THE LIFE IMPROVEMENT JOURNAL
POSSIBLY THE MOST EFFECTIVE PROCESS OF ALL
REPLACED BY:
Go there and it'll guide you through the process and the tools, including pre-formatted guides leading across the pieces of the entire life improvement process.
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THE ABSOLUTE PURPOSE OF THIS JOURNAL!
This journal is not for reporting "I had a problem", with perhaps a nice philosophical solution and a few soothing sayings, but for resolving/fixing/correcting everything that went wrong during the day, from thinking to behavior to situational. It is a RESULTS journal and it is intended to be used for such, and to leave no sleeping dogs (nonfunctionalities) lying around.
Use it to completion, to the point of getting the results that you most want, getting complete resolution and setting up the future so it works ever better virtually every day! This journal is to be used for nothing short of creating the greatest life, and not settling for less!
(As such, you'll be using various forms to resolve/fix what didn't go right and to design what is right and workable, such as the ABCDEF Rational Analysis, for beliefs, or The Master Problem Solving Form. Explore the Problem Solving Forms Directory for what you might use. You are a proactive person who will not "fold his tent and go home" if he runs across having to make choices and go a little deeper in deciding which forms to use.)
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"As long as you've screwed up anyway, you might as well learn something from it - or you could just remain dumb and continue repeating the same old thing."
His Holiness, The Great Observer Of All Life
Kaizen, called CANI here: "Fundamentally, CANI is an attempt to deal with problem of people becoming so intent on the ultimate goals they want to achieve, that they become quite overwhelmed. CANI attempts to help people by giving them something easier to keep their attention on – namely, small daily improvements."
Tony Robbins
"Oh, incidentally, did I tell you this: There is no magic to life. There is only a path to where you want to go. And getting down the path is a process of choosing where to invest your energy. And you can go anywhere you want, but only one step at a time. This can be a magnificent journey or you can choose less. Which will it be?"
The BuddhaKahuna
MY JOURNAL OF IMPROVEMENT
(Possible alternate titles: My Racket And False Beliefs Journal, My Analytical, Progressive Journal, My Journal Of Increasing Power, or think up a name that would "feel right" and good to you....)
This could be one of the most significant practices in your life.
While this book can include regular journal entries and such things as gratitude journaling, it includes focus on specific questions and areas of life in a more systematic fashion. The final format will have questions and focus areas available to use, as you wish, which are referenced in the beginning of the journal. (It is preferrable that the questions be easily referenced rather than left, say, on the computer for possible reference. Stapling the sheet in the front of the journal for easy reference is recommended.) You might think up your own questions for now, until the questions are designed and inserted here.
I think it would be good to note when you are not getting the results you want and/or not feeling good about what is going on (such as upsets, feeling down, etc.), so that you can identify the reason for that occurring.
The reason could be as simple as actually being out of your control, in which case there is no concern and only acceptance is needed.
It could be that you are running rackets; accordingly, you would use the format for working on a racket, completing the form and making a decision, commitment, and/or a stand about it.
Related in a way, you could apply the precepts behind Cognitive Behavior Therapy, which is just a process of straightening out your thinking. In CBT, you identify the conversation you are having in your head, but in a complete manner, not just the original thought but all of what is behind that thought. Then you decide if it is absolutely, provably true. If not, then you would correct it by devising a true statement to replace it. (See Distorted Thinking, which you must learn to straighten out, and Psychological Methods, particularly Rational Analysis.)
FRONT PAGE, FOR REFERENCE AND GUIDANCE
You would keep a copy of this section and use it as a front page to guide you, at least until you worked out your own version - which would also be kept in the front of your journal. These are not necessarily answered in this order, as you may need to proceed with your writing without having the answer yet for an earlier question.
Types of writing:
Possibly do "free writing" which is putting down anything that comes to mind for three pages of handwriting or one to two typewritten pages. Then you can choose to review it and see if you can harvest any ideas, viewpoints, things to correct, learn about, etc. See the Morning Pages, inThe Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron.
Possible formats:
First column: what happened
Second column: what could I have done differently and/or what I have learned.
Possible questions: Keeping in front copies of the related forms for items below could prove to be useful.
What undesired result did I get?
How could I have been cause in the matter?
Is this lack of a desired effect due to a racket?
Apply the breakdown/breakthrough format?
What can I learn from this?
What beliefs could have contributed to this? Are they true, absolutely true?
See The Truth Test.
Also
Write down what you noticed someone doing very well and then decide whether to put it into your life (tickle it or put it on a follow list if you decide, so you won't "lose" it). It could even be a way that a powerful person stood or made movements or gestures.
Write down what you noticed during the day that you'd like to do better. Decide what to do about it, set it up for followup.
Note that powerful people take "disorderedness", make order of it, and then they practice it. If you practice something, a golf swing or even a procedure of some sort, you tend to clarify what is a better way to do something, then repeat it so there is a groove in the brain that sets it up so it is automatic and effortless. For each one of these you do, you are freeing up attention units for the present - as a result you will perform better in the present. You will no longer have your attention stuck on how you do the golf swing or anything in life because it will be grooved in as a habit, which takes very little attention or brain power and makes it all effortless.
This will make a massive difference
Your beliefs determine how your life will go every day. They will be repeated many, many times getting results that correspond with them (good or bad). Fixing these once begets better results 100's of times in the future.
What belief can I correct now? (See Dealing With And Changing Beliefs.)
RELATED
AND
Living The Life Of A Life Champion - The Improvement Journal is a valuable tool to live this life!
Uses journaling idea:
Using Modeling To Create The Person You Want To Be - Fast! Focuses power to create something faster and better.
ONE RESULT
A couple of weeks ago, I agreed to apply The Life Improvement Journal and report my results.
(He included a summary description here.)
I began with the two column format: "What happened?" and "What could I have done differently and/or what have I learned?"
Next I answered recommended follow up questions.
The process worked like melted snow on a hot tin roof.
I assessed several past xxx and gleaned important but overlooked nuggets of gold.
Whatever it was that was bogging me down in the past, I somehow kept it active in the present.
The Improvement Journal allowed me to sort it out and learn from it.
I am freed of so much aggravation and annoyance that I can now clearly take the time to love myself first before another.
Additionally, I no longer feel that I am responsible for another's happiness and how I make them feel.
As a result, I feel brighter, energetic, and focused.
