If you can just imagine a place where all your ideas, desires, secrets, thoughts, stories and images could live, could grow and evolve, could be set free, what do you think that would look like?
For me, when I look back over my old journals, I see a haphazard account of my life. I can laugh at those times I thought maybe the world was ending or recall that which I once obsessed over and recognize the beliefs that have stuck with me since the beginning of time. It let’s me recall those crazy stories and experiences with every turn of the page and visit all those images and ideas that were sketched out over time. The journal has been like a private playground to explore and experiment in, a place where my dreams can be remembered, fantasies can be played out, ideas are given life.
Journalling, for me, has been a practise of discovering who I am and what I stand for. I’ve collected memories so I’ll never forget them and I can look back and see my life in pictures. In some ways, the journal has been a chance for me to leave a legacy. After all, the journal is a record of what you love and of times gone by, a record of your life, of your perceptions, your obsessions, a place to discover your voice and express it; and the great thing is, it works just as well in your personal life as it does for your creative and business life.
I do believe that if you didn’t have this safe place to bleed freely onto the page, where you can be whatever and whoever you want to be, you’d really be missing out. I mean, where else could you write or create without judgement or discrimination, where else could you make mistakes without consequence? Where else could you innovate, learn and discover without worrying about rejection? It’s where the stuff ups happen, those practice runs. A place to work it all out.
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Okay, so I think it goes without saying that all of the above reasons to keep a journal are just as important in business as they are on a personal level, whether it’s a creative one or not. The journal can help you keep things under control. When you write down your desires, challenges, thoughts, fears and inspirations, it frees your mind, lets you discover what it is you’re really feeling, gives you a new perspective and allows you to keep your focus.
Being proactive with your journal helps to keep your thoughts in order. You can use it to figure things out and keep track of your progress. It also allows you to see where you’ve been, where you’re going and possibly even how you’re going to get there.
Writing out a problem can help you find a solution when you are able to visualize it. When you are able to see things in front of you, it can help you to discover repetitive thoughts and patterns. It can help identify your strengths and weaknesses, all of which may result in breakthroughs. When things are stuck in your mind they can become confused, amplified, and solutions much harder to find. Once you have things out and down they may seem less intense, not so massive, more manageable.
For the visual thinker, having the space to really work through ideas and concepts is paramount to giving your thoughts form and being able to communicate them to others. When you use the journal to its full advantage, what you hold inside you becomes tangible. It becomes real. And from these, new ideas will come and problems can be solved.
TIME NOT WASTED
If you believe that time spent on your journal is time wasted, that it is time you could spend doing other things on your business, then you may not be aware of the value of journal keeping.
The thing is it can actually save you time and money. Instead of floundering around in the dark, waiting for the next big idea or trying to work out just what it is you want or what worked and didn’t work in the past, putting everything in your journal can act as a guide. It can help you to ‘connect the dots.’ Not only will it help to motivate you but whenever you feel stuck, you can always go back over what you’ve written or drawn instead of spending countless hours trying to figure things out and may even stop you from making the same mistakes.
Sometimes you write stuff down because you want to remember it. Being able to recall that experience and the perception of it, you can read back over it see how it is in hindsight. You can see how much it has changed or look at the thoughts and ideas that once meant so much to you, and how they have evolved. And that idea that you had maybe 18 months ago may not have been right to pursue at the time, but sometimes things need time to simmer, time to marinade, and looking back with more experience and more knowledge, you may be able to take those ideas and use them.
The journal is designed to be used in the now, like a backpack you use to gather items along your journey, and yet some of its greatest value is what it could offer you somewhere in the future.
If you already have a journal, pull it out. I want you to go over some of the ideas you’ve had in the past, and see if they can somehow fit into what you’re doing now.
And if you don’t have a journal, why not start one, right now?
USING THE JOURNAL
Some people are really precise in the way they use their journals. You know, date and time at the top, perfect writing, beautifully drawn images. Others, like me, are much more random. My journals are a glimpse inside my mind – a sort of creative chaos – but it works for me. If I try to keep it neat and ordered, I’d lose my flow. I’d inhibit my progress.
But I don’t care, after all, it’s my journal and not really for other people’s eyes. So for me, I don’t mind that it may not be ‘presentable.’
