Episode 289: The Most Important Personal Development Practice with Chip Franks

Chip Franks: Well, hello, goal achievers. No, your ears do not deceive you. This is not Hal Elrod. This is actually Chip Franks. And before you click stop in disgust, because it’s not Hal coming to you this week, I think we’re going to have something that’s very, very valuable for you. Now, again, my name is Chip Franks. I’m actually Hal’s Chief Miracle Worker. And this week, we’re going to do something that’s a little bit different. And Hal was actually out for a little while. He had some migraines. He wasn’t feeling as good as he normally does so I get to fill in today and I’m going to try and give you something very, very valuable. Now, obviously, on most of these podcasts, we have fantastic guests that talk with you about achieving your goals and getting more done in life but today is going to be a little bit different. Now, today is actually going to be more of a training or tutorial and I think it’s going to help make your life better. And it’s all about the second S in the SAVERS. Of course, you know SAVERS or you should know SAVERS if you’re listening to this. It’s from Hal’s book, The Miracle Morning, and the SAVERS stand for silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and the second S which we’re going to talk all about today, scribing, which of course is a fancy word for journaling but the acronym SAVERJ just doesn’t have the quite the same ring to it. So, we’re going to call it scribing. 

 

And today, by the time that you finish this, I’m hoping that this actual podcast, this particular Achieve Your Goals Podcast is going to be a resource for you. So, you can come back to it, you can listen to it again and again, and pick up some things and try some new things and enhance your scribing practice because I promise you, once you start journaling, and journaling intently and having these wonderful, profound conversations with yourself, then you’re not going to go back. I mean, this is just fantastic. And just a quick little bit about me. I met Hal a few years ago at the Genius Network. I was running a real estate company, my real estate company at the time, and I’ve since sold it after having a stroke and that’s another story altogether. But Hal approached me and said, “Hey, would you like to work with me and join me in this grand, wonderful purpose of elevating the consciousness of humanity one person at a time?” And honestly, I wasn’t that thrilled about having a boss because I hadn’t had one for 23, 24 years but I realized that was just my ego talking. And now I get to help Hal every day increase his business and help people, people that like you, get to listen to this podcast and in our Miracle Morning community on Facebook. 

 

And if you’re not there, please get there. It is an awesome, wonderful group, but just look for the Miracle Morning community on Facebook and check that out because there’s so much encouragement, so much inspiration, so many posts and things that can give your techniques for SAVERS a big boost. And really, it’s just a fantastic place to be. And it’s quite different than the rest of social media in the landscape there in that it’s encouraging and it’s positive, and it’s wonderful. So, I encourage you to be there and of course, it’s my job to help that community and make it valuable for people just like I intend to make this podcast available for you. Now, I did sell my real estate companies. I’m helping Hal with this. I built up a company that at the height of it had 30 people in it. It was pretty financially successful but it wasn’t for me either. And now getting to help Hal is just like a dream come true so this is great. And I have actually written a book, Life Lessons From Dad, and I’ve gotten a chance to speak on some of the same stages at events with people like Tony Robbins, Peter Diamandis, Daymond John, that kind of thing. So, I’ve been able to do that and I was even hired by Amazon to come in and speak to and train about 100 of their managers. 

 

So, that’s kind of my background on this and more importantly to you right now, I am a voracious journaler. I love journaling. It’s just been such a big part of my life. And to give you an idea, I’m going to post a picture of this on the resources page on the web page that we go through with this. But I go through about a 220, 250-page journal each and every month. And that sounds like a lot and actually, if you look at it, because I’ve been doing it for several years now, if you look at it, it looks intimidating but honestly, I don’t think I spend more than 15 minutes a day journaling. It’s just been so good for my practice of life and I’m going to share that with you. So, by the time you’re finished with this podcast, you’re going to have 10 methods of journaling. So, when you’re staring at that blank sheet of paper during your striving practice during your Miracle Morning or if you just do journaling, just by itself, I’ll submit to you that I think it is the most important self-development exercise there is. And I’ll get into that and why I think that is a little bit later here. But hopefully, just by the end of this, you’re going to have those techniques down. You’re going to try some of them in your own life. And I think that we all know if we hear something, and it sounds great, still nothing changes unless we change. And hopefully, when you hear this, you’ll be inspired to change some behavior if you’re not journaling and to give it a shot. That’s all we ask. 

