Writing A Business Journal

Although journal writing my seem like something your teenage daughter might be doing, it’s something that every person should take up including business owners.  For a business owner, a business journal can play many different roles in both your business and personal lives.  Many famous people from all walks of life have kept journals.  People like, John D Rockefeller, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Presidents George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, & Ronald Reagan, just to name a few.  These journals left a chronicle of thoughts, events and critical decisions as well as documenting what they left behind for mankind.

For me, my journal helps me keep my mind ordered.  It helps to stop sabotaging myself with self-limiting thoughts.  Once I see those appear I can easily put a stop to it with the appropriate counter-measures.  With an ordered to-do list, or at least some semblance of a do-do list, I can keep procrastination where it belongs – Not a part of my daily schedule!  With a daily or weekly roadmap of where I’m going or where I expect to be, I stay on track and accountable, with both myself and others.

Here are some of the ways journaling can help with your business:

• Identify your vision and the journey ahead
• Map out your goals, milestones, strategies, and tactics
• Motivate yourself and others – Eliminate self limiting beliefs and attitudes
• Explore your mind, find new ideas and thoughts
• Problem solve

Your journal will be home to half-baked ideas, random drawings, stream of consciousness ramblings, lists and questions you’re trying to figure out the answers to, word clouds, or a dozen different things.  Your journal is all yours.  Keep it safe.  Sometimes, you’ll write something that sounds awful to your own ears, let alone anyone else’s.

The main thing about journaling is that you have to actually do it.  Write something down.  Get started.  A little bit will turn into more.  And believe it or not it will really help.