent tool for getting the most out of your efforts.