Little Journal

For several years, I struggled with goal setting. Somehow, I did not seem to be in control of what I did, how I devoted my time and how I took charge of my day and time.

I was not so bad; I mean professionally as well as in my personal life, I did fairly well. Although it just did not seem enough.

A dear mentor of mine suggested that I maintain a journal. At first, it felt like just another idea to try an experiment that would eventually fade away in spirit. Nevertheless, out of sheer respect for my mentor I gave it a serious try.

I bought a creative journal – a small-sized one, green in color. On the first day, I wrote my personal information on the first page, as if to loudly emphasize I owned the journal. I wrote an “Aum” hoping to have a happy, consistent stint with the journal. As much as I doubted my ability to complete the journal, thanks to my past track record, I strongly believed that if I made up my mind the writing process could surely transform me into a better planner and an action master.  

The first week went by without hassles; I wrote every single day about my day’s goals, prioritized them, and added specific details on the risks and measures. In fact, at the end of the day, I would quickly review my work and smile if I had done a good job. Smiling radiantly too was a part of the process.

I followed every instruction possible without losing hope. Still, I felt the whole thing to be so mundane. Since my mentor told me to hang on despite not seeing results immediately, I held on to it. The second week too went by and I grew restless. Into the third week, as advised by my mentor I reviewed my progress so far. To my own surprise, I realized that journal writing had helped me not to skip so many important tasks that would have otherwise missed my attention. Furthermore, I had a sort of clarity that was clearly missing in the past. As I expected, I seemed to have slowly gained certain control over the schedule. In short, it had made me disciplined.

After twenty-one days, without any push I wrote in my journal every morning; I reviewed every evening. It has to be admitted that, none of my problems were solved directly merely by writing in a journal. Nor did the problems decrease in number. My approach had changed; my attitude had transformed. The power of habit had resulted in me doing the journal writing regularly.

Earlier, when I heard people say habits are hard only at the start and later, they are the most effortless, I somehow suspected. After I personally experienced it, I knew what tricks habits can play. 

My small experiment with a boring habit eventually turned into a happy story that I would long cherish.