Why Keep Personal Journals?

(4.xi) Directing Your Subconscious

Journals could be used for much more than merely a daily written history of your life.

Our mind, much like a computer, operates on the installed programs and the information we put into these programs.

While recording information in a journal, you are effectively:

• Dialoguing with your subconscious:
1. Telling it exactly what you desire...
2. And what is not acceptable.
• Releasing negative energy.
• Building positive energy.
• Making a record of your successes to lift your spirits on bad days.

Personally, I find it helpful to keep a few; each one helping me with different aspects of my personal development. They are:

1. Daily
2. Belief & Releasing
3. Ideas

1. Daily journal:

A great habit to develop is recording at least 5 things you did successfully that day. It doesn’t matter whether these successes are big or small. What matters is you are getting into the habit of focusing on success.

When I first began doing this, quite frankly it was a struggle every day to find five things I could consider to be a success. Soon, you will begin finding more and more to record in your journal.

After you have written out a list of your accomplishments, write “these are successes and I want more of them.”

This provides positive feedback to your subconscious and helps it to understand what you consider a success. The subconscious is then able to provide more of what you want.

I also write down any disappointments or things I did not accomplish. Then write “these are not successes, and I do not want any more of these.”

IMPORTANT: this is dialoguing with our minds, painting a perfectly clear picture of what we want our subconscious to focus on.

I learned this technique from Stewart Lichtman in his Know How To Be Rich course and have found it to be a great system for keeping my focus on success.

(NOTE: I paid $79.50 for this program and it was well worth every cent. Now, Stuart has an updated program so he is offering this one at nearly 40% off.)

Develop your own list of questions as a reminder to look at each day in a positive light. I have my list posted on the inside front cover with questions such as:

• Did I have fun and enjoy the day?
• Did I follow my checklist?
• Was I conscious of my body and did I exercise?
• What problems did I encounter today – and what gift or lesson did I learn from them?
• Did I take time for my family?
• Did I not only express my love, but show and share love as well.

I also like to ask myself questions to get the non-conscious area of the brain working on answers, like:

• What makes me happy?
• What negative beliefs stopped me from doing something I could have done?
• What did I fear today?
• What can I do to energize my dreams?

By writing in a journal you are instructing your subconscious; telling it what you want to accomplish in life; what makes you happy; how you expect to behave or act; what is good and not good; and so on.

Without this input, how can you possibly expect your mind to know what you truly desire?

2. Belief/Releasing Journal:

In the front section, I record all beliefs and affirmations that support my personal development. In the back section I write all the self-limiting, self-sabotaging beliefs as they occur to me.

Over 80% of our thoughts on any given day are the same negative thoughts being repeated over and over like an endless loop tape. These hidden subconscious beliefs hold tremendous power over our choices.

Before anyone can truly succeed, they need to become aware of the negative beliefs holding them back and neutralize their power.

I subscribe to the philosophy that once we expose something to the light, it no longer holds any power over us.

Throughout the day, whenever I “catch” myself saying or thinking anything negative, like “I always remember faces, but I never remember names”, I record this in my journal.

Then when I have the time, I methodically go through all these old beliefs and release on them. I explained various techniques to easily and effectively release your negatives in Step Three.

All journals are important, but to me this one is my most valuable. Using a rating from 1 to 10, I record my "feelings" associated with any self-limiting belief.

Then, I keep releasing until I get a zero rating on the emotional attachment to the belief. (I learned this technique from Gary Craig’s EFT)

After using my belief/releasing journal for about six months, I found that I am now releasing on negative emotional attachment immediately. I no longer need to sit down and record what I need to release on.

Usually I take this even one step further and create an affirmation.

My new affirmation could then be something like “I quickly and easily recall everyone’s name.”

It is really very eye-opening when you start to see all the old non-supporting beliefs that have been dictating what you do and don’t do in life.

Recording old beliefs may appear a bit difficult at first, especially since we are not trained to watch for them.

Please remember the subconscious mind is over 800 times more powerful than the conscious mind. We want to make sure this power is being harnessed to work in harmony with our conscious choices.

3. Ideas Journal:

The more you learn and apply personal development techniques to change and grow, the more new ideas will pop into your head.

I am always amazed at the number and quality of ideas that now come to me every day.

Perhaps you remember we discussed short term memory and why it is important to write things down immediately when they enter your conscious thought.

I record any and all ideas throughout the day on scraps of paper. When I get home at night, I clean out my pockets and transfer these ideas to my "Ideas Journal”.

Even when something appears as a crazy, idiotic idea I still write it down. Often, what appears as a bad idea can become a great idea with only minor alterations.

All personal and business success had to start in someone’s mind as an “idea”. This website was created from my idea to provide valuable self help information in a logical, step by step process that makes sense and works.

Ideas are the seeds that make us grow!

You are on this website because you had the idea, the thought, that you could improve your life in some way.

Start your journals today. Go and buy yourself some inexpensive books and begin creating your own history.

Who knows, maybe some day your personal records could be worth a fortune to someone!

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