How to Motivate Yourself by Writing a Journal Entry About a Day that Hasn't Started

Writing a journal may be an extremely daunting task for some. If it were easy, everyone would do it. Here is a tip to get your day started, which will help transition into a journal entry about a day that hasn't even started yet. The tip is called: "20 in 5".

"20 in 5" is a simple concept: Every morning jot down twenty ideas in five minutes.

These ideas could be as simple as go to the grocery store before work to something more ambitious like invent a putting aide for golfers. The key is to accomplish this in no more than five minutes.

At first, "20 in 5" seems impossible. You will discover yourself writing twenty ideas in 2 minutes and you will not need the five! Do this every morning. Make this your five-minute brainstorming session for the day. It is an excellent exercise for your mind, and it can lead to ideas that can be meaningful and strong.

Set up your stopwatch or timer. Get those ideas down in five minutes. You may amaze yourself with some of the ideas you will write. Remember: it's five minutes of your day not an hour.

You will have those days where nothing seems meaningful or strong, but go back to it again in a couple of days, or weeks, and something great may come from older brainstorming "20 in 5" sessions.

Now, transition your "20 in 5" into a few minutes of journal writing about your day even before the day starts! Give yourself a time frame (like the "20 in 5"), but make it a loose time frame. Let it flow, be creative, ambitious and make tasks achievable. Your ultimate goal: write the day ahead of you.

Task lists and daily goals are keys to individual's daily successes as well as their long-term successes. As individuals accomplish small goals, it leads to bigger and better goals.

As you transition your "20 in 5" into a journal writing session, you can picture how your day will be, and picture how the day will end. This is your small or short-term goal. Thinking with the end in mind is a big step in motivating yourself to take action. The "20 in 5" is the warm up; the journal writing session is your work out.

A simple analogy is that of a runner who warms up by jogging first. Then the race or workout begins and off he or she goes! The runner knows what they want to accomplish and now they set off to achieve the goal. They cannot predict the results, nor can they control them, but they took action to achieve it!

The same holds true for "20 in 5". Use it as a warm up. Get those creative juices flowing. You have five minutes to write down a wide range of ideas that can lead to something or lead to nothing; it doesn't matter. But now your brain is ready; it is warmed up for the workout, and the workout is your journal writing on how your day will look and end. You cannot control the results of your day, there may be unforeseen obstacles, but you know what your ultimate goal is and all you can do is take action to achieve your it.

Remember, you cannot control the results, but you can take action to achieve the goals you set out to do.

Lets flip that idea around and do a complete 180. If your goal is to find motivation and you decided to start your day without "20 in 5" or journal writing, what are you really trying to motivate yourself for? Without any goals, there is no need for any type of motivation. By writing goals down, and in this way, through brainstorming and journal writing, you make them concrete, achievable, and you start your day with an important 'brain stimulation' and visualization of what needs to be accomplished.

You've heard, 'it's all in the head'. Well, it is. Your motivation, or lack of it, is predetermined on how you think; what is your mental state?

If your mental state is weak, it is extremely difficult to get motivated. If your mental state is strong, motivation comes much easily. It is not easy, but developing a good frame of mind makes it easier.

Make your mental state strong. The only way to do this is to stimulate your brain! Warm it up then get going with your daily journal about today! The concept is simple - seeing the future and making it happen. Knowing what you have to accomplish is in your journal. Use this as motivation and make your journal work for you.

Stimulate your brain by first doing "20 in 5" and transition that to a few minutes of journal writing while thinking with the end in mind. If you accomplish this daily and make it a daily habit, you'll find this brain stimulation leads to motivation and, in turn, a more productive day.