3 Reasons Why Great Leaders Journal #67
Journaling. It’s something all great leaders practice. Not the good ones, the great ones. Most good leaders think they can skip it, or at the very least, dabble at it. Nope. It’s about consistency and perspective. Why? Here are three of the best reasons:
1. Because you need to see your thoughts in order to recognize the lies you tell yourself.
Yes, I said lies. We all do it. They can be the stories we think are unique, and when reviewing your journal, you recognize the exact same pattern happens every few weeks or months. Without the journal, you deny it and allow yourself to settle. You get comfortable with the pattern and deny the recurrence and dissatisfaction.The same can be true of performance. If you are committed to think you’re not doing well, or don’t want to feel successful, you’ll ignore your accomplishments. Your journal won’t allow you to forget, and perhaps you’ll unravel the story you’re committed to limiting yourself with after reviewing it.
2. It’s a safe place to vent.
As a leader, you lose the right to your opinion. You don’t get to chime in with your team on the griping or complaining. That doesn’t mean you don’t have gripes and complaints any longer, it just means you need somewhere to put them. Drama needs a partner and there’s no safer partner than a blank page. You can look at your purge on paper when you’re through and ask yourself “is what I’ve said going to add clarity or chaos to the situation?” Trust me, you’ll sort that out quickly and reframe it as a great leader. Venting is the ego’s way of avoiding self-reflection. Your journal is all about self-reflection. Self-reflection leads to accountability and that is the ultimate drama diffuser.
3. Peaceful states lead to creativity.
When you’re able to express yourself, unedited, on paper, your answers are right in front of you. No one wants to stay stuck. We stay stuck when we keep thinking the same thoughts and doing the same things. If you want to do different things, you need to think new thoughts. Your journal can be a conduit for exactly that. Creativity is where you can expand possibilities into opportunities. Think about this: what is a creative idea worth?
Don’t know where to start? Try our Maximizing Success Journal. We designed it for people who don’t journal to make it easy to get started and stick with it. If you’re committed to be a great leader, journaling is a practice you need to cultivate. It’s not optional. Your suffering is. Give it a try, it might just work.
Categories: Sue's Daily Blog
