The desire for success is the natural state of man. But in order to achieve your goals, just aspiration is not enough. It takes effort. Not just efforts, but the right ones and in the right direction. The topic of competent application of effort to achieve success is well understood in psychology, management, motivational publications, books on dietetics and sports training.
There are various techniques on how to act more effectively to achieve your goals. One such technique is keeping a success diary.
What is a success diary?
A success diary is a notebook, notepad or file on a computer where data about current progress is recorded.
The success diary is used in completely different areas of life, to achieve any goals. A success diary is used, for example, in the following areas:
- family;
- sport;
- Job;
- creation;
- health;
- self-development;
- education.
A diary can be kept by both a housewife and a serious businessman. There are no restrictions. For example, a housewife can use a success diary to develop the skill of creating a menu and cooking according to it. A businessman can set himself a goal to increase his annual income.
Why do you need a success diary?
It is impossible to learn a language - this is a well-known fact. It can be learned to a certain extent. But mastering it perfectly and knowing, for example, the meaning of all words is beyond the power of even the most gifted. And often people who study a foreign language give up learning it because they don’t see progress. Sometimes such people even speak the language at a good level, communicate and watch films, but do not feel satisfied with their knowledge and progress.
Similar situations happen not only when learning foreign languages, but also in other areas of life. Their occurrence is dangerous due to a decrease in motivation. When there is no way to see positive progress, apathy and a feeling of wasted time arise.
It is to create motivation and prevent apathy that you should keep a success diary. It can record what happened six months or a year ago. And, comparing your old and current results, see progress. This will save you from depressive thoughts about the futility of the activity you have started. Or, on the contrary, it will give an idea of a complete lack of progress or even regression, which is not always bad.
Features of human memory
Can you remember exactly what you looked like yesterday? And a month ago, and a year, and ten years ago? Can you remember what your family and friends looked like yesterday, a year ago, ten years ago? For short periods of time, most people remember what and who looked like. For long-term ones - most likely not. Especially if you remember not hairstyle and clothes, but, for example, facial expressions, facial expressions, age indicators.
Therefore, when looking at photographs from ten or fifteen years ago, one is surprised to discover age-related changes, changes in facial expression, and facial expressions. Changes occur so smoothly and gradually that the brain is not able to track them. We think we look about the same all the time.
Similar situations occur when achieving goals. It seems that there are no achievements, the efforts spent are meaningless, and there is no change. But when considering large periods of time, it becomes obvious that changes are present. Sometimes they turn out to be significant. For example, over the last ten years of your life, many goals were achieved and desires came true, but your consciousness did not track this, something was erased from memory. There were “fewer” achievements, and the feeling of inability to achieve set goals increased.
A little trick for positively programming your subconscious with goals: use it - it’s quick and effective.
Secrets of psychology - how to increase efficiency and do without a success diary
Many people feel the need to see progress and for this they need a success diary. But journal addiction can be changed. In fact, it is not a person who is structured in such a way that he needs to see the stages of his progress - it is his system of motivation that is like that. This the system is not ours by default - it is instilled in us by upbringing. You can reach a level of awareness where the results are not so important to you, and the process itself will have value and bring pleasure.
But don’t think that you will stop achieving your goals. On the contrary, your efficiency will increase. It’s a paradox, but it’s true - when the result is not very important to you, then you easily achieve it and still enjoy the process, on the way to it. Such a value system allows you to feel reality more deeply, experience true love (which, in principle, excludes any self-interest) and ultimately live a more fulfilling life. But for this it is necessary to cleanse the mind - deprogram it, free it from imposed ones: limiting ideas and beliefs, negative attitudes, complexes, negative emotions and other mental garbage that prevents you from living a happy life.
This task is handled by the specially developed Turbo-Suslik system (official website). The good thing about the system is that it shifts the bulk of the work to the subconscious, leaving the user to read ready-made instructions to the subconscious. The work looks something like this: you read the instructions to the subconscious and that’s it, then you go about your business, and the subconscious, in the background, works through the problems. Interested - .
Examples of keeping a success diary
How to keep a success diary? You can get creative with your success journal. Buy yourself a beautiful and pleasant notebook from the store that you will use for these purposes. Or keep a text file or spreadsheet on your computer.