 

You know, I’m a marketing guy and we like to test things. We see if it works and if it works, we continue. And if it doesn’t work, we discontinue. So, I would at least encourage you and if you’re listening to this right now, and you say, “Hey, some of this makes sense. I’m going to give it a try,” if you can just make that commitment that if this makes sense, you’re going to give it a shot, and your life can be changed, yes, through a single podcast. So, that is what’s going to happen. We’re going to help your life through journaling. Now, just real quickly, before I get started on this, I wanted to tell you about something that Hal and I are working on. And it is called The Miracle Year Mentorship and it is where Hal will actually meet and give you lessons each and every week on achieving your best life possible, your best year possible, and changing things. And we go over things like how to have your best Miracle Morning sessions ever, how to make that routine and regular. And one of the very first things, actually I should say this first, that we go through is how to actually do things that you don’t want to do and get really consistent in your practices for making your life better. 

 

And I’m excited about that because we surveyed and got over 4,000 responses from the Miracle Morning community and the biggest problem that most people have, and maybe you relate to this, I know I do at certain times is that we know what to do, but we don’t always do it. And Hal is a master at doing things he doesn’t want to do. I mean, he is amazing. And going over some of the techniques that he shares with doing that, honestly, it is life-changing. But if you want to hear from Hal each and every week, and it’s very inexpensive, if you’re interested in that, just sign up for the waiting list. And if you can just write this down real quick, it is the MiracleLifeMentorship.com. And if you get there, there’s a question or two that you answer, and then put in your email address, and you will join the waitlist for as soon as that is released. And you’ll get to know about it and see if it’s something that you would like. If it’s not, completely cool, that I promise it’s going to be exceptional so I’m excited about that.

 

Chip Franks: So now, let’s get into journaling real quick and start to give you some value out of this. The first, I mean, why do we even journal? I want to go over this with I want to share at least what it means to me, and maybe some of this will ring true for you. And here’s the thing, journaling, and actually writing down my ideas and writing down my days, and the things that happened to it, it is a record of my life. Now, one of my core beliefs is that all life is precious, and especially yours and mine. When we talk about this, if your life is precious, and you really believe that, then you’re going to want to keep a record of that, and just know what’s going on in your life, and journaling does that for me. And now it’s also, maybe this is the biggest thing. It’s a conversation that I get to have with myself. It takes all of these thoughts that are whirling around in your brain and if you’re like me, you’ve had some issues with anxiety or overwhelm or thinking of all the things that are going on in your life. And what journaling does for me is it allows me to get all of that crazy stuff out of my head in the deep, dark recesses of my mind, and I get to drag it out into the light of day on paper. 

 

And there’s something special about when you write something down. When you write out a conversation with yourself, you become an objective third party that gets to look at that and make decisions based on it. And now just real quick, I’ll talk about this is that when you do that, you’re able to give advice for friends sometimes and just fantastic, wonderful advice and sometimes you look at yourself and like, “Oh my gosh, that was great what I just said,” but you aren’t able to do it for yourself sometimes. I know that happens with me. What journaling does is it just gets you to be, gosh, it makes it really objective for you so you can look at your life, you can think about your thinking, which is really wonderful and have those objective conversations with yourself. And then it’s also a refuge for me. It’s a place where I can completely let down all of my guard, I can be myself, and not worry about what society thinks or what anyone else thinks but again, it’s just me. And I really love that. It’s also a creation ground. 

 

And one of my mentors, one of Hal’s mentors, Jim Rohn, says that nothing like the magic things when nothing turns into something. He talks about that a lot. And for me, that’s when an idea starts to take shape, and it starts to manifest and realize itself in real life. For me, that’s what happens with journaling because the seed of an idea, that nothing that starts in our brain when it gets written down into paper, it’s that magic moment when that nothing starts to become something. And one of the greatest feelings in life is when an idea comes to realization, a worthy, wonderful idea that helps other people, an enterprise, a book, something a change in your life, and all of that takes place in the pages of journaling. So, that is why I love journaling. And actually, I’m going to flip the page right now because everything that I’m saying right now has been outlined in my journal. So, that’s what I want to do. 

