Why is it so important to keep a journal?

Here are just a few of the benefits a personal journal will provide you:

* A journal will remind you of your goals and the actions you are taking towards them every day. You are writing down your goals?

* It allows you to factually track your progress as you head closer towards your goals. Here is an example. Suppose you had set a new goal to lose 20 lbs in the next 3 months. Record your weight in your journal each day, you will now be able to see trends in your weight loss that you would not have seen without the journal.

* It provides detailed information such as dietary changes, calorie reductions, fat reduction, and so on.

* It helps build your self-esteem because you are reaffirming the positive benefits you are achieving as you get closer to your goals.

* It helps to paint the picture every day of who you are becoming.

* When you see positive results as they happen, you will become energized with optimism.

Here are a couple of simple journal tips:

Keep a simple, short log, it's easy, and it usually only takes 1 minute of your time. Each day, make short entries into your journal, list such things as your attitude, emotions, diet, weight, responses to situations and conditions in your life.

For example, if having a healthy heart is one of your goals, you will want to keep track of your cholesterol levels, your blood pressure, your weight. (Obviously, all of this data would not be recorded daily, but some entry would be recorded each day)

Try this simple little exercise. Get out a note pad or a sheet of paper and a pencil. Look at your watch. When the second hand hits 12, start timing yourself as you write down the following information:

Fri.- Felt great all day. Weight 135 pounds. Walked briskly for 20 minutes. Had healthy almonds and

nuts for snacks.

More then likely, you completed writing down the information in approximately 1 minute. Yet, in that 1 minute, you created an important snapshot of important data in your life. You now have historical data you can refer to as time goes by, to help you track your progress as you move towards your life goals.

I know how well this works. For the past 6 years, I have kept a simple, yet informative log of every day of my life. I can tell you exactly how I felt on Wed., July 25,2000, or any day since. I can look back and see how I reacted to issues in my life and what helped me overcome an illness, injury or stressful period in my life.

It generally takes me less then two minutes to record the log forany day. It is a habit that has become a part of my life; it is now second nature for me. If you have a computer, I recommend typing just three to four lines of descriptive text into a word processing program each day.