The Power of Pen and Paper

Today, we're diving into the transformative power of pen and paper, exploring how journaling can be a cornerstone of personal and professional success. Join me as we unpack the profound impact that journaling can have on your life.

Discover the science behind why writing things down helps with learning, memory, and accountability. Learn how to harness the power of both personal and professional journals to capture your goals, strategies, reflections, and gratitude. We'll also discuss the importance of routine and how to find the right journaling cadence that works for you.

From practical tips on maintaining a daily journal to integrating your to-do lists into your calendar, this episode is packed with insights to help you become more intentional with your time and more successful in your endeavors.

Tune in as we discuss:

• The science behind why journaling works.
• How to use journaling to enhance personal and professional growth.
• Practical strategies for maintaining a consistent journaling habit.
• The benefits of integrating your goals and to-do lists into your daily schedule.

Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting your journey, this episode will equip you with the tools to turn your thoughts into actionable plans. Tune in, take action, and start journaling your way to success. 

Introduction (00:00)
The Power of Journaling (00:35)
Personal vs. Professional Journals (01:29)
The Science of Learning and Journaling (01:47)
Auditory Learning and Journaling (02:04)
Visual Learning and the Power of Writing (02:47)
Practical Benefits of Journaling (04:41)
Journaling and Gratitude (05:51)
Journals and To-Do Lists (07:09)
Using Calendars as Journals (08:26)
Intentional Scheduling (10:00)
Frequency of Journaling (10:58)
Conclusion (14:25)