 

Then lastly, I’m just going to say this real quickly. It’s also a place for my goals. If you are a goal-directed individual, and I think that you are if you’re listening to a podcast called Achieve Your Goals, then journaling is what’s for you. But whether or not you journal or you don’t journal, what I’m about to give you is going to give you some good information, some new techniques, some different things that you can try as a journaler. So, here is what we’re going to do. We’re going to get started and I’m going to give you 10 techniques, and I’ll number them one through 10 so you can come back and reference them and they will also be on the page notes on Hal’s web page. So, we’ll put that in here. If you go to HalElrod.com and look for the podcast, actually make that MiracleMorning.com and you go to Podcast on there and you click podcast, you will see this page. It’s for this week and you can use it as a reference here. And now each of these techniques is going to help you overcome that blank page fear. And that is just when you open your journal, and it’s time to write something and you’re like, “I have no idea what to write,” and that is completely cool but this is something I can help you with that. 

 

So, number one, we’re going to go. Technique number one is what I call the Dear Diary. And this is what most people consider to be journaling. What it is, is just a daily record of what you’re doing each day, what you’ve done, and then I think what’s more important about that is to write what you feel about that. What’s in your soul about it? What observations do you have or things that you learn from that particular day? And just get that out of your head and get it down on a piece of paper. And by piece of paper, I mean, your journal, so write that out, and just elaborate on it and just go to town. “Today I did this. And then I did this. And you know what, maybe I should have done this, but I didn’t do it, and this is how I feel about it. And here’s what I’m going to do to make it better in the future.” You know, just have that conversation, like you’re talking with a friend about it, and make it as useful as you can. I love this idea because it’s easy. Most people can get it, and you can just start writing down everything. And just what I had mentioned earlier about the journal being a record of your life, that’s when it happens is by doing this technique, the Dear Diary. So, that is technique number one and I think most people get a good idea of how that works so I’m not going to go too deeply into that. 

 

Technique number two, now this one, honestly, it has changed my life. So, technique number two is the daily appreciation. What I do with this? I actually do this twice a day. And it’s been fantastic for me but I would recommend that you can do this just once a day and I would generally recommend it probably in the morning if I had to pick one of the two, although I do it at morning and nights and they’re both very, very important. But the daily appreciation is where you write out three to five things that you actively appreciate for the day. And now you may say that sounds something like a gratitude journal and it is, but I prefer the term daily active appreciation. And let me just explain that real quickly. Gratitude to me is something that’s a little passive, and that comes to you. And you might say to yourself, “Wow, that is a fantastic sunset. That’s so beautiful. How could I not appreciate that?” That is passive. That’s something coming to you that you just happen to be grateful for that you appreciate with that. 

 

Now, what I recommend is going out and actively appreciating something else. And I got this from two of my mentors, Jesse Elder and Dan Sullivan. I want to give them credit for it, and they like the word appreciation better than gratitude. And I do too. Whereas gratitude is passive, appreciation and active appreciation is proactive. So, this technique is where you go out, and you actively appreciate the things in your life. And I like to do three to five things and here’s just a quick take on how I do it and, of course, you can do it however you want to, obviously. It’s your journal, it’s your life, but what I’d like to do is write down something very profound that I appreciate first and that can be the opportunity in this life or the fact that we have a body and it’s breathing and for the most part, it is sound and it is a vehicle for our dreams, and that we’re getting to experience life. I remember waking up one morning and hearing my wife breathing, and just being so grateful that she is in this world and she is alive. And that to me is something very profound. 

 

And also, with my son. The other day, I got to just stare in his face while he was sleeping. For those of you parents out there, seeing your kids sleeping is one of the most peaceful wonderful things in the world and I got to just take a moment and just deeply cherish that. And what’s wonderful is I got to cherish it again in my journal. That is the first thing that I do is I list something very profound that we can be grateful for. Now, the next thing I usually choose is something that I could usually take for granted, that is in my life, and unless we have a practice like this, where we journal the things that we appreciate deeply, those little things can just be taken for granted. And some examples of this, I remember one morning, just turning on hot water, and having hot water on demand. What a blessing that is. I mean, seriously, even the kings of old that owned everything in the world at the time didn’t have hot, warm water, or plumbing that brought it to them every day but we do. Even the people that are in poverty generally have this and in our first world world. So, that’s something that’s amazing. 

 

Or the engineers, I thought about the engineers that make my tires safe when it’s wet outside and keep my family safe or the engineers that make the car doors that I have. When I close my door, it’s just a really solid sound feeling when I close this and I know that I’m safe, because some engineers went to school, took the time, did the math, and studied hard, and applied it to make it into my car door, which keeps me safe. You know, and things like that, that just really that you could take for granted otherwise. So, that is the next thing that I do. 

