Caring for your new habit & developing your journaling practice
You have been into business journaling for a while now. Do you feel stuck recently or you’re not really getting into the flow?
But: you know the basics.
You even have good reasons to journal:
- getting your life more organised
- taking deliberate time to reflect
- or even both?
You can help yourself to success, big time, by respecting and gently adapting your process.
You will then reap the benefits of guided-freestyle journaling and feel more joy and ease at work and beyond.
If it feels hard, celebrate!
If your journaling practice feels hard(er), this is usually a sign that you’re actually making progress.
Yes, you read right. That itchy feeling is a good sign so to say.
Of course feeling stuck, not in the flow or feeling “somehow itchy” is not pleasant at all!
Yet it is feedback you got from your system. Your guided-freestyle writing process is most likely about to reveal something.
So I first want you to take a moment to celebrate:
- that you are aware enough to notice that
- that you journalled up until now
- that you keep trying
I celebrate your openness for change and your persistence!
Celebrating your journey up until now is not an option.
Cosima Laube, respectAndAdapt.rocks
It’s a must!
I’m rarely that prescriptive. Here I am.
I experienced it on my own skin and saw it countless times in my work: People who are constantly busy rarely take the time to genuinely celebrate their “little” steps.
As humans we need to make an extra effort to make good parts stick to our brains (see e.g. Hardwiring Happiness by Dr. Rick Hanson). We’ll be rewarded with good mental health.
Now how about your options to deal with what your journaling practice is revealing?
Your options to process your system’s feedback
There are a couple of ways how to deal with that feedback from your system:
- You can stop your business journaling completely and burn your journal
- You can pause your current practise and change your journaling style
- You can intentionally commit to continue and see what happens
Stop and bin it
Of course stopping now and forever is pretty radical and most likely not what you really want.
Yet it is a valid option.
Pause and change it
Pausing and changing your journaling style could look like this:
- pause your current practise for 2 weeks,
- instead: sit down for 5 mins every day
- write down – fully freestyle – whatever comes to your mind.
See what new or different feelings and aspects of journaling evolve for you.
Continue and notice it
A third option is to deliberately continue your current way of business journaling. That includes paying attention to what it exactly is, that makes your practice hard right now.
For that I suggest introducing a colour coding for “meta journaling”: use ordinary text markers to colour-code certain (temporary) categories like “meta” is potentially your first one.
This will help you to review your journal’s daily logs later.
Meta journaling is journaling about your business journaling practice.
Cosima Laube, respectAndAdapt.rocks
Do it fully freestyle: Write whatever comes to your mind when you have your usual daily reflection time.
Take out your agenda right now and set a small retrospective date (about 30 min) with yourself in 2-4 weeks from now. That will help you to process what you learned about yourself, your work and life (=the business journaling as usual) and about your journaling practice (=the meta parts) along the way.
No matter which option you choose next, keep in mind that change is hard for every human being at times.
If it feels hard, help yourself to succeed!
Keep in mind that you’re already doing great if you have any kind of helpful habits – no matter which ones.
Helpful habits we often tend to overlook are:
- sleeping regularly,
- eating regularly,
- moving regularly,
- keeping our room/flat clean,
- smiling at people just for the sake of spreading a little bit more joy for all.
Reflect, respect & adapt
Respect what you already do. Respect what you (usually) take for granted.
At the same time gently adapt the next bit.
Small personal retrospectives are key in business journaling.
Cosima Laube, respectAndAdapt.rocks
Reflecting, respecting & adapting is one of the sometimes hardest and most rewarding processes at work and beyond.
Respecting and adapting will help you to get unstuck and into a flow.
It will support you in feeling joy and ease (again) – with the help of guided-freestyle business journaling.
( This article first appeared on RespectAndAdapt.rocks and it’s part of my Substack Newsletter on Business Journaling. )