Journal Power: Details Matter but the Big Picture Rules!

I was thinking the other day about how journaling is exquisitely helpful for two things that represent opposite ends of a spectrum. 

At one extreme, journal writing is an easy opportunity to get into the microscopic details of whatever issues are present for you. Your journal is where you describe, dissect, and design the tiniest elements that make up your experience. 

For instance, a potential career change is consuming your thoughts. While journaling, you look at all the pros and cons, all the emotions and reasons, all the fears and hopes. You write them out, in descriptions, lists, stories, stream-of-consciousness scribblings. 

1. Start with a thorough boo-hoo, pouring out to your journal your fears and all the reservations that tell you not to take this career risk, not to rock the boat. 

2. Spend some time journaling about what will happen if your initiative bombs. If you take steps to make a change, what is the worst that can happen? Be sure to write past the point where you think you’re done writing on this subject; that point past your comfort zone is where life-changing discoveries lie. 

3. Continue now with a detailed imaginative look at how your world will be if the change is made successfully. What exactly is life like for you now that you have taken the leap? Indulge your wildest dreams in these descriptions. 

4. If you were to commit to a change, what is the first step you will take? Be very very clear in describing it. And then, what is the second step? What if you write out in your journal a complete process for making the change? 

5. Now begin transitioning to a different viewpoint. Begin to turn your vision from the tiny details to a wider vision. Accomplish this transformation of your perspective by meditating, exercising, creating, or doing whatever it takes to relax your grip on the specifics, your stranglehold on personal control of outcomes. 

It’s important to make this transition because journal writing is also where we can access the big picture, the bird’s eye view that balances all those hairy details, that keeps things in perspective. 

Before you do anything, before you make a transition, it helps to stop and let the Universe weigh in. 

We’re so hell-bent on progress, so caught up in forward motion. It’s vitally important to slow down, open up, and ensure that intuition isn’t drowned by reason. 

Once again, use your journal to access the bigger picture. 

• Think of a time in your past when you made a transition. Write a letter to your past self, complete with advice and encouragement. 

• Picture yourself in the distant future, years from now. How will you think about the transition then? Write a statement of your imagined outlook in your journal. 

• Forget about this issue and take a walk, or dance around the house, or otherwise work out your physical body. Afterwards, pick up your journal and free-write for a timed minute or two. What is revealed? 

Sure, reason and calculations are necessary, and we use them to the best of our abilities. Keeping the Big Picture in mind, though, is the game changer in the long run. 

Stay aligned through journaling.

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