I’ve just been feeling so good and positive and like life has been pretty effortless.
And I attribute this feeling to getting back into the habit of daily journaling.
Over the years I fall into and out of my daily journaling practice, and at the start of April I designed some new daily mindset work for myself and it really just clicked that daily habit back into place for me.
I think we all have those things, those habits we know are good for us and make a difference but sometimes we have a hard time sticking to it.
Well one of those habits for me is journaling daily, and what often makes daily journaling a hard habit for me to stick to is that I feel a lot of pressure to having something to write when I sit down to do the journaling itself.
When it comes to journaling, a blank page can have me stumped, but at the same time I know it’s so good to do it everyday.
So, having a framework for what I’ll be journaling really helps.
That is were my current daily mindset work comes in.
Don’t worry- I’m going to link it for you below because I give you full permission to copy it and use it for yourself!
This structure has worked so well for me because I am not just building that daily writing habit and getting my thoughts out of my head and onto paper, but also because this journaling structure is really great for identifying goals and rewriting limiting beliefs.
So, let me walk you through the structure and explain how to use it.
Top 3: This is were you will list out three goals you are currently focused on achieving. Even if you don’t think you can achieve them in the near future, write them out here. These should be your three highest priority goals.
Beliefs & Self-Talk: In this prompt I want you to think about each goal and identify what you would need to believe to be true of the world and/or yourself in order to attain the goal. Often our own beliefs of what is realistically possible end up limiting us. So, forget about being logical or realistic about your goals and decide what you need to simply believe and trust is possible for you in order to make your goal a reality.
Inspired Actions: Thinking about each goal as though it has already happened, what is the next action you feel inspired to take knowing you can’t mess things up because your goal is guaranteed. It might take you a moment to sit in the feeling of knowing, believing and trusting that your goal will be attained before the inspiration strikes. And the inspiration could be anything directly related to your goal or not. But if you get a sudden burst of inspiration to do something- that is the action you need to follow from your intuition in order to move towards your goal.
Now, that is the basic framework for the Daily Mindset Work and journaling I have been doing, but I also have been adding a few affirmations at the end of my practice as well.
Affirmations: Usually these are a clearer restatement of the beliefs and self-talk I wrote out earlier, but they could also be encouraging or inspirational words I feel like I need to hear.
You can’t mess this up, just try not to judge yourself as your journal and follow the lead of your instincts or intuition.
One more thing I want to remind you about this daily mindset journaling is that although it would be great for you to start your day with this work, the morning is not the only time you can do it.
I often do this work in the later part of the morning before starting my work tasks, or even in the middle of my day. And if I have a busy or distracting day that prevents me from being as present or intentional as I’d like- I will even break out my journal in the evening while watching tv, eating dinner, or even in bed before I go to sleep.
The thing about having a daily habit is that you do it every day, even if you can’t do it at the same time every day.
Getting it done is the most important part.
AND if you are curious, the notebook I have been using to do this Daily Mindset Work in has been the CEO Journal.
It’s a notebook I designed with a date selection grid at top and a squared page layout that is perfect for journaling, note taking and even bullet journaling if you want to plan with it.
I sincerely hope this Daily Mindset Work helps you to establish the habit of journaling in your day, and helps you to feel that same sense of ease, flow and happiness I’ve been experiencing for the last month.
Imagine this scenario:It’s the first week of the New Year and you are desperate to get your ish together so you can finally become that productive and organized woman with the amazing business or career- plus a perfectly balanced life where you remember everything important, achieve all of your goals, and even make time for your own self-care!
I don’t think this is a difficult scenario for any of us to imagine because this week is the first week of the New Year, and the woman I described is that ideal woman we all wish we could be. That includes ME! I know many of you may feel like I am that woman already, and perhaps I am in your standards, but a collective problem we all face is that the standard for that ideal woman we want to be is different for all of us, and no matter how much we have achieved, we all feel like we have much more work to go until we become her.
Realistically, I think as we continue to grow, expand and evolve, so does our vision of that ideal woman, which accounts for why most of us aspire to be her, but few of us ever feel like we embody her.
But guess what?
Whether or not we are setting a realistic expectation for the ideal woman we want to be, I know there are practical, action oriented steps we can all take right now to get and stay productive and organized this year, and at least intentionally move in the direction of what life as our ideal selves would be.
So, I have broken this work down into nine practical steps we can all take to organize our lives, get clear on what we are trying to accomplish this year, and put ourselves on the path to productively achieving the results we desire.
Are you ready to get started?
Awesome, let’s jump right in!
Step #1: Choose and Use a Planner
This first step should surprise precisely none of you, because you know I am all about organizing my life, time, and tasks with the help of an amazing, custom productivity tool, aka my planner! But, I have to mention this step because it is in fact the first step we need to take, and we know common knowledge isn’t always common practice- and this post is all about practicing what we know we need to do to become the organized and productive woman we want to be.
So, have you figured out your planner of choice for the year yet?
It doesn’t matter to me if you use a custom paper planner situation like I do, or if you decide you are going to use a digital system. I just want you to have a dedicated planner that can do the following for you:
Act as an inbox where you store all your ideas, tasks, schedule, key information etc
Organize information in a streamlined way so you can make the most of time, task, and energy management principles to literally work smarter, not harder
Give you a clear line of sight to what you need to be working on each day, week, month, quarter of the year to remain on track with your goals and vision for the year
This needs to be one single planner or digital system because if you have multiple inboxes and schedules and task lists, you won’t be able to get that big picture view of everything you have going on.
Also, this really should be one single system you commit to using for the complete year because, again, all the information in all the places really becomes a disorganized mess. That mess translates into your productivity, organization level and success for the year, so you do you, but I say one planner for most people is all you need.