Keeping a diary is conventionally divided into several stages.
- Stage 1. Setting goals
This is the most important stage. The goal must be clearly formulated and a deadline must be set. Be realistic in both your deadlines and your choice of goals. Unfulfilled goals reduce motivation. To begin with, it is better to set yourself a small, realistic and achievable task and later move on to more complex ones.
For example. Become a candidate master of sports in boxing in a year. This is an excellent goal, but only if the entry level is failed attempts to become a candidate, when you already have competitions under your belt.
If before this you only saw boxing on TV, and the last time you did physical education was fifteen years ago in a school lesson, then this will be an example of a poorly set goal.
Try to break it into parts.
For example:
- Find a boxing class during the week and sign up for it.
- Exercise an additional two times a week to lose 15 extra pounds and strengthen your muscles. Complete within six months.
- Take part in at least one boxing competition. Complete within a year.
- Set new goals.
It is important to break down a big goal into small and achievable goals. Clearly formulate what to do and by when.
- Step 2: Select target tracking options
How do you track progress?
Find a boxing class during the week and sign up for it. There are no tracking options for this purpose. The result will be either execution or not.
Exercise an additional two times a week to lose 15 extra pounds and strengthen your muscles. Complete within six months. Here you can select several parameters:
- Class attendance. Visit twice.
- Weight reduction. Record your weight twice a week.
- Increase in strength. Fix weights on exercise machines, dumbbells, barbells once every two weeks.
Take part in at least one boxing competition. Complete within a year. For this purpose, you can record the number of competitions in which you took part.
- Stage 3. Tracking the achievement of goals
It is convenient to note current parameters in the success diary after classes. Additionally, write down your mood, what helped or, conversely, hindered your success today.
Discipline and consistency play an important role in keeping a success diary. Since records will have to be kept every day or several times a week. A convenient form of keeping records is a table. If the table is not suitable specifically for your case, then choose any other convenient format. Since the purpose of keeping a diary is not the form, but the success that will be achieved.
Return to old posts from time to time and see your progress. You may need to adjust your goals, as the results will turn out to be much worse or better than originally expected. If the results are not what you expected, try to first put more effort into achieving the goal, do not rush to correct the goal. Only when you are absolutely sure that at this pace you will not complete the task, adjust the goal. There is no need to rush if the actual parameters for achieving the goal are ahead of the expected ones. Especially if this happens in the first weeks or months. Since at this time the enthusiasm has not yet died down and, perhaps, further the parameters for achieving the goal will stop growing so quickly.
- Stage 4. Checking the achievement of the goal
Don’t be in a hurry to be discouraged if the task is not completed and the deadline for checking the goal has already arrived. Because even if the task is not completely completed, there can be excellent results. Carefully re-read the goals and review the results achieved. You may have completed your task 60% or 80%. It's not bad. Analyze what prevented you from achieving complete success and what adjustments should be made to your next goals.
A success diary is a help in achieving results and more optimal use of time and energy.
At the end it is worth making a note. It doesn’t make sense to break down all goals into parameters, as in the example. There are tasks that require emotional work on yourself and with the people around you. They are not countable in kilograms, meters, rubles, hours.
For example:
- Stop yelling at children.
- Build relationships with your boss.
- Create a peaceful atmosphere in the family.
- Don't get upset over trifles.
Then it is better to keep a success diary without highlighting any parameters. In some cases, it doesn’t even make sense to set deadlines for yourself. Since it is sometimes impossible to adjust your emotional state to any deadline. It is important to track progress and positive dynamics.
Set goals and be successful!
Life goes by quickly. Today we are young and energetic, but when we wake up one day, we realize that the former “charge” is no longer there. The most important things are our experiences caused by certain events occurring in our lives.
Don't let your life simply pass by as a stream of experiences that you won't remember. It's never too late to stop to understand their meaning. Keeping a diary will help you with this.
Journal now so you don't forget later
Because life moves so quickly, it is important to record how it goes. There are so many little things that happen to us every day that shape us as individuals. Taking stock of these experiences and how they happen can show us how we come to important decisions later in life.