So maybe for you, writing in an elusive and free way, without censorship or inhibition is the way to go, nothing sacred, nothing set in stone.
Another way to keep a journal instead of rough notes and random ramblings is to make lists. Richard Branson does just that. In his notebooks he creates lists of ideas, people to contact, comments made by others and people who can make things happen; and once the lists are completed, he keeps the notebooks and occasionally looks back over them and finds new ideas from the old.
He will also create two columns. On the left he will have ‘Assumptions,’ whilst on the right he will have ‘Reverse of Assumptions,’ and will go along and fill them out. Seems to work pretty well for him don’t you think?
Now this may or may not work for you, but why not give it a go for no other reason than to explore new ways of doing things and figuring out what works for you. You may keep a journal for business and one for everything else, or you may combine the two, or if you’re like me, you have a number of notebooks scattered about the place.
WHAT TO INCLUDE
I can pretty much sum up in one word what you should be including in your journal, and that is absolutely everything. Okay, so that was two words but you get the idea. Just go and collect images and words, thoughts, ideas, emotions, everything that speaks to you on some level. Whether you ever use it or not is irrelevant.
Sometimes the simplest line or the smallest image can trigger other ideas.
If you have a favourite artist, writer, musician or entrepreneur; start collecting stuff about them, learn about them, learn about what inspired them, turn them on. You never know what you may find when you go on that journey.
The journal should be a collection of things that enrich your life, and also, like I said earlier, don’t limit yourself to just one. Have a small one you can carry everywhere and maybe a large one you keep in your workspace. Personally, I have a few and by few, I mean a lot. Now, sometimes I do admit I wish they were all in one place but they aren’t, and thoughts aren’t. Thoughts and ideas come randomly and sometimes at the most inconvenient times and in the most annoying places (like the damn shower!). So, I generally grab the closest thing and you know, just go for it.
The whole idea is that if someone ever found your journal, or journals, they could learn everything about you from just reading it (although in saying that you shouldn’t censor yourself in case this happens). So stop at nothing to fill your journals with all that you love and all that you are.
WHAT TO USE
What you use is up to you (well d’uh). What I mean is, it could be anything, and yes I mean ANYTHING other than maybe your neighbours cat. It doesn’t need to be fancy, or even a store bought journal. Butcher’s paper and a pencil stub will do it.
All I can really say is that it needs to be something that makes you want to write or sketch in it, anything to keep all those random and not so random thoughts. Just go out and get whatever you can get your hands on.
Consider though that sometimes when you have a journal that looks so nice, with it’s beautiful binding and it’s pristine paper, and that hint of vanilla, it can be a little inhibiting. Sometimes you may feel that you will wreck it if what you put in it is anything less than perfect. If this is stopping you from using it then grab something else or get over yourself.
No really, journals are designed to be used. It’s a waste to leave those pages blank, so don’t. But if you do feel inhibited, taking random bits of used paper, maybe even used paper with typing on the back, something that feels like it won’t be spoiled, works best. You may have an online journal, which is fine, but I would encourage you to pull out the old trusty pen and paper deal. I believe everyone should have something they can handwrite in, take everywhere and scribble in down at will.
I mean what happens if you have that epiphany and your battery runs out?
GET STARTED
For some, journalling is second nature, but for others, it is a task that is fought. If you find it difficult to start a journal or even keep one consistently, all you need is four minutes.
Yes you read that correctly, just a pissy little four minutes.
That is, two minutes to write what you see or have seen the previous day, and then another two minutes to write what you feel now or yesterday. It may seem strange but it really does get the creative mind working and it may just be enough to begin. More often than not it will lead to more, once you’re in the flow of things.
And if it helps, create some sort of ritual that works for you, a few moments each day (preferably) to jot some things down. You may find it better if you have a special workplace set-up for you to be creative and lucid in. It might be a park bench or a cafe. Your ritual could be that this changes all the time. Whatever it is, go ahead and discover for yourself what will motivate you to work on your journal.
The thing is, the best practise is to schedule in time just to add to your journal, just to work on ideas or lists, or collect images, write a story or whatever, even if it is as short as ten minutes per day every morning after you wake up or just before you go to bed at night (or really any time you can fit in there), or the four minutes I mentioned before.
You won’t regret it.