How to keep a journal for achieving your business goal?
Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash
When the day comes to a close, most moms can hardly summon the energy to spend another wakeful minute staring at a blank page to list yet another pile of errands for the next day. If you look at it that way, your mompreneurial dreams might never really come true, as working can become more of a struggle than a source of healthy challenge and joy. However, if you choose to work around those unfortunate energy slumps and find your way to the surface, you’ll see that this one element can help you rekindle that excitement for the next day: journaling.
You don’t have to be Hemingway or Stephen King to write a gripping list of milestones for your business. All it takes is some time, patience, and a thorough approach for your lists to start making sense and bringing you more joy. When you write about what you want to achieve, you pour some intent into it, a desire, and a plan to push you forward when you’re unsure of what comes next. So, moms everywhere, here’s how you can use your notepad to fuel your mompreneur dreams!
Letting your goals take shape
Regularly writing down your plans will translate into clear, manageable goals. It’s easy to get lost in a sea of chores every day, constantly putting off something you perceive as important for your business endeavors – but if it’s on the list, clear as day and simplified, you can recognize when it’s best to complete the task.
Over time, you’ll perfect your writing so much that you’ll be able to pinpoint each business responsibility, how much time it takes for you to wrap it up, when you’d be best off doing it, and what resources you need to prepare. Clear, achievable goals are the foundation of any mom’s business journey, and writing helps turn it into a less bumpy road!
Giving you a direction
Some moms among you might not yet know what they want to do, but you know that you don’t want the nine-to-five grind, and that you’d gladly stick to business independence. In that case, parental duties might end up always preventing you from taking the time to define the best business model for you and the direction for your professional dreams.
While some moms will enjoy the startup hustle, perhaps you may want to look into other, equally opportune options. You can, for instance, bring out your inner manager and run a cleaning franchise under the wing of a well-established business, which will give you the advantage of working with a respected brand, with ample support from the parent company. That still gives you plenty of independence, but with the added training and guidance that comes with franchising.
Increasing accountability
Journaling, in addition to letting you define your goals and find the best ways to achieve them, also makes you feel more responsible for achieving them. Suddenly, they are no longer in your mind only, but written down, giving them a more definite purpose and meaning. Don’t be surprised if you feel as if your own journal is giving you a judgmental stare, because journals do tend to do that when you fail to finish your tasks for the day.
As a point of reference, writing in journals helps you put things in a more realistic perspective, and when you see in your schedule that you have time to do something, then it becomes easier to actually commit to doing it. Journals, above all else, help you ditch excuses.
A bland-looking journal also doesn’t inspire an outpouring of thoughts and ideas. A grey cover with white pages will be boring to most people, including yourself. So start by decorating your journal. Anything goes, so let your creativity loose! Paint the journal cover, and add stickers or glitter. Inside, add photos or drawings that relate to the contents of a specific page.
Selecting the right writing implements are also a must. If you want custom products, it’s not difficult to find personalized pens for journal writing. The combination of a cool-looking journal and a comfortable pen will improve your experience and encourage you to write more often and more consistently.
Taking time to look back and adjust
Moms know all too well, you rarely get a chance for a do-over with everything that you do in life, even when you really wish you could have a “take two” on something. Writing, however, has a sneaky way of granting you access to your past decisions, scheduling mistakes, and overestimations that have possibly cost you several hours of your time.
Use your journals to reflect on your previous professional actions, and use them to make better choices for your business in the future. Whether you’re running your own little hand-made jewelry store or you choose to run a major tech startup – both of which is commendable for any parent out there – writing will give you an invaluable source of knowledge you can use to prevent future errors of judgment.
Monitoring progress and boosting motivation
It’s true, it will always seem as if your chore list never gets shorter, whether it’s the grocery list or your list of tasks for your clients. Continuous journaling will help here as well. When you skim through your past achievements, notice all the ticked boxed and completed milestones, you’ll feel an overwhelming sense of pride, and deservedly so.
You, and you alone, have done all that. You’ve managed to organize your time, your responsibilities, and your passion paired with parenthood so well that you’ve completed so much work over a period of time. It will give you hope and the much-needed drive to push through yet another ear infection, sleepless night, and a flu outbreak. Whatever it is, you know you can do it – your journal proves it.
There are many habits that can help you get a stronger hold of your goals, but few will stand the test of time like journaling. Use this simple habit to make your momhood paired with entrepreneurship just a smidgen simpler, and you’ll have an easier time to enjoy and accomplish all of your goals.