welcome back to the daily mastermind my name is george wright the third with your daily dose of vitamin g i wanted to give you guys what you need and i hope i hope that the topic that i have for you today is something that will inspire you i was talking with troy here at the office and he was mentioning to me you know what kind of daily rituals and things do you do and you know it really brought me back to this concept of journaling and the idea of keeping a journal. And so what I want to do today is I want to cover seven distinct scientific benefits of journaling in your life. But before I do that, I want to hit the Daily Mastermind quote of the day from the Daily Mastermind mobile app. Now, if you haven't downloaded that mobile app, go get it. It's free. It's got tons of resources for you. But the quote today with a great image, it says, Never Stop Dreaming by Hal Elrod. I know there's probably a few people that have said that, but never stop dreaming. Your dreaming is what's going to carry you in your life. It's going to be the fuel for you and your business, your relationships, your communication, and in your life. So let's get to this idea of journaling. Most successful people that I've met, including very, very well-known, historically famous people keep journals. Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, business leaders, athletes, people that I've met mentors over time have journaled. There's a reason because, and I listen, listen, I understand that most people see journaling as a task, because we think of journaling like schoolwork or some kind of a thing we have to do, but people keep journaling because it really provides distinct, specific benefits to you both scientifically, personally, and in all areas of your life. Because what I've done is, the reason I've started journaling, and it's a core daily ritual of mine, kind of a staple is, it really helps me to shift to focus on my inner game and become much more self-aware when most of my day is focused on external circumstances. I've seen some major, major benefits of this. Now, scientifically speaking, there are massive benefits in the area of neuroplasticity, personal development, you know, coping with stress and problems, you know, learning to de-stress. But today what I want to do is I want to give you some tips and strategies on the best way to have a journaling practice, maybe give you some suggestions. But more importantly, I want to talk about these seven proven benefits to journaling in hopes that it will inspire you to either continue, expand, focus, or just start a journaling practice. So let's talk about these seven benefits that I kind of wrote down. And I was inspired by a couple of articles and stuff that I found as well. But I think you're going to find that these are things that maybe you've thought of, maybe you haven't. Number one, journaling is a huge, huge benefit to your communication skills, to develop your communication skills. Because if you've ever thought about it when you've got an idea and you sit down to write it, like in an email, journaling really helps you to create clarity. and it helps you to articulate what you're thinking instead of having just massive random thoughts going around. Writing and your writing skills and communication really get developed with journaling And so you learn to articulate better And this in turn creates a lot more confidence When you can work through specifically and articulate your thoughts, your confidence is going to go up, your success and your achievement is going to go up. Number two, it helps you to record memories and feelings and emotions that will lead to your happiness. Because when you write down and capture experiences that have triggered your emotions and your feelings and things that you want to look if life's worth living it's worth recording but it'll help you to cement those things if you've ever written about a situation in your life it really helps to lock in your brain neuro neurologically lock in your brain these emotions and feelings and journaling about you know things that have happened helps you to relive those emotions and either work through the negative emotions or remember and relive the positive emotions because you can, through memories, relive those amazing emotions. The third benefit is that it helps you flat out, no doubt, achieve your goals. Because when you set goals and through journaling, you track your progress, you keep yourself ongoing with recognizing when you're making progress or milestones towards your goal, it also holds you accountable. So when you're recording in your journal what you're doing and what your journey is and what your process is and where you're winning and where you're losing and where you're making progress, most importantly, focusing on the progress, it helps you to get closer to your goals and it keeps you focused and keeps you on track. Let's see, number four is creativity. I love this one because creativity really gets stimulated when you write and it helps to inspire your imagination and create solutions, not just in an abstract way, because writing specifically helps you to take abstract ideas and clarify and create clarity and get specific about them. That's why we do brainstorming. That's why for many of you that know me, and you're going to laugh when I say this, I love a whiteboard because I love to just take my thoughts and put it on and you'll see me putting them on and erasing them and redoing them and writing them. And you can really take and get very, very creative by brainstorming and writing everything out you're thinking of. And then it helps you to clarify and bring it back together. So that's number four is creativity. And there's a lot of science around that as well. Number five, number five, let's see, went through communication, memories, goals, creativity. Number five would be stress reduction. Stress reduction and coping because research has proven that writing things down is a great technique to reduce your stress. And reducing your stress is something that can help all of us right now with everything that we're coping with. We know that talking and writing and identifying specifically things from in our mind, because if you don't write it down, things just circulate and they get out of control. And you know that snowball effect, you just, you're not really thinking about anything specific, just lots of stuff that's building up in your mind and really taking you and and and making things worse right so this is gonna move you this process of writing things down in a journal the reason it helps with stress reduction is it moves you from emotion to logical emotions by to logic by just really tangible izing things and putting them down in a logical way And this is a strip this is a strategy kind of a technique that anybody can use to get unstuck. Sometimes