Journal for Processing Feelings
Another interesting practice of journaling is processing your emotions to help you move forward in life. For example, if there is someone close to you who hurt you, or even if someone died, you didn't have a chance to tell them what you wanted. Writing a “letter” in a journal addressed to them instead of keeping feelings inside can be a great thing to do to process your emotions.
It is not at all necessary to store such works. Some people write them in order to transfer their feelings from their heads to paper, in order to burn or destroy them.
Diary of your successes
Another fun thing to write down in a journal is all your successes. When setbacks occur, it is nice to go back through your records and see that you are not a complete failure and that you have something to offer humanity. We can be very hard on ourselves, especially if we fail at something, feel misunderstood by others, or don't live up to our own expectations. Having a detailed account of our progress helps us get out of a negative rut and move forward in life.
Journal to understand your mistakes
Keeping a journal of your failures is just as important as keeping a journal of your successes. First, we can learn from our failures. It is a manifestation of insanity to do the same thing and hope for a different result. Recording your failures and learning from them is extremely important. This will prevent us from going crazy and making the same mistakes over and over again.
Secondly, it's important to understand that we can't all be amazing and amazing every second of every day. Understanding what you can and cannot do keeps you balanced and realistic. It also gives you permission to make mistakes sometimes without being extremely hard on yourself.
How to keep a diary
Now that you know the benefits of journaling, here are some tips on how to keep one.
Write at least once a week. Ideally, of course, if you take notes daily. You can even write a few small notes throughout the day. But if you write once a week, every week, then that's great.
In order to take notes, you can use special programs like Day One, a regular text file, or just pen and paper. The classic option, of course, is a diary in the form of a beautiful notebook. If you don't want to write, you can make audio or video recordings. Storage costs are getting cheaper and cheaper, so keeping your life story in audio or visual form is now more doable than ever. There is something special about speaking your thoughts out loud. It may seem crazy to talk to yourself, but before you give up on the idea, it's at least worth a try, especially if you don't like to sit and squeak over text.
Right now, in different parts of the world, a huge number of people are writing something in their personal diaries. Someone may be crying and writing with a trembling hand about an unfulfilled dream, while someone is smiling and with a slight blush on their cheeks talking about a successful first date. Someone tries to remember every second of the past day, every task completed, while someone, tired and sleepy, puts their last strength into a couple of lines about the sweet girl who brought a letter to the office today. But why do they all do this? Why keep a personal diary? What's the point of this?
Secondly, a personal diary is the best psychologist. Even if we cannot write everything, we will definitely think about it. You can find a way out of even the most difficult situations, and a diary helps a lot with this. Having thought about everything that is happening, talking about everything in the diary, in the end we are able to make some kind of decision. We don’t always have the opportunity to speak out, and this is very important. If you keep everything to yourself, in the end, you can lead yourself to a nervous breakdown and acquire several types of psychological disorders at once. Do we need it? We should never forget that “everything we are is the result of our thoughts.”
And finally, fourthly, a personal diary – our tears. It is not for nothing that I singled out this reason for the existence of personal diaries separately from the psychological diary. How much suffering, how many emotions we sometimes experience while writing a personal diary. All our tears remain on the pages of a notebook or small notebook, they remain in absolutely all words, in every letter, in every comma or period. These are tears of joy, sadness, fear, resentment, happiness, anger and many other feelings. There is no need to be afraid of anything, because if a person is honest with himself, he can be honest and open with other people. And this is my last answer to the question of why keep a personal diary.
Thus, I came to the conclusion that a personal diary can be different, its content and type depend only on its owner. I said a lot, so, for sure, someone perceived it as reality, someone as naive stupidity, someone even considered it empty nonsense. And all conclusions will be partly correct. After all, we are different, everyone has their own thoughts and their own worldview. This means that keeping a personal diary will not be interesting or important for everyone.
If a person feels the need to understand himself, he sits down to write a personal diary. But not everything always works out right away, and some people are faced with the fact that they don’t know where to start or how to do it. That's what we'll talk about.
Personal diary: why?
Many people, most often pretty young girls, begin to keep personal diaries at a certain period in their lives.
What does this mean:
- First, the need to deal with yourself, put all the feelings and emotions on the shelves. This is typical for people who are prone to introspection, creative and very sensitive.