 

And then the third thing and this one, this is really to my way of thinking and please write this one down because I think it’s so important is I appreciate an obstacle or a challenge in my life. Now, most of us don’t like challenges, we don’t like obstacles, and we have kind of a fearful relationship with them. But what I try and do is each and every day is write down my biggest challenge or obstacle and it doesn’t have to be the biggest challenge or obstacle but something that’s in my life that I wouldn’t normally appreciate and I find ways to appreciate that. And to me, this is again, where you ace life where things get better and when you can look at life and say, you know what, I’m happy that this obstacle is happening. I’m happy that I’m facing this challenge because of the person that makes me to overcome that challenge.

 

Wow. I mean, when you get that, it just changes life tremendously. And when you do it every day and you write this down every day, it can change your life tremendously. And those are the first three things, the big, profound things, something I take for granted, and then an obstacle. And then the next two things can vary for me, and I try and do five every morning, I recommend not doing more than that. Three to five is just fine. But if you do more, then it sets the bar kind of high and you might find that it’s a chore rather than something you look forward to. But I also put down people that I really appreciate that are in my life, and why I appreciate them. And oftentimes I’ll share it with them later in the day and it just makes us both happy. It’s pretty wonderful. But if you think about that, think about the people, and then also events, things that have happened in your life and things that are going to happen in your life. Now the future things, it’s a little weird to already be appreciative and grateful for those but I love to do that because now there’s no need to delay the joy in it. 

 

Like I know my family and I are going to Maui again next year and it was just such a wonderful vacation and I got to write down today that we’re going to Maui and looking forward to that and how great it’s going to be and there’s no need to delay the joy in that. Then, of course, things that have happened in your past, things that you want to remember or times that you just want to bring to mind. Write it out and you can put any kind of thing in there that reminds you of it but those are all the kinds of things that I put on my daily appreciation list and it’s a fantastic use of your journal. Just what I find, too, is that when you appreciate like that, one, you’re happier, obviously. I mean, it’s tough to be anxious or fearful when you’re doing gratitude like that. And in fact, my mentor told me that it is impossible to be anxious or fearful in the same head at the same time that you have gratitude. So, think about that. That’s one. And then two, it kind of puts up my appreciation antenna for the day where I appreciate things throughout the day a lot better. So, that is technique number two, the daily appreciation list. 

 

Technique number three, the great day exercise. Now, this is something that I got from the Five Minute Journal. I’ll talk a little bit more about that here soon but I write down what would make today an amazing day. And I just go through and I figure out some of the things that would make it amazing, some of the things that I can do. It’s a little bit of an idea session, where I can brainstorm a little bit on ways to make today amazing, ways to connect with people more or set an intention, and that’s fantastic. And usually, I try and write down three of those things that will make my day amazing, which is pretty wonderful. If you can imagine, if you do that each and every day, especially if you’re not doing anything like it, how much better your days gets just by taking that technique and writing it down on paper. So, it’s pretty wonderful there. 

 

So, technique number four and this one’s a little bit related to the great day exercise but I love this one and this is one that I got from Benjamin Franklin. And he had a question, and I love this. And he says, “How will I be today?” And I call it the daily intention, and I write it down, “How will I be today?” Because if you think about this, we all seem to have to-do lists, things that we have to do and those way on our minds. They tell us what we have to do and we’re often subscribing to someone else’s agenda for a day and writing those things off. But even if we have a to-do list, we seldom have a to-be list. And that’s what this is. So, I write down my intention for the day. I write down, “How will I be today?” And when you do that, and think about it for yourself, how would you be today? Like if you could just write the perfect script for how you show up today, what would that look like? Would you be brave and courageous? Would you be funny? Would you be mesmerizing? Would you be hilarious or goal-oriented or effective or dollar productive, or a light for other people to see or a refuge of kindness? I mean those are all things and what’s really great about that is we get to script our own behavior with this technique. And it’s something I’ve fallen in love with and I am a much better person because I do that. And this is one of my very consistent practices and techniques that I use in my journal each and every day and I think it makes me a better person. So, I’d encourage you to try technique number four, which is the daily intention of how will I be today. 