when we just caught up in our mind, it's better to just start writing it down. I talk a lot about get up and move, but just start writing it down and you're going to see that you can make some, some major changes. So that's number five, number six, massive self awareness and progress on a personal development level, right? Self-awareness, because when you're journaling, you're identifying and capturing patterns that you go through. You're identifying and capturing and identifying solutions that you've solved and you're recording experiences. I know one of my mentors and partners, Robert Stuburg, talks about at the end of the year, he'll always take a week or two and just bring his journals and he'll really go through and and revisit and capture the lessons he's learned so that he doesn't go through those again and so that he can see where he's progressed to and what he can do about that. And so this whole self-awareness by capturing it in a journal is a huge, huge benefit to you and realize that you can capture your thoughts before something happens or while you're going through an experience or after you go through an experience. And having that information is so critical. I know most of us just assume our mind's going to capture it, file it, categorize it, and make it work. But when you're consciously working on that through a process of journaling, it is, man, it's just such a huge benefit. And then finally, last, most importantly, I believe this helps you to really capture, journaling helps you to stay consistent with daily rituals. This is something I have done that has been, I'll give you an example. I don't always journal, but because it's one of my core daily rituals, when I get to it, it helps me keep in line with all the other things that I'm working on. So you don't have to always be doing it, but creating a consistent practice is important. But it creates a staple for me to have in daily rituals, in my evening rituals. You know what I mean? So, you know, listen, don't take my word for it. I have a small quote here I was going to read to you, but, you know, the experts all agree. Judy Willis, MD, who's a neurologist specializing in brain research regarding learning, suggests the practice of writing can enhance the brain's intake, its processing, its retaining, and its retrieving of information. It promotes the brain's attentive focus. It boosts long-term memory. It illuminates patterns. It gives the brain time to reflect. and when well-guided, it's a source of conceptual development and stimulus of the brain's highest cognition. So rather than using this amazing tool, this brain that you have to just go through life and just coast and let it do all the work for you, wouldn't it be great if you actually put it to work in a very strategic way? And that's what I suggest with journaling. So now let me give you a few tips real quick I have for you. Number one, determine the best method for you. I personally have downloaded apps like the day one journal it's got a free version and a paid version I love the paid is a couple bucks I think is what it is but the paid version because when I do a journal entry I can grab a photo I can put a photo in there I can add a recording voice recording and sometimes I go back and it way easier to just go through that real quick And if you have your phone as much as I do it makes it super easy But then there's other times that I have an actual notebook with pen and it helps to just write things down. It gets you in a little bit more of a creative mode and out of technology and it quiets the surroundings. So figure out what the best purpose or the best method kind of platform is for you and what works best with your personality and particular moments. Another suggestion I have is be consistent. Set some reminders for yourself. Create a structured time and place that you do it. I always have a journal right next to my bed and I always have that app right on my home screen. So I actually see it and it reminds me. Another suggestion tip I have for you is create a focus that actually fits your need. what a lot of people don't realize is that there are so many benefits to journaling if you create the right focus for example you might journal just on the things you're grateful for your journaling if it's focused on gratitude can help you to focus on your frequency and your levels of happiness and you start to see all the positives another thing you could do i've had times where i just journal on the successes that i've accomplished so many of us are critical of ourselves so many of us are used to because of our surroundings, seeing what's not working out for us, you can literally train your brain to see the positive, but you got to have a process for that. And journaling is great to do that. Another thing you can do is capture your memories or experiences. I always want to capture those memories and experiences. And by writing them down, you cement them in your brain. So whether it's gratitude, successes, or memories, all great things, but try to find a focus that you know is also going to benefit you, something you need, not just something you like doing, but something you feel will help you develop. And then finally, my suggestion is don't get caught up in the detail. Focus on the process. Understand that, you know, look, just make a decision to do it. Say yes and figure it out. You'll figure out what the focus is and when to do it and how long. And don't make it a job for you. Start to enjoy the process of journaling. It's your retreat. It's your ability to get all these things. And the reason I mentioned all this on this podcast is I want you to realize there's so many benefits to journaling. It's not just about recording what's going on in your day. If you're strategic and you're specific and you're doing it for gratitude so that you can get your frequency in the right way and get your mindset and filter going. If you're doing it for successes so that you can build your self-confidence and self-worth and positive reinforcement and validation if that's what you need. Or if it's memories and experiences so that you can increase the fulfillment in your life. All of these things are benefits specifically scientifically proven through journaling. So anyway, I hope those are some great ideas for you. I hope that it'll inspire you to start journaling. Get going right away. It's as simple as downloading a free app or grabbing a notebook at the dollar store or someplace you can just get some pen and paper and be consistent. That's my message for today. I hope you'll share this with some people that you know. I really like you to get this message out. Share it with at least one friend today. and let's see if we can make a difference in the world. My name is George Wright III. This has been The Daily Mastermind. Have an amazing weekend.