If you want to use the same system of inserts that I use, click here.
Your planner is a tool, not a toy, so choose wisely!
Once you have your planner picked out and/or set up you now need to start populating it with information so you can start planning and scheduling your year. I know, I know, another revolutionary tip, but set your snakiness aside, because I know that many of you reading this right now have a planner and are not putting all the important and necessary information you have into it.
I know some of you have information for your schedule or appointments or kids school calendars someplace else. Another calendar, another app, someplace other than the one planner I said needed to act as your ultimate inbox!
And what is actually worse, I know some of you have that beautiful planner that you are really vibe-ing with at the moment but you have some tasks, ideas, meetings etc that you have decided you are just going to remember the details of… like remember in your brain as opposed to inside your planner. Recipe for disaster!
I don’t care how fresh in your mind some of that information is- I know you are going to forget some or all of it by the time you really need to have that information in front of you. But still, you continue to defy my practical advice. I promise you, things won’t change for you this year unless you start making changes. So, please, populate all the information you know about for the year into your planner so you have a line of sight to it.
Go ahead and write it in pencil if you are afraid plans will change, or write the information on a sticky note and put it in the right area of your planner to act on later. But, please populate what you know as soon as you can, and continue to add new information as you receive it.
If you aren’t sure what information to add to your planner, the video linked below will help provide more details and recommendations.
You already know, the habits you have established by this point in your life are the make it or break it for your overall success. We are what we repeatedly do. The reality we see around us is the result of the actions we take on a habitual or routine basis.
And I’d venture to guess that you have some bad habits that you know are holding you back from achieving your goals and becoming that ideal woman you want to be!
So, we have to get our habits under control and to do that we need to get clear on two things:
We need to know which habits are keeping us stuck with the results we currently have, and…
We need to understand the process for replacing habits so we can make a meaningful change to adjust our results
If you need help with changing your habits to change your life, the video below will provide you a framework of practical steps and advice to guide you.
Step #4: Decide what you want your life to look like
Now, before you can actually make any real meaningful change in your life, you are going to need to get clear on what it is that you want your life to look like. And the wonderful thing about this is that whatever you imagine or desire for your life is something you can create and bring to reality.
Many people hold themselves back from the life they want, simply because they can’t get clear on what it is they actually want. They think they are just indecisive, but let me tell you, indecision is a decision!
So, when you are looking around at the areas of your life thinking that things need to change, and you look at the opportunities and paths you have before you, if you don’t choose one and take action, that is a choice to stay exactly where you are.
I know making choices can seem intimidating.
What if I make the wrong choice? What if I go down the wrong path and I end up further behind than I already feel? What if make a change and things don’t work out?
Yea, that can happen! And if it does you can choose again and keep trying. BUT staying where you are can also be the wrong choice. Not changing paths and remaining where you are can also put you further behind. And keeping things the same means things that aren’t working out for you right now, will continue to not work out for you. You think making a decision and making a change is a risk, but you take the exact same risk when you choose to be indecisive and don’t make any change at all.
One of my favorite quotes from Einstein says “The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.”
So, if you desire a change in your life, trust that this feeling will lead you to an opportunity and a path where your desires will be fulfilled. The path may not be a straight line to fulfillment, it may require time and patience and a period of uncertainty, but if you stick it out and keep choosing the new path everyday, you will absolutely make it to a better destination. Because I don’t believe following your desires and following the calling of your heart can ever lead you astray.
It just can’t! You can’t mess it up as long as you choose a direction and see it through. Because God/Spirit/The Universe uses our feelings and desires to guide us and God/Spirit/The Universe has a much better view of our life and all the possible paths we could take.
So there is a lot of power in deciding and doing and trusting, so if you are feeling indecisive the video linked below is going to walk you through a simple but powerful activity you can do to understand what you want to for your life right now.
Step #5: Set your goals and get them mapped in your planner
Once you decide what it is that you want to accomplish this year you can go ahead and set actual goals for achieving those results and changes you desire. Now, I know that for many of you, you have tried to set goals in the past and failed to achieve them. So for some of you the idea of setting goals seems like a waste of time and not worth the effort.
If that sounds like you, I want you to know that this is the start of a new year, it’s a new day, a new week and a fresh opportunity for you to start over and achieve whatever you desire. But first, I’m going to need you to forgive yourself for messing up in the past because actually, that is the toughest part of the process of goals and achievement.
Like you, when I get off track with a goal or feel like I’ve messed it up entirely, I experience a lot of guilt and that guilt, more often than not, is the reason I can’t continue to take action.
It can make me feel like a failure, like I made the wrong choice of a goal or like I am not worthy to receive the outcome I was working towards…
BUT IT’S ALL LIES!
You can never really mess anything up until you give up on it entirely, and I don’t think you are ready to give up on that goal yet that is weighing heavily on your heart.
So, repeat after me:
Even though I have lost track and perhaps even lost faith on this goal, I still truly and deeply love and accept myself.
I forgive myself for believing I wasn’t capable of achieving my goal.
I am worthy to receive every goal I set and every outcome I desire.
Doesn’t that feel much better?
Now, it’s time to recommit to your goals!
The video below will talk you through what you need to do to set your goals for the new year if you’d like some additional guidance.
If you have never created a vision board before, you are definitely in for a treat with this step because I love making a fresh vision board each year. It’s one part fun crafty activity, one part practical productivity tool, and one part mindset reprogramming tool.
A vision board is a collage of images that represent your goals brought into fruition. So, image what having each of your goals would look and feel like to you. Your vision board gives you the literal ability to see what those goals look like in your life and when you can actually see an outcome, it becomes much easier for you to achieve it.