 

So now, technique number five. Being as this is Achieve Your Goals Podcast, we can’t get away from this one. Technique number five is my want list and that is what I want in my life. It’s writing it out, it is getting very clear and specific on your goals, and just writing out the top three to five things that you want in your life right now and getting as clear as you can on it, making it visceral, and something that you can feel. And the beautiful thing about that is when you write it down, it becomes part of you. Your subconscious will go to work on it, it will work its magic, and help make that something you realize in your own life. Some people call it manifestation but this is where you write your goals and the script for your entire life is written out. I remember I learned this one from Brian Tracy a long time ago and something that he does is just writes down the top five things he wants in his life. He doesn’t check his notes from before. It’s just a running rolling list that he does each and every day to keep his mind focused on the future and what’s happening. Of course, when you do that, unseen forces will come to your aid to make those a reality in your life. So, I love that. So, technique number five, what I want. 

 

Now, technique number six, I’m excited to share this with you. And if you’ve never done this one, this one is very powerful. It can literally change your course in life and get you to do things that you haven’t done before and give you clarity on what you want your life to look like in the future. And it’s called the Perfect Day Exercise. And I heard this one again from Jesse Elder but I think other people have talked about it as well. But the perfect day exercise goes like this, you write down in your journal exactly what your perfect day would look like, from the moment you wake up in the morning, your eyes open, to the time your eyes closed at night, and you can have anything in it. There are no rules to this. And if you want mansions and yachts and private jets in it, that’s completely fine. If you want relationships in it, if you want your kids being close to you and you just being happy, or for me, well mine was renting an Italian Villa near Florence, doing my Miracle Morning in the morning and running as the sun was coming up and being in fantastic shape. Then taking my family into the town where my son and I went to the wonderful museums, and my ladies all went shopping in the fine Italian places. Then we got back together again and I worked for a little bit and I got to look at my computer and see emails of people saying, “You’ve changed my life. You’ve helped so much.” And then later that night, going into our plane and going to England to give a speech. 

 

And I had no idea. I mean, that’s just something that kind of popped out of my subconscious that I thought would be a perfect day. So, I wrote it down and honestly that helped change my career and what I want to do with it. So, I just encourage you to do that and get as specific as you can, things that smell. You know, write down what you smell, what you hear, what you see, the things that you’re going to have to eat, and what you’re doing with your time and who you’re doing it with. I mean, this is such a powerful exercise. And the cool thing about this is it’s really fun. So, I don’t do it real often. I probably do this about twice a year that you want to set aside 30 minutes to an hour or so and just have a date with yourself and your journal and your dreams. And it is so much fun to do. And that is technique number six, the perfect day exercise. 

 

Now, are you getting something out of this? I’m hoping that you’re saying, “Gosh, this is great stuff,” and you want to come back to this and use it as a reference or actually, what’s even better is getting your own journal out and writing these down for yourself. Because when you write it down, there is something very special that happens with you and your memory on that and it will truly help you and you will remember it. So, if you haven’t been taking notes on this, hopefully, you’re in a place where you could do that. I often listen to this while I’m driving, so I’d have to come back to it but obviously, this is your podcast. You get to do what you would like with it on your end. So, I hope that helps. 

 

So, let’s get to number seven. Technique number seven in the scribing practice, the problem solver. Now, this one is wonderful. You’ve got problems. I’ve got problems. We’ve all got problems. If we have a pulse, and we are a human being there’s some kind of problem in our life. Now, the thing about problems is that they tend to sit on your soul, and they fester in the dark recesses of our mind, in our heart, and they just get worse and worse and worse and they produce anxiety and fear. And somewhere in the back of us, we just have like the worst-case scenario playing out in our head at all times. And most of the time, those things don’t come true and the worst-case scenario doesn’t happen and even if they do happen, it’s usually not all that bad. But here’s what this exercise does, the problem solver. What you want to do is get that beautiful, wonderful journal of yours, get a nice pen, and write down in as much detail as you can the problem that you’re having. Write down and get it all out. I mean, just everything. Get it to the point where the whole world is going to explode and write it out on paper. 

 

What you’re going to find with this is a few things. One is that you’re going to feel a sense of relief because it’s not weighing on your soul. It’s actually in your journal and your journal has broad shoulders, your journal can handle it, it can take it, and you’re getting very specific about the problem. The cool thing about human beings is when we ask a question or if we issue a problem, our magnificent minds just go to work on solving it and it gets better and better and it’s a fantastic thing because we are what is called a teleological being. And that’s a fancy word for saying we’re target-oriented. If we see a target, we go for it. If we hear of a problem, we want to solve it. If a question is asked of us, we get to answer that question. So, that is technique number seven, the problem solver. And I hope especially if you’re listening to this and you’re in a bad place, just do that, just try that out. Let that be that technique from this podcast that you’re going to try in your life because I promise you’re going to feel a lot better once you do it. 