- People start keeping diaries out of a need to speak out.. It’s not always possible to say everything even to your mother, but paper, as they say, will endure everything and not blush. At the age of 14 to infinity (around then the vast majority turn to the epistolary genre, and many continue to write until the end of their lives) new and incomprehensible things begin to happen to a person. They are associated with growing up, with first feelings, with puberty. This is deeply intimate, which is why so many people turn to the diary.
- Some people just love to write. They are interested in it, they leave evidence of their history, and then they reread it with pleasure and remember half-forgotten details. And if you feel that it’s time to sit down with a diary, take it and start.
How to start
A personal diary is similar to a school diary only in that it must also contain dates. A person writes his story, shares his experiences with himself, talks about recent events.
All this must be dated and beautifully designed. How – more on that a little later. In the meantime, let's talk about how this is done in general.
Target
And sometimes a person sits down to write a personal diary simply because he wants to. Without any specific purpose. And this is also quite normal, because in general we are now talking about deeply personal activities.
Selection of tools
The next step is choosing the tools. Now in stores there is simply a limitless selection of different notebooks, notebooks and other stationery.
You can even choose printed diaries, beautifully lined and with cute clasps. The key will be yours alone, so no one will peep any secrets. 
What exactly to choose is a matter of taste for each person. For some, it is more convenient to take a large A4 notebook, while others would prefer to hide their secrets in a miniature notebook that easily fits in the palm of your hand. In any case, you are free to design your personal diary according to your own preferences.
You can write in it with multi-colored pens, emphasize the main thoughts and highlight important events, you can even draw all sorts of pictures and stick funny stickers on it. In general, do whatever your heart desires!
And finally, modern high technologies offer another option for keeping a diary - electronic. Many of us have already forgotten how to write on paper, but we are fluent in using a keyboard. 
You can write the story of your own life on a computer, either personally only for yourself, saving it in folders locked with passwords, or posting it on the World Wide Web. But these will already be blogs. And now we are not talking about them.
When to write
And the third question is when to start writing? In principle, again, there is no specific answer, and there cannot be one. Write when your soul requires it.
Many people prefer to give themselves over to their inner experiences before going to bed, when no one is disturbing them and they can calmly think about the events and listen to themselves. This is probably the most optimal time. But again, not for everyone.
A diary is a state of mind transferred to paper (or to a computer hard drive), and it will only be alive and real when it is written at the request of the soul.
Not under pressure, not because “I started leading and now I have to do it every day,” but simply when I want. At such moments everything will work out by itself.
How to lead correctly
Again, whatever your heart desires. But still, there are some generally accepted rules for maintaining and designing a personal diary. Still, this is one of the varieties of the epistolary genre and the diary is obliged to obey certain requirements. Even if it's personal.
First of all, you can’t abandon your diary for too long. Ideally, it should be written every day, with the obligatory indication of the date. 
Sometimes, if a person makes several entries in one day, he makes notes “a little later”, “later in the evening”, “after a while”. This creates a feeling of the fluidity of time, giving a certain effect of presence.
In general, a personal diary is a deep spiritual work. Therefore, there cannot be any strict framework here. The main thing is not to leave it unattended for a long time.
Where to hide
Since we are talking about the main repository of personal secrets, making a diary is not all. It is important to hide it well. And here there is limitless scope for imagination.
Put it away in your personal belongings; many people hide it in the same place where they put away their laundry. It is unlikely that anyone will rummage in such a place except you. You can put it deeper in the closet, you can put it under the pillow, and make the bed thoroughly. Someone goes even further and hides it deep under the mattress.
Others prefer to always carry their diary with them. And this is understandable for two reasons: firstly, if he is with you all the time, no one will find him. And secondly, if suddenly inspiration comes outside the home, you can sit down and write. And then again hide the precious notebook (or notepad) inside your spacious bag.
For greater secrecy, you can buy diaries with a lock; no one will look into them, even if they accidentally discover them.
Design ideas
Since we are talking about a deeply personal thing, how to design it is a matter of the owner’s preferences. You can somehow decorate it in an original way with your own hands by gluing interesting stickers or painting the fields with different ornaments.
You can also put funny pictures or images in your diary that correspond to your state of mind. It’s even easier in an electronic diary - you can download and insert the desired picture.