Vision boards work based off real science too. There is a network of neurons in the human brain stem known as the reticular activating system (RAS), and this network governs multiple different bodily activities and reactions, but an interesting activity it is responsible for is the information that our brain filters to our conscious minds. The human brain actually receives and filters through a tremendous amount of data and information about our bodies and the world around us. Most of which, we are never consciously aware of because our brains don’t give us information it doesn’t think we need. Using a vision board begins to train your RAS to adjust that filter so that we become aware of specific data and information related to the images on our vision boards. It’s one of the limited ways, we as humans, can actually reprogram the processing and computing power of our brains to work for us in pursuit of our goals.
So I definitely recommend creating a vision board if you are going to set any sorts of goals for your life because it can be a powerful tool you use to help program yourself to achieve the precise success you desire.
If you need more specific direction on how to create your vision board, definitely check out the video linked below.
Like many who have accomplished any amount of success, I attribute much of my achievement over the course of my lifetime to my mindset. It’s pretty well accepted now that mindset, your beliefs and outlook on life, play a key role in what you are able to accomplish, also known as manifest. Mindset is often the “secret ingredient” that gives specific individuals an edge in their pursuits. Where many have failed, a positive mindset is often the deciding factor in why one prevails.
Of course, there are still plenty of people who label mindset work as a type of pseudoscience that isn’t real. This doesn’t surprise me, as mindset is often difficult to quantify, and therefore nearly impossible to test for or measure in any way that would allow us to understand its precise role in patterns of success or failure.
That doesn’t prevent or deter me from believing in and working on my mindset, in order to manifest the outcomes I desire for my life. If self-reporting counts for anything, I certainly can attest that working on my mindset with tangible strategies has, in fact, made me a more productive and successful person.
When I actively work on my mindset, I hit more of the goals I set for myself, and show up more fully and intentionally to my tasks for the day.
I certainly prescribe to the idea that “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right,” – Henry Ford
When I choose to “think I can” I am more focused and accountable to seeing my goals through to fruition.
So finding ways you can cultivate a positive and strong mindset, are essential to whether or not you will be successful this year at getting and staying productive and organized on your pursuit to become that ideal woman you want to be!
For more strategies on how to work on your mindset, check out the video linked below.
Step #8: Continue focusing on personal development and educating yourself
Did you know that reading is considered to be one of the most universally acknowledged success habits?
Statistics are thrown around all the time about how many books millionaires and CEOs read in a year. It’s always something crazy like 4+ dozen! I know for some people, that number seems intimidating. They say the average American reads less than one book per year.
But personally, I don’t believe that it’s the exact number of books read that really makes someone successful. What I think is a more accurate predictor of success is that you are someone who values ongoing education and the way that is most commonly and easily practiced is by reading.
Look, if you are truly trying to have a wonderful, productive and successful year and you don’t feel like you are someone who normally achieves that, you are in fact requiring that you do some personal development work in order to upgrade or up level yourself into that ideal woman you want to be.
Personal development can take so many forms and be practiced in so many ways, but focusing on continuing to educate yourself through any means available or interesting to you is going to need to be an essential part of your daily life moving forward into the new year.
So find some ongoing education practice that works for you and find a routine way to follow through with it on a regular basis.
If you need more ideas, the video below can definitely help.
Now we’ve made it to the ninth and final step in this productivity and organization process and if you took the time and put in the effort to review and act on steps one through eight, some you are going to be in excellent shape for the new year.
BUT- despite all that prep, many of you could still flub your best intentions and goals for the year because you are missing one very small, easily overlooked element of success.
That element is accountability, specifically, external accountability.
That’s right, having some form of external accountability is going to be crucial for many of you if you want to follow through with your plans and goals for the new year. That’s because for many people, their own internal accountability is not enough. And, let’s be honest with ourselves here… if you are reading this you most likely aren’t someone who does a good job at keeping themselves accountable to their goals.
And I know many of you right now are probably rolling your eyes and acting like you don’t need any external accountability, that you are sure you can do it alone, but if you have tried and failed in the past, that’s likely a pretty solid indication that you can’t do it alone. I think you know this on some level. But really, the negative reaction you are having comes down to one or both of the following very common issues.
You don’t want to have to bother someone else for help
You don’t feel comfortable sharing your goals with others because what happens if they don’t happen and you look foolish
I know asking for help is hard. I know asking for support and accountability feels vulnerable and feels like you are giving up control on some level. But for most people out there, external accountability is absolutely the deciding factor for whether or not you will follow through.
Look, it’s human nature. Change is hard, even when it’s a change that would bring us into alignment with a wonderful and ideal future for ourselves. Part of becoming a successful human is learning from your past mistakes and avoiding them at all costs so you aren’t doomed to repeat the past. So, if you tried to go it alone in the past and you weren’t able to keep yourself accountability- learn from that experience now and find some support or accountability.
So, if you need ideas for finding support and accountability, the video linked below will definitely help you generate some great ideas!
Members of my Productivity + Planning Mastermind get weekly accountability check-ins with me, as well as both group and direct coaching. Plus, members of the mastermind get a library of planning tools to help them get organized and manage their time and tasks better. They also get masterclasses that walk them through setting their goals, changing their habits, working on their mindset and other ongoing education topics.
Essentially, you could check off each and every step of this process right now, by enrolling in the Productivity + Planning Mastermind!
YOUR LIFE COULD BE RADICALLY DIFFERENT 6 MONTHS FROM NOW
If you are willing to get clear on what you desire.
If you are willing to choose one path over another.
If you are willing to prioritize yourself.
If you are willing to live like most won’t so you can achieve what most can’t.
If you are willing to get uncomfortable.