 

Now, technique number eight, this one, wow, this is a powerful one and I call it Dear Self technique. Okay. This is where you write a letter to yourself. And I don’t know if you’re like me, but I’ve had problems of self-worth in the past, like maybe I don’t deserve all the success that I’m having. Maybe I’m not worthy of this fantastic family and this great business and this wonderful life. And with that said, that’s horrible thinking because you do deserve it and you are worthy. I mean, you are a spectacular creation, and the blood of the Divine runs through you and you get to create this wonderful life and you have intrinsic value just because of the person that you are. But with that said, sometimes it wouldn’t feel that way. So, this technique, the Dear Self technique, what we do in this technique is you write a letter from you to yourself. Now, I did this recently and I won’t go too much into it on the podcast, because I’ll start to get emotional about it. I mean, it was a very, very powerful experience that I did with QLM, which is the Quantum Leap Mastermind, that Hal and Jon Berghoff have. It’s fantastic and if you’d like to find out more information about Quantum Leap Mastermind, just go to QLMMastermind.com. And it’s really wonderful but we sat out in the forest near Cleveland at just one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. And the question that I put in my journal, and it was prompted by QLM is what would your future self say to you? 

 

Now, I imagined myself as an 85-year-old human being closer to my deathbed, still not that close, but being extraordinarily accomplished and wonderful and kind, and having done all of the things that I have in my head that I want to do with my life. And I imagined this person and just channeled it through me, and I started writing. I don’t want to sound corny on this, I don’t want to sound cliché, or like I’m really out of there but when I started writing, it was really my older self, my accomplished self, my idealized self that was writing to me. It was profound and it was amazing, and I will just tell you now. I mean, it broke me down. I was crying over this and it was kind of a cathartic, emotional experience, and it was really wonderful. So, I still remember it. I still have it in my journal and I go back and reference it now and then and something else, just real quick, a resource that you can use is when I have some profound journal pages or some things that I just really want to come back and revisit, I take a picture of it and just put it in Evernote. That way, I can look at my journal, I can reference it, I can pull it back, because sometimes you just have some really great ideas or thoughts that you just want to reference, and that’s the whole purpose for this. So, that’s what I did and that is technique number eight, which is Dear Self.

 

Whew, there’s a lot of them here. I hope these have been helpful for you. Now, technique number nine. This is one that I like to do at the end of the day and this is wonderful. Technique number nine is daily wins. And I’m sure you’ve heard this concept and it’s fantastic but as much as we’ve heard of this, most people still don’t do it. This for me helps me go to sleep at night. It closes the mental loops and provides a really sound sleep at night. And if I don’t do this, oftentimes I’ll wake up the middle of the night and think, “Oh, yeah, I need to do this, or I need to do that or whatever,” but this actually closes those mental loops, and the daily wins. And I try and write out pretty exhaustively like all of the wins that I had for the day. And it can be small things like. “Man, I ate right today or I did my exercising or I was a great dad and I showed up for that.” But it’s also professional. If you’ve done something or if you’ve had a profound impact, I’m sure that today, for instance, on my win list will be this podcast that I’m hoping is helping you, dear virtual friend, on the other side of this voice and this listening device of whatever you’re doing, wow, technology is amazing, but I’m going to put this down that I was able to do a podcast going over journaling techniques for you. 

 

But you write down those wins and I like to do it before I go to sleep that I think that they’re helpful most anytime, because they can help boost your confidence, help you feel better about the day. And if you’re anything like me, like me like I would go through today and think, “Dang, I didn’t get anything done today,” and then I will go to my list in my wins list and I’ll start writing it out and maybe I have to start small, “Hey, I tied my shoes today,” which is something else I don’t do. I don’t have shoes with laces for the most part. But anyways, just an example. But then you start thinking about your day and you start writing it out and you realize that you’ve done a lot more for the day than maybe you thought you did, and that just has you feeling good. So, that is something I definitely recommend and especially if you’re having some confidence issues or if you don’t love the person that you see in the mirror every day, that’s something I really recommend is technique number nine, the daily wins. 

 

And the last one that I’m sharing with you now, there actually are a lot more of these and I’m sure I’m going to share them in the mentorship class, but technique number 10 is something I got from a friend now, a unique and wonderful individual by the name of James Altucher and it is called the idea list. And this one really revolutionized a lot of things in my life. It made me a lot more money when