people spend an awful lot of time looking for the “magic bullet” that will solve all their issues, set them in the right direction and stop them from going off-track. believe it or not, there is a tool that can help achieve this, once you make the effort to use the tool regularly…
what is this magic tool of which you speak?
now this is going to shock anyone who knows me – the one tool that everyone should make use of is a journal! it will shock people because i have in the past made it quite clear that i don’t do journals. i’ve gone through various electronic and paper-based journal/diary systems over a period of many years; all that happened was i ended up with a pile of discarded notebooks, and a series of abandoned online accounts.
for whatever reason, and no matter how hard i tried (and i did, honestly!) the habit of jotting things down in a journal, regularly, just didn’t stick.
so you want me to do as you say not as you do??
absolutely not! when britt told me i would need to maintain a diet & exercise diary, i didn’t have a clue how it was going to happen. i had already tried various options for other purposes, and it just didn’t work for me.
then it dawned on me – i had already planned to blog about the “no more mr fat guy journey”, so perhaps i could create a category within the blog and use that to record the daily journal entries.
unbelievably, it worked!
choose your weapon
the moral of the story really is to pick the journal option that suits you and your circumstances. if you’re someone who loves to put real ink on real paper, go with that. choose whatever you will do effortlessly; you’re going to be making changes in other areas of your life, so you probably don’t need to add an extra source of friction!
whatever you do though, make sure you do find a journal option that works for you. maintaining a journal will bring many benefits, including:
- it helps you to be accountable and honest with yourself
- it will be a source of inspiration and motivation when you read back and realise what progress you have made
- if you engage a personal trainer or some other expert, it will provide them with good information
- if you choose to share your journal with others, it can be a source of help for them!
as a reformed opponent to journalling, i can honestly say that it has been a very important part of my successes this time around. i usually fall off the health & fitness wagon about 3 to 6 months in – this time the habits have stuck, and the daily journal writing has played a massive part in that.
now go figure out what you will use to record your own journey!