If you are willing to show up for yourself to do the work.
If you are willing to break down your limiting beliefs.
If you are willing to challenge everything you think.
If you are willing to allow God/Spirit/The Universe to lead you.
If you are willing to humble yourself to receive.
Then you can have it all and you will understand that you can always have it all from now until the end because you have the power inside of you if you choose to use it.
“You’ve always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself.” – Glinda the Good Witch (L. Frank Baum)
6 months seems like no time at all.
But it’s not the 6 months that should concern you.
What should concern you is the now, the today, the one day at a time.
The distractions, the excuses, the unexpected- this is what stops us from making our dreams come true in 6 short months.
You will either allow these things to pull you off your path right now, today, or you will observe them without reaction, give them room to pass by and remain focused on your goal.
Your life could be radically different 6 months from now, only if you choose to allow your life to be radically different right now.
If you’d like some help, I’m here for you too!
If this message today resonated with you and you want to start taking actions to shift into a reality of alignment with your goals, I would love to invite you to join me inside the Productivity and Planning Mastermind Membership.
This is what I created the Mastermind for.
To be a safe space for women like you and I who see beyond the surface of our societal expectations and know there is a better way to live.
It’s a place for support, encouragement, accountability and ongoing personal development for us to continue challenging accepted norms and choosing our own unique path to success.
→ The Mastermind includes so many resources to help you on your journey, from multiple live calls each month, to on-demand strategies, tools, and even a complete course on productivity!
→ We have our own private chat forum where we connect and discuss topics ranging from planning, metaphysics, mindset, and wellness.
→ We even have a monthly book club!
→ And the best part is, when you join the Mastermind, you get immediate access to the entire library of resources, masterclasses and bonus materials that I have been creating since it’s launch.
→ There is no waiting, content isn’t dripped to you, it’s all there for you to explore and access on-demand as you please.
→ And of course I am there as well for guidance and to answer your questions along the way.
When you know better, you do better.
Are you ready to do better for yourself, your family and your future by committing to your personal development to become the best woman, mother, spouse, sister, daughter, aunt and friend that you can be?
Your planner is an untapped success tool in more ways than you can imagine.
For quite some time now, I have strongly believed that our planners are tools to be used strategically for our success. If you allow it, your planner can be more than just a place to record your schedule and to-do’s.
Think about it- this is a physical tool that we carry around to organize our life in, and if we choose to, we can use it to organize and facilitate our success as well.
And this applies whether you are using a physical planner or a digital planner on your computer or phone. I don’t care what type of planner you are using, nearly any planner can be used in a way that will expand your experience and benefit you for working in it on a daily basis.
As the title of today’s post illustrates, one of the ways I put this concept into action in my own planner is by using it to do manifestation and mindset work.
Manifestation and Mindset Work is an Essential Key for Success
Like many who have accomplished any amount of success, I attribute much of my achievement over the course of my lifetime to my mindset and receptivity to manifestation principles, even if I didn’t clearly acknowledge them as such at the time.
It’s pretty well accepted now that mindset, your beliefs and outlook on life, play a key role in what you are able to accomplish, also known as manifest. Mindset is often the “secret ingredient” that gives specific individuals an edge in their pursuits. Where many have failed, a positive mindset is often the deciding factor in why one prevails.
Of course, there are still plenty of people who label mindset work as a type of pseudoscience that isn’t real. This doesn’t surprise me, as mindset is often difficult to quantify, and therefore nearly impossible to test for or measure in any way that would allow us to understand its precise role in patterns of success or failure.
That doesn’t prevent or deter me from believing in and working on my mindset, in order to manifest the outcomes I desire for my life. If self-reporting counts for anything, I certainly can attest that working on my mindset with tangible strategies has, in fact, made me a more productive and successful person.
When I actively work on my mindset, I hit more of the goals I set for myself, and show up more fully and intentionally to my tasks for the day.
I certainly prescribe to the idea that “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right,” – Henry Ford
When I choose to “think I can” I am more focused and accountable to seeing my goals through to fruition.
The Manifestation and Mindset Strategies I Use Inside My Planner
Although Manifestation and Mindset are intangibles that are hard to quantify, there are some practical strategies I use nearly every day inside my planner that I’d like to share with you.
Goal + Objective Setting
Whether you know it or not, every time we set a goal for ourselves, we are taking the first steps in the manifestation process. Claiming what it is that you want, and then deciding “how” you are going to make it a reality by choosing objectives is like placing an order with the Universe for what you want to receive in your life. This is manifesting, plain and simple.
So, by simply writing down your goals and objectives someplace in your planner, you are manifesting them. And if you take the additional step on a regular basis to review those goals and objectives, track your progress on them and especially, imagine how you are going to feel when you reach the goal or hit the objective, that’s doing some strong metaphysical work to continuously align with your desired manifestation and call it in even quicker.
This is why I keep my goals and objectives listed out in my planner, right at the front because these are important pieces of my life plan and organization. On top of that, I also keep a vision board right there will my goals broken out into images that I can review on a daily basis and get into alignment with.
Daily Intentions
Another powerful way I manifest inside my planner is through setting daily intentions. Think of intention setting as the way we check in and align ourselves with God/Spirit/The Universe to choose how we want our day to flow in alignment with our best life. In many ways, I think of intention setting as a parallel of prayer. If you pray in the morning when you wake up or in the evening before you fall asleep, you are checking in with a higher power to align with the feeling of the life you desire.
I set intentions for my day inside my planner on daily planning inserts. You could easily write out your intentions on your planner spreads and this is a great way to use free white space in our planners. You could also, of course, write your intentions each day on spare notepaper. It doesn’t have to be fancy, you just need to show up and do the work each day and your planner is an excellence place to do that work.