What to write
What could you tell yourself? Yes, almost anything your heart desires! Various secrets, experiences, stories can easily fill a personal diary.
You can write down some facts, even the prices of new things - then it will be interesting to read about it. The more details, seemingly insignificant and empty, the more rich and lively the recordings will become.
Everything that may seem stupid at the moment will later become a priceless memory. And the more such trifles and nonsense there are in your diary, the more expensive it will be for you. 
To briefly summarize, here is everything you need for a classic personal diary:
- A great desire to keep records about oneself. Sit down to write only when you really want to.
- Accessories that suit your mood. Create your own system of stickers and notes; it will be even more interesting.
- Appropriate design. Draw in your diary, draw diagrams, try to organize the information as much as possible.
- Focus on the little things. Record as many details and little things as possible, then the diary will become more lively and interesting.
- Frankness with yourself. Write about the secret, say everything. This is your personal diary, and there should be no secrets from yourself.
Keep diaries, get to know your own soul through them - and something beautiful and infinitely deep will be revealed to you. Or rather, you yourself.
Video: Design ideas
Michael Grothaus
Writer, independent journalist. Founder and CEO of SITU Scale.
I have been running a personal account for many years. Twelve to be exact. When I tell people that I keep a diary, some begin to think that these are some kind of work-related notes. Others imagine a teenage version in the spirit of: “Dear diary! Now I feel...” And that’s all.
When I first started journaling, the first page was a real pain. But today, journaling is one of my favorite parts of my day: writing down my thoughts makes me feel better both physically and mentally.
Surprisingly, improving your well-being by keeping a diary is not just psychosomatic. This is really a matter for those who deal with it. According to Dr. James Pennebaker, a psychologist and leading expert on expressive writing, journaling helps strengthen immune cells called T cells. Thanks to this, mood improves and social activity increases. It also has a beneficial effect on the quality of close relationships.
Most studies of expressive writing involve measures of physical health to track changes. As a result of numerous scientific experiments, it became known that thanks to keeping a diary, the immune system begins to function better, blood pressure normalizes, stress improves, and stress decreases. After several months of keeping a diary, people begin to see doctors less often. Other studies have found that this activity promotes faster wound healing and greater mobility among people with arthritis. And the list goes on.
So what is journaling? This is the combination of personal reporting, based on facts, with the study of one’s own, sometimes irrational, but always important.
giphy.com There are weeks when I write every day, and sometimes I go a whole month without writing a single word. The point of keeping a diary is not only to organize your thoughts - after all, you can simply think about them carefully, and this will also bring certain benefits. When keeping a diary, it is the act of writing down thoughts that brings the greatest results.
When you take notes, the left, rational hemisphere of your brain is working. While it is busy, the right hemisphere can do what it does best: create, anticipate and feel. Keeping a diary removes all psychological blocks and allows you to use all the capabilities of our brain to better understand ourselves and the world around us.
Maud Purcell, psychotherapist, writing expert
Already intrigued? I think yes. But maybe you're like me 12 years ago, when I didn't know where to start. Therefore, I offer the following 8 tips that will help you master the art of journaling in no time.
1. Use pen and paper
The modern world is all about keyboards and touch screens. But when it comes to journaling, regular pen and paper have more advantages.
I find that most of my patients intuitively understand that writing down thoughts by hand is more effective than using a keyboard. And research confirms this. It turns out that while writing, the reticular activating system is stimulated - that area of the brain that filters and brings to the fore the information on which we focus.
Maud Purcell
Writing by hand has additional benefits. This keeps us from editing our own thoughts. Although many people in their 20s and 30s have lost the muscle memory of handwriting and may find it slow and awkward, it won't be long before you feel comfortable writing by hand again.
When I can convince young people, especially 20-year-olds, to take good old-fashioned notes in cursive, they are always amazed at the results, because it really calms them down and helps them cope with problems.
Maud Purcell
2. If you don’t like writing with a pen, find a suitable tool for you
Perhaps, after trying to write by hand, you will realize that this option is not suitable for you. There's nothing wrong with that.