Transcript

0:10

Welcome to the end game podcast, season two, where I bet you didn't know you didn't know. I'm Dr. Ryan Wakim, successful entrepreneur and your end game coach. I want you to sit back, relax, and tune into today's episode, the power of pen and paper introducing today's topic. I think it's something we've talked about a number of times in the past. I've even talked about it with some guests of mine in the past. And that is truly understanding the power of the pen. And that's been used contextually many times over, but I'm talking about it specifically as it relates to. Journaling and what does that mean or how does that work into your strategy as you think about, you know, building success and building great habits, but also how does it help to empower you beyond just professionally, but also personally, too. And so I'm a huge believer in journaling. In fact, one of my mentors, one of the very first things they did, even me as a psychiatrist was hand me a journal. And, you know, I just found myself writing ideas and reflections and. Goals and strategies and all sorts of things in my journal. So journal, a journal doesn't have to be just about your teenage romance years and kind of your heartbreaks and your heartthrobs. It can be used as an incredibly powerful tool for business purposes. Again, can absolutely be used personally. And I'm here to advocate that you do that. I would also advocate that you, if you're going to do that, you would do that with two different journals. You would have your. Personal journal that you would put all of those sorts of items into, and then you would have your professional journal, which is really, you know, obviously geared towards your business goals, your, your business life and your business enhancements. And again, part of the science behind journaling is not just. This idea of first and foremost, people can be learners and acquirers of information through different sensations. So as you know, we have multiple senses and one of those senses are the sense of sound. And so some people are. Learners or are able to process information best through listening and actually, again, if you were to go through some developmental workshops on this, you would know those who are akin or really learn through listening or hearing someone often. You know, we'll turn their, their kind of dominant ear or we'll turn their head towards you when they're speaking. They're not necessarily making eye contact. They're more interested in what you have to say. And so you actually, you'll find them kind of leaning towards you or returning that you're towards you. So you have learners and synthesizers of information that are auditory in nature, but the overwhelming majority of those who learn or synthesize information best is actually through visual, but it's through this idea of. Of making connections with words and seeing something written down. So a lot of what we, a lot of the information we get, whether it's from this podcast or from a coach or mentor or out in the wild or in your day to day business life is often auditory in nature. And so there are some people who learn best that way and who acquire information and who consolidate memories best through hearing. But the, you know, it's a, it's a huge proportion. I think it's nearly 75 percent actually do it best through visual. And so the true science behind a journal is far beyond just putting something on paper. It's actually your ability to see that information on paper. So you've taken what you've heard, you've processed it. Which, by the way, sometimes through your own lens, so you want to be aware of that, but then you've put it down on paper for you to be able to see, and it's actually the scene and oftentimes seen more than one time that allows it to become part of your consciousness, that allows it to become part of your working memory, that allows it to really live and breathe in a way that it takes on actual accountability. It takes on actual enhancement and creativity and success as compared to you heard it once. And you lost it or you forgot it, or you heard it. You're not an auditory learner. And so you actually never heard it. So journaling, and by the way, there are, you can do auditory journals. You can, you can keep memos. You can keep auditory journals too. If you are someone who learns best through. The auditory sensation, but if you're not that person, or if you want to try to keep it in a way that might be more organized, or you can easily tag back to unless you get really good with tagging different voice memos with the right labels. And again, if you want to be able to go back to it and reflect on it and. Kind of look at it multiple times in a way, or hear it multiple times in a way that you can actually consolidate it and do something with it. That's where drama becomes important. So journaling is beyond this concept of a psychotherapeutic technique, or again, heart throbs and heart breaks. It actually has to do with your ability to. Take information and really learn it, really consolidate it, really hold yourself accountable to it. You know, what, what gets measured gets done or gets managed to. And so if you have audacious goals, you're stretching outside your comfort zone with a vision and goals, and it's not on paper. You've heard me say this before. Then it doesn't really exist. You can't reflect back on it. You can't hold yourself accountable to it. So journaling is really important, not just because of the science of how we learn and how we consolidate and how we best become aware and enhance our lives. It's also around this ability to hold oneself accountable and to reflect back. You, you, you. Almost always need to see something, not just hear something, see something multiple times for to truly become part of your kind of working mindset and organization. And so for accountability purposes, for creativity purposes, for problem solving purposes, for self awareness and enhancement, all of these reasons journaling is really critical in your success story. And finally, I would say journaling is also really powerful when you think about. The practice of gratitude or being grateful. And as we think about, as we talked about before, this idea of purpose and gratitude and again, reflecting back, what are you grateful for? So it's not just account, you know, accounts of things you've learned. It's not just hard facts. It's not just strategy. You can also use journals in a way that they can become really. Empowering from a gratefulness perspective or gratitude or from an enhancement of your purpose and drive kind of your why oftentimes putting your why on paper again makes it more real and helps you reflect back on it and remind yourself when it is, when it has been a challenging day, personally or professionally, it allows you to ground yourself back in a moment where you can be. Uh, where you can shift your mindset and help be more grateful, more forgiving, more loving, um, you know, more emotional, more positively emotional in otherwise emotionally difficult or dysregulated states. So it's a really great, really powerful tool for strategy, for grounding, for focus enhancement and all the other things. So journaling is really important, um, for, uh, any. Personal or professional growth, um, and that's been proven many times over again, through both science and anecdotally, so really want to focus on or emphasize how important journaling can be taking that just a slight deviation from that and kind of one step further and one step to the side, which is, uh, there are things in our lives that can function as journals. And we, if you happen to hear the podcast from Tara Stubbins, she actually brought this up in a slightly different way, but. Sometimes we think about journaling, we think about to do lists, or, you know, here's my list of things I'm going to do today, or here's my list of goals, or here's my list. Right? And to her point, and rightfully so, some of the problems that we run into with lists, even if we chunk those lists down, even if we put, you know, Um, by when date. So not only here's this thing, it's also, it's only these three things