Affirmations
A powerful way that I address my mindset and do work to overcome limiting beliefs holding me back from fully realizing my goals is through writing and/or reciting affirmations daily. Because affirmation work can be done verbally or written out, I have a few inserts inside my planner I use for this purpose.
First, I keep a list of affirmations and beliefs I am trying to program into my mindset in my planner. I will flip to these pages and read over the affirmations and beliefs on a near daily basis. Second, I also keep dedicated inserts in my planner for writing out affirmations in what I call the 3 x 3 manifestation style. Which means, I write three affirmations out, three times each to help with repetition and mindset reprogramming. This work I do on a weekly basis
Journaling
Last but certainly not least, the final way I work on manifestation and mindset inside my planner is through journaling. Now, I realize that some people would do their journaling in a notebook separate from their planner, but I don’t. I like having everything together because as I believe I have illustrated from this post alone, the goals I am manifesting are strongly tied to my daily work, and as far as I’m concerned this entire process of mindset, manifestation and productivity is the most important work I do in a day to ensure I am showing up and working towards my best life.
In terms of how I journal inside my planner, I use dedicated inserts where I will list out things like daily gratitude, script how I want my day to flow, overcome specific limiting beliefs and set my vibe for the day. I don’t always journal daily, but I do several times a week and it goes a long way to keeping me in alignment and constantly motivated to bring my goals to fruition for both my life and business.
The Manifestation and Mindset Tools I Use Inside My Planner
As you might imagine, the manifestation and mindset tools I use inside my planner are all of my own original design, but they are all inserts that I openly share with my Productivity + Planning Mastermind Members! If you are interested in starting a daily manifestation and mindset practice that puts you into daily alignment with your goals and motivates you each day to work productively towards the achievement of your best life, you would make an excellent addition to the Mastermind.
When you join the Productivity + Planning Mastermind, you get instant access to all the exclusive tools and trainings I have developed month over month for the members of the group, as well as access to the signature Productivity + Planning Mastermind course and our private Slack community for connection and accountability!
You can choose to enroll in the Mastermind for a full year in advance, which equates to just $22 per month PLUS gives you access to the entire 2021 Master Plan System of inserts I use to plan my life and business.
Or you can choose the month to month subscription and start now for just $33.
Sometimes it feels like the last year has been one challenge after another.
The truth is, struggle is always an option for us, but so is bliss.
When I get worked up because I’ve been focused for too long on the struggle, it’s important for me to stop to practice gratitude.
No matter what is going on, we have all survived hard times before and we are strong enough, smart enough, capable enough to navigate them again.
Here are 3 Gratitude Prompts for you to use as Affirmations or for Journaling to help you shift your perspective on the hard times you may be going through.
✨ I am grateful for the chance to start over each day
✨ Thank you God for carrying me through the hard times
✨ I’ve gone through hard times before and I’m strong enough to do it again
Take some time this weekend to focus on these prompts in one form or another if you are feeling overwhelmed, sad, or defeated.
Brighter days always return to those with a grateful heart 🖤
And of course, if you are experiencing a particularly hard time, please reach out to someone you trust to get support. We are not meant to weather storms alone.
Take care of yourself and I wish you a peaceful weekend.
For years I have been absolutely obsessed with understanding and uncovering the key habits that create a successful woman. Like everything in life, success doesn’t just happen by chance or luck, it happens because deliberate action has been taken strategically. From studying the routines and habits of the most successful and influential women I could find, these are the 10 Habits that I have found set them apart.
🛀 They put themselves and their needs first
🏆 They are clear on their goals
⏱ They establish strong boundaries around their time and energy
🖊 They set daily intentions
🧘🏻♀️ They work on their mindset daily
✔️ They have productive routines
🔗 They create systems whenever possible
🧠 They seek out opportunities for growth personally, professionally, and financially
💡They bring solutions, not excuses
👩🏻💻 They show up and do the work
Now, I’d love to hear from you, which habit are you currently working on?Leave a comment below.
A few weeks ago, one of my master mind sisters in the Productivity + Planning Master Mind asked for my opinion on an image she had seen on Instagram. I will post the image here for you to read, but essentially, it was a tweet from the Author Shailja Patel explaining her belief that the concept “We all have the same 24 hours” is nonsense due to income inequality. I thought this was an interesting item to comment on and I provided the following feedback to the group. After our conversation, it was suggested that my response was so poignant that I should share it in a post for my wider community. The following was my response, I have reformatted it to flow better in this post:
This is where I agree with this post- there are people who are systematically underserved in our world, for which doing everyday things takes much more time and effort.
People who cannot afford a car or ride share services, and have to take public transport places.
People who live in areas where grocery stores are further from their homes, so they rely on corner stores where food is marked up in price.
People who cannot afford childcare and don’t have a reliable system of friends or family around them to help with that, so they have to take less desirable jobs with more flexible work schedules and often lower pay.
This is a real issue and it makes life a struggle for them.
Communities of color suffer from this the most.
But I still don’t love this post, because it is comparing those communities on one extreme of the productivity spectrum to those on the other, and it’s leaving out “the middle class”.
I like to use the phrase “we all have the same 24 hours in a day” because on a basic level, it’s true and there are examples of people from every point on the privilege (or non-privilege) scale that do buckle down, do the work, stay focused and become a success (whatever that means for them).
There are plenty of people who come from families of wealth who blow their money, are completely unproductive and end up on the streets as well.
That’s what I don’t like about the post. It’s comparing two extremes and almost giving people with enough resources a built in excuse as to why they don’t have to achieve their goals if they have some barrier that they judge in their way.