Luckily, there are a huge variety of options available today. Personally, I prefer to journal by hand using the V5 Hi-Techpoint pen, which has a very thin tip. Yes, only this specific option. I think it's the perfect tool to help my thoughts flow from my head to the pages of my Moleskine notebook.
But, if paper and pen are not for you, turn to their technological counterparts. Standard editors (Word from Microsoft or Pages from Apple) and more minimalistic solutions like . Perhaps you prefer touch screens. In general, look for the most convenient solution for yourself.
3. Set a reasonable limit for yourself
giphy.com Previously, people set themselves a limit on the amount of writing, for example, 3 pages every day. But experts agree that a more effective solution when keeping a diary is to set a time limit.
Rationally consider how much time per day you can allocate to this activity in your busy schedule. Even if it's only 5 minutes at first.
Time limits help people focus on a specific goal when they start journaling. Seeing 3 blank pages in front of you can be difficult, and the matter will end before it even begins. And the time limit will not seem like an ordeal.
4. You don't have to be Shakespeare
Most (regardless of what they write: journal entries, an article for a popular magazine, or a long novel) are usually mistaken in believing that everything they write must be deep and sensual. And when you start keeping a diary with such a delusion, you can be sure that it will lead to failure. Such activities are directed outward, at others, but you should keep a diary for yourself. True depth appears naturally, spontaneously, even by accident. Pretentiousness occurs when people deliberately try to appear smarter.
Shakespeare was a great writer because of his natural talent and careful study of human nature. But what's good for him doesn't have to be good for you. You don't have to show off your literary talent. You just need to write.
I advise my patients to forget about spelling, punctuation and just pour out their stream of consciousness on paper. This way, keeping a diary will help bring to the fore information that is stored a little deeper than consciousness. Let it pour out.
Maud Purcell
5. Don't edit
One of the purposes of journaling is to explore areas of your mind that you may not want to explore. Diary entries are not articles. No one will check your spelling, grammar, punctuation or content structure. When you edit, you start to think and focus on your writing rather than your thoughts.
The essence of journaling is to write without thinking. By thinking, we interfere with our intuition, and therefore the whole meaning of the diary is lost. Journaling can help us explore ways we may not consciously discover. We can find extremely interesting topics if we stop thinking for a while.
6. Journal in the same place every day.
giphy.com You don't have to lock yourself in a secluded ivory tower to write down your thoughts. However, having a specific place where you write your personal journal will encourage you to take better introspective notes.
I have a favorite cafe in London where I like to write. Even when it gets noisy with clinking cups and people talking, I find the background noise soothing. It helps me immediately get into the right frame of mind, and I dive into my diary. If coffee shops aren't your thing, try writing in a quiet room at home or on a park bench.
Let it be an attractive place, where it is cozy, where there are things that inspire you, where you can see, touch or smell them: flowers, sentimental items, memorabilia or pleasant drinks - your choice.
Maud Purcell
7. Leave room for content.
When I buy a new Moleskine, I always skip the first two or three pages before I start journaling. When I fill my entire notebook (usually in a year), I wait a while and then re-read it.
As I re-read, I highlight notes or thoughts that I think are important, note the page numbers or date of writing, and then move them to the very beginning of the journal. This is how the content gradually develops, thanks to which I can easily find important entries. This helps me a lot when I face difficulties. I can look at how I have faced challenges in the past that seemed insurmountable but that I was eventually able to overcome.
Experts do not have a consensus on whether a diary needs a table of contents or not.
“Some people like structure, some people don't,” Pennebaker says. - Some people like to reread what they have written, others don’t. The point is to find a way that works for you."
Purcell has a different point of view: “I like the idea. Of course, some parts of the journal will seem more relevant to your life in general. And quick access to these notes will be useful, especially in confusing or confusing times. It’s great to be able to remind yourself how you dealt with seemingly impossible situations in the past.”
8. Keep your diary away from prying eyes
Find a safe and secure place for your journal. For this activity to be truly effective, you must feel as free as possible and write down things that you cannot tell even your best friend.
A personal diary is not a letter to another person. This is not a document by which others should judge you. Want to ? Fine. Write a book. The diary is just for you alone. If what you write may hurt the feelings of others or harm your reputation, destroy the diary or hide it in a safe place.
Remember that you are writing only for yourself.