and this thing will be done by this date. Even doing that can cause internal anxiety and panic and stress. And so as we think about how we live a optimal life, a less stressful life, a successful life, you don't want to just keep adding to do items, adding stress. And so beyond journaling or putting something on paper, she had a really great idea that I just want to emphasize. I think it's, it's really an incredible one, which is your journaling or to do list doesn't have to live in a leather bound journal. It can live on on your calendar. Right? So it's a do list can actually be reflected into a calendar, meaning it's not a. You don't have 15 sticky notes around your desk, but you have a daily schedule. And part of that schedule is to do's. Part of that schedule is hard block time on things you've journaled about or strategies or enhancements. Um, so really, you know, as we've talked before, time is the most valuable thing you have. And your schedule is a reflection of your time. It's, it's an account of your time. And so when we're blocking things on a schedule or accounting, So, you know, For the most valuable, precious item we have time, we should be doing so with an incredible amount of intention, right? So there should be real thought around why you're doing this thing at this time or on this day, why you're allotting it this much amount of time as compared to this much amount of time, why you might choose to hard block things like lunch or exercise or a meditation. And again, even one step further, why you might choose to put. To do list or things that are really impactful, empowering or important in your journal into your calendar. So that is there for you to see on that day. Right? So what is ultimately important of your time today, how you're not just blocking that time and prioritizing that time, but also what energy you're putting into those different meetings. And what are the other key aspects that. Maybe shouldn't just live on a piece of paper, but also should be reminders in your calendar. So, you know, again, we've mentioned it before, but this idea of really being a master of your calendar, really spending the time each day to make sure you're truly intentional with your time and how that time is accounted for. And that is via a calendar or a schedule. And so journaling is not just journaling in a leather bound book. It is also how you choose to take those same ideas, thoughts, to dos, lists, priorities, and putting them into your calendar in a way that reflects and aligns with what you need to do, not just today. But how you need to be incredibly thoughtful and intentional with your scheduled time, right? So again, work will expand and contract and fit into whatever time you allot it. And so make sure that you're being truly intentional with your time so that when you are using time, it is truly the highest and best use. Of your time. And so I think it's really important to point that out. I, I love what Tara said around that. I think it's, um, really powerful, not just for me, but, uh, hopefully very powerful for you too. There's, uh, I've alluded to a little bit, but there's also this idea of like, how often do you journal or, um, is that a daily thing? Is that every so many hours? Is it once a week? And, and the answer is yes. Um, so I think that journaling, um, is incredibly not, I think, I know that journaling is incredibly powerful. I know that there's science behind it. And for all the reasons we just said, it's a tool that everyone should have and use, and it's not a one size fits all, right? I'm not here to tell you, you must do this. You must journal at 9. PM every single day. I am here to tell you that routine matters, right? As we've kind of talked about before. No matter how creative you are or how free you would like to be, routine does help hold a structure for success. And so, you know, regardless of how you are, regardless of what routine means to you, I do think there should be a routine or a cadence to what you're doing. And I do think journaling should fall within that. I would say that there's a lot of evidence around a daily journal. Only so much as the ability to kind of reflect reflections only as powerful as the, what you remember from the thing you are reflecting on. And so if you're only journaling once a week and trying to do lessons learned and reflect back and be incredibly grateful on 7 days worth of stuff. You're likely to miss a few or candidly, you're likely to feel a bit overwhelmed. And so there's not a perfect answer here. Although there is some good science on a daily journal, no matter how small that might be only because it does allow you to reflect back onto a day that you hopefully can still remember. And, you know, again, reflect back, not just on goals and what, what went well that day, what, what was more challenging that day, but also what that day was incredibly grateful. Again, if you were to listen to the Tara She did a really good job explaining this to her. She asked herself very powerful questions every single day, and that's her way of journaling. She asked, I think it was three, three or five very powerful questions. She answers that question or those questions very transparently and honestly with herself, and it is her way of journaling. Making sure that she's aligned on the day for goal setting, making sure that she's self reflecting, making sure that she's had a moment for herself and for her family and all of the gratitude that comes and the visualizations that come with that. So journaling, um, there's not just the science of doing it as being helpful. There's also this idea that you have to do it in a way that you actually can get something from. And so daily journaling is often what's recommended, but if that's too much or that's overpowering or overwhelming to start, sure, once a week is fine. And then you can build to. Every other day and then maybe built a once a day, but you know, you got to start somewhere or you have to crawl walk around. And so if journaling once a month is where you have to start, then that's where you have to start. And then you can build yourself or build the routine and really practice and become a better journaler or more consistent journaler with time. So start somewhere. Work your way towards something that is appropriate and attainable. Again, don't set a goal to journal every day if you're, if you will never do it. Right. Cause then you're just setting yourself up for failure. So build a strategy and a plan around how you're going to get to an ultimate goal of what is optimal journaling for you, why it's optimal for you and how you're best going to use that tool as part of your tool belt. So planning accordingly, building up to it, not making it overwhelming and getting to a point where you can use it in a way that's best for you. Empowering and impactful for you. Not for me, not for what someone else does. So put the thought into this ahead of time and then build a plan around it. So in conclusion, again, journaling is an incredibly scientifically proven way. To empower both your personal and professional lives, the cadence in which you choose to do it, the form and format that you choose to take with it. There's a lot of good information in today's podcast around what that might look like for you or, or get creative. How, you know, what else could it look like? How else could you do it? You know, what else does journaling mean to you and how do you put it into your daily plan or your weekly plan so that it ultimately pulls out the strategy and the goals and the purpose and the gratitude that you're looking to obtain. By using journaling as a technique. So again, super excited to share with you that information by all means. Check out the podcast with Tara Stubbins. She has some really good insight and tips on this as well. And as per usual, thank you for listening. Please like, subscribe, share this episode. Incredibly grateful for you. Once again, I'm Dr. Ryan Wakim successful entrepreneur and your end game coach. I'm here to teach you how to exist today. So you may expand tomorrow and create the ultimate end game of your wildest desires.