When it comes to the “middle class” many of us have enough resources at our disposal to move towards our goals and dreams, if we choose to see them and take advantage of them, and yet, plenty of us aren’t reaching our potential.
What it comes down to for me is mindset.
I know that until systems are devised to help the underserved, it’s always going to be more difficult for a majority of people in those situations to move out of those circumstances, but if you look at this from a mindset perspective, if one person in a bad situation decides they are going to do whatever it takes to go after their dreams, then I know they will make it.
The same thing is true of a middle class mother, the same thing is true of a billionaires daughter.
The only difference between them to me, is that it’s much easier for someone who has endless resources at their disposal to believe they can achieve what they want and go after it.
The middle class mother has less resources, but still plenty of opportunity if she would see it.
The poor high school drop out has even less resources and opportunity, but can still make any dream happen if they are willing to shift their mindset to believe and do the work.
One of the most common productivity conundrums I see is “I know what I need to do, I have made the plan and I have the time, but when the time comes, I don’t do what I know I should do to achieve my goal. How do I fix this?”
The answer is mindset.
In that situation, if you know what you want to achieve and have a plan and even have some time to move it forward, if you are NOT taking action, it’s because of something in your mindset. A limiting belief. And you will never do the work, no matter how good the plan is or how much time you give yourself, until you remove that block and shift your mindset.
The factor I think we all often forget when it comes to achieving goals is that, multiple people can have the same goal and take completely different routes to achieve it. That’s what having the same 24 hours in a day means to me. Not that we are all going to execute the same strategy to reach the goal, or that we all need to be on level playing ground to make our goals happen. Instead, it’s understanding that we all have our unique place in the world where we are right now, and still we can all reach the same destination if we choose to take action and believe we are capable and worthy of our objective.
Until we acknowledge that mindset is the deciding factor in success, we are always going to be focused on the wrong elements, leaving more people of means reaching their potential than those with less, and a heck of a lot of people with “enough” believing they aren’t enough.
So, what do you think? Leave me a comment below and share your thoughts.
If you have been curious about journaling, today I have some great information to share with you. In this post, I will explain:
Why you should start journaling
Strategies to consider for journaling
Tools to use when beginning your practice
Building the habit of daily (or regular) journaling
Why you should start journaling
There are plenty of reasons why someone would want to journal, and if you are reading this I assume you are trying to get some inspiration for yourself or you already know why you want to start in some form. I think it’s very important when you start a practice and regular habit like journaling that you know what you intend to get out of the experience. When you have that personal reason why or your intention for it set, it makes it much easier for you to decide the strategy you want to use, stick to the practice and remain accountable to it.
Documented Benefits of Journaling
Mental clarity
Improve your Productivity
Reduced Stress and anxiety
Increased Happiness
Identify and overcome limiting beliefs
Reprogram your mindset
Self-therapy and reflection for self-awareness
Manifestation of goals
Okay, now that you know why you want to journal, let’s discuss the common strategies that you can use to do so. I have seven to share with you and I want to make it clear that you can choose one or more of these types to use at once. I myself often switch between these different strategies of journaling often or I tend to do more than one in a single journaling session.
Strategies to consider for journaling
Brain-dump – write down all the things your holding in your mind to organize and prioritize them.
Stream of consciousness writing – just writing out all your thoughts feelings emotions to release your thoughts and self reflect. See morning pages from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
Gratitude journaling – list out gratitude, good to set your mindset as it’s documented to make you 10% happier.
Journal prompts – guided journaling for self reflection, great for people who get overwhelmed at the thought of having to fill a blank page.
Affirmations – repeatedly writing out affirmations. Stick to 1-3 as to not overwhelm yourself.
Scripting – writing out how you want your day to go for the purpose of manifesting it.
Future writing – journaling as yourself but at a future date in time after some goal or achievement has been met and chronical everything that happened to bring you to that point
Tools to use when beginning your practice
For the most part you can get started journaling with just some blank note paper or even a note taking app on your phone or computer. There is some data that supports writing by hand rather than typing but that is really for specific benefits of stress reduction. So, what you intend to get out of your journaling is key to know when choosing the tools to use.
As an example, a notebook like the Stalogy Editor’s Series gives you a years worth of undated pages to really do any of the journaling strategies we discussed already.
For myself, personally, I get a little intimidated by a completely blank page with no structure or guidance so over the years as I’ve been journaling for various reasons, I’ve designed different inserts for journaling to accompany my planner.
High Vibe Bible inserts are designed for a loosely guided gratitude and manifestation journaling experience
I designed a number of guided journaling workbooks for my Empire Building students and Productivity Master Mind Members with prompts intended to help them in specific areas of productivity, mindset and business
Most recently I designed a day on two page planning and journaling insert based on my previous video 5 Daily Prompts and Affirmations for Making a Plan that Comes True. I’ve been loving this insert even though it’s a little more than I’d normally use in my planner I’ve been enjoying the daily page to supplement my weekly master planner spread.
Building the habit of daily (or regular) journaling
The final piece of the journaling equation is to actually build the habit. Now, it’s up to you to decide if you need journaling to be a daily practice, a weekly practice or just something you do sporadically when you need it. This links back to your why, and ultimately is your choice. You can’t mess up journaling and there are no rules that say you have to journal a specific amount of times or at a specific time of day to get benefit from it.
Is journaling a habit that the more you do, the more you improve… of course! But I want to remind you not to turn the idealization of a perfect journaling practice that is going to change your life forever, into an expectation that you struggle to meet and then end up beating yourself up about. As you get started with journaling, I’d advise you to invest in the tools that make you excited, and then set a reasonable schedule for journaling. Some people prefer journaling in the morning, some in the evening. I aim for the morning but when I forget I have no problem doing a midday reset or even a bed time journaling session.
Start slow, maybe one day a week. And then after a few weeks, build up to two days and so on. There is no reason to overwhelm yourself! Use journaling as a tool for your self improvement. And remember the affirmation I gave you last week what I decide gets to be the path for me this is definitely true of journaling!
Watch the video
I hope this information has been helpful for you in determining how to begin your own journaling practice. In the comments I would love to hear about which strategies you are interested in trying for yourself!
✔︎ You have a plan laid for what you need to do, where you need to be and know by the end of the day all the most important things in your life will be taken care of.
✔︎ You feel like your life is together. Like the successful, productive and organized person you know you are.
✔︎ You’re not worried about anything, you’re not rushing to get things done or thinking about skipping meals or your personal tasks to make sure you get urgent priorities for others accomplished.
✔︎ You’re not putting out fires at work or at home, everything is under control and moving according to plan.
I truly hope this is how you are feeling today!
My students have these kinds of days often and I love hearing them talk about them because I know they feel in control of their lives and their is no greater feeling than that!
But for most of them, days like this were few and far between before they started working with me and my productivity resources.
• Their lives felt rushed.
• They had little time for themselves.
• They often fell asleep and woke up with a sense of exhaustion and overwhelm.
That is seriously no way to live, not when I know that just a few simple tools, strategies and skills can begin to transform your life in a matter of hours.
That’s right, I said hours! Because there are resources that you can access and implement immediately that can drastically change your productivity and release that sense of overwhelm.
Once the overwhelm is out of the way, you can ease yourself into a new way of living, a better way of living, by aligning your daily actions intentionally with your priorities and goals.
You, too, can wake up feeling refreshed, with a sense of purpose and direction, knowing that you have a solid plan in place for your day, and the knowledge and stamina to hurdle obstacles throughout your day.
If this is how you would like to feel in your own life, you owe it to yourself, your family, your job, your community, and anyone else that relies on you to show up and do your best work everyday, to invest in the resources that will make you an inspired, motivated, and productive person!
If you are ready to get started on this new path, I recommend you begin by purchasing your copy of YOU GOT THIS!The Goal Setting and Planning Workbook.
YOU GOT THIS guides you through 132 pages of real world productivity lessons, 16 instructive and enlightening activities, and 18 step-by-step worksheets to help you:
✔︎ Get clear on your priorities:Stop feeling like you’ve got your head on a swivel jumping from priority to priority working exhaustively but not making any significant progress for your efforts.
✔︎ Set achievable goals:Start putting your attention on strategic goals with action plans so clear you can practically feel the final result.
✔︎ Organize and simplify your life:Feel the relief that comes from systematizing mundane tasks, and enjoy the time you’ve earned back for efficiently managing your life.
Remember, if you are struggling to fight overwhelm, poor habits, and the downward spiral of anxiety caused by them…
NOTHING CHANGES IF NOTHING CHANGES!
You need to take action and make a change if you want things to change in your life. I promise you, no matter what your situation, there is a better, more productive way to live and through learning and implementing my key strategies, you can feel relief in a matter of hours, you can create a plan in a matter of days, and you can see concrete results in a matter of weeks!
What are you waiting for? Make TODAY a very productive day for you and purchase your copy of YOU GOT THIS now!
We are standing at the precipice of a New Year, and if you’re like me and set your goals already, you may have noticed that some of those goals might be repeats from previous years that were never accomplished. Now, of course we all know and have heard many times over that last year, 2020 specifically, was a very different and challenging year. If you set goals last year and didn’t meet them, I do believe in having grace with ourselves, however, I also believe in being realistic with ourselves and taking accountability that we had goals we wanted to accomplish and for some reason or another were unable to do so. I think it’s very important for us to identify and understand what held us back in the past so that we can take the appropriate steps to ensure our goals are met this time.
From my research into the topic of goal setting, I have identified 9 very common reasons why people do not meet the goals they set for themselves, so I will outline those now and explain what you can do to overcome each.
Reason #1: You Didn’t Write It Down
The first reason that you did not achieve your goal in the past is that you chose the goal, but you never actually wrote it down. I know that is such a simple thing, but there is a well known statistic that says when you write down a goal, you have a 41% increased chance of seeing it through. Many of us set goals and resolutions for the year in our heads, we decide what we want, but we don’t formalize it by putting pen to paper. Luckily, this reason is easy to fix! This year, make the effort to write your goals down.
Reason #2: Your Goals Weren’t SMART
Reason number two that you may not have hit your goal in the past is that it wasn’t a SMART goal. SMART is an acronym that stands for a framework that you can use to ensure that your goal is actually something that you can achieve and has a reasonable set of expectations for you to use to actually execute on it. If you have ever set a vague goal like “get better sleep” or “lower my stress” you know that these goals are sometimes hard to turn into action items for personal accountability because most of us don’t have sleep monitors or stress test machines in our homes to be able to gauge our quality of sleep or stress. By using the SMART framework, you can make a vague goal much more specific and set parameters and measures to ensure your success. SMART stands for:
S | Specific:What is the specific outcome you are seeking? M | Measurable:What measures can you use to ensure you are making progress? A | Actionable:What are you able to do to affect the outcome? R | Realistic:Do you have the time, energy and resources to achieve this goal? T | Time bound: What is the due date or when do you plan to work on the goal?
Take each of your goals and work them through this simple framework to come up with the outline of a plan of action you can use to move forward with your goal.
Reason #3: You Didn’t Create a Project Plan
The third reason you did not achieve your goal in the past was that you didn’t break it down into a project plan with clear steps and any sort of tracking for personal accountability. Once you have ensured your goal is SMART, you should take that outline one step further and break your goal into an action list for a project or objective. That way you always know where you are in your progress and what you need to do next. I have and recommend using project planning inserts like the ones I use in the Master Plan System, or if you have a planner for the year, you can purchase a bundle of project planning inserts separately as well by clicking here.
Reason #4: The Strategy You Chose Wasn’t Effective
Reason number four that you did not follow through with your goal is that the strategy you chose to execute on wasn’t effective for you. I personally believe that there are numerous different ways we can execute on any goal or objective and I think that certain strategies work for certain people. So, it’s very possible you chose a strategy that just didn’t work for you. That doesn’t mean you can’t still achieve you goal. Now that you know what doesn’t work for you, you can find another strategy that may be better suited to your needs now that you have some experience in going after that goal. Don’t give up on your goal, you still have an opportunity to accomplish it!
Reason #5: You Weren’t Checking In Often Enough
The fifth reason you may not have achieved your goal in the past is that you weren’t checking in with your goal often enough. You took the time to write down your goal, make sure it was SMART and even list out the action steps but you got out of the habit of checking in on the goal and stopped taking action on it. I find this can often happen when people keep their goal related plans in a separate or dedicated binder and not side by side with their daily planner. This is one of the major reasons I preach one person, one planner. Because when you have goals and plans kept separately, it can easily become an out of sight, out of mind scenario. Now, it is also quite possible that you are using a planner that just doesn’t give you the ability to really manage project plans alongside your calendar and agenda, and if this is the case, I highly recommend upgrading to the Master Plan System because it is the best Functional Planning System for ensuring you have visibility to your goals and a build in system for tracking them. Click here to purchase yours now.
Reason #6: You Didn’t Anticipate Obstacles
Reason number six that you may not have achieved your goal in the past is that you didn’t anticipate and make a plan to overcome obstacles. Nothing in life ever runs smoothly, we always have some obstacles that pop up on the way to our goals, and many times those obstacles can be anticipated and prepared for if we take the time to think through our plans and identify what could go wrong. In the past you may have been that person who hit an obstacle in their plan and then just gave up because it vexed you, but you don’t have to give up just because you need to adjust course a bit. Right now, I recommend taking some time to think of what might come up for you this year as you work towards the goal and make a quick little plan for how you are going to overcome that issue if it comes up.
Reason #7: You Just Didn’t Take Action
Reason number seven why you didn’t achieve your goal in the past is one that happens to be a tough pill to shallow. Perhaps you just didn’t take any action. I know it’s tough to take this level of accountability- to be able to say, it was my fault, I just didn’t try, but it happens to so many of us. Now, when I researched why this happens there was one glaring reason that I found over and over again; Mindset. Your mindset and more specifically, the limiting beliefs you hold about yourself are a major reason why you do not take action, and this is something even I struggle with, especially when I am setting a very big or ambitious goal. If we don’t believe we can achieve the goal, or if we don’t believe we are worthy, or something in the way we were raised is telling us consciously or subconsciously that we can’t or shouldn’t want a specific goal, then we will sabotage ourselves with inaction.
In order to overcome this issue, we need to first identify the limiting beliefs that are holding us back and then work through them so that we reprogram our mindset and subconscious to know it is safe for us to go after this goal and to achieve it! If you need more resources for mindset and limiting beliefs, I have created a wonderful workbook of journaling prompts to walk you through identifying and overcoming limiting beliefs as part of the Productivity + Planning Master Mind Membership.
Reason #8: You Were Being a Perfectionist
The eighth reason you didn’t achieve your goal in the past is that you were being a perfectionist. Now, I do believe that perfectionism is a form of a limiting belief. Perfectionism is when we set unreasonable or unnecessarily high expectations for our outcomes that ultimately cause us to obsess over actions or the conditions under which we can or will take action. It’s not uncommon for perfectionists to take some action, but often they will set up many hurdles for themselves before they will allow themselves to do the work or they will continue to work on the same action repeatedly, never satisfied with what they have produced.
If that sounds like you, I have two suggestions for breaking free of your perfectionist mindset. First is to really lean into the fact that perfect does not exist. Logically, we all know this to be true, so explain to yourself why perfect is a lie and why it’s not necessary for you to have unreasonably high expectations for yourself. Wouldn’t you rather have it done well enough then not completed at all? My second suggestion is to start talking to yourself like you would a friend or loved one who came to saying they couldn’t do X because it wasn’t perfect. Would you tell your loved one it was okay to give up or would you support and encourage them to make steady progress to their goal? Most of us talk to ourselves much more like our worst enemy than we do someone we love and it ends up ruining our confidence and self-esteem. Changing the way you talk to yourself can go a long way to overcoming perfectionism.
Reason #9: You Didn’t Have Any Accountability
The ninth and final reason you didn’t achieve your goal in the past is that you had no accountability. Accountability is an interesting subject because there is internal and external accountability types and some people require one more strongly than the other. On one hand, maybe you didn’t have any personal accountability or self-discipline and gave yourself excuses not to take action. On the other hand, maybe you need but didn’t have an external support system of people keeping you accountable to your goal. Many of us need other people checking in on us, a support system or community cheering us on, in order to feel accountable. That can go such a long way to ensuring we make progress with our goals! You can find accountability buddies via your friend or family, or if you would like a more structured type of support, the Productivity + Planning Master Mind includes accountability support and is a wonderful place to find a community of like-minded women who are all learning to plan and act productivity together towards our goals. Click here to enroll and join our accountability group!
I do hope this information has been helpful to you. If you would prefer to check out my recent video on this topic, I will link it below!
In the comments of this post I would love to know which reasons have been holding you back and what you plan to do to move forward with your goals successfully this year so tell me all about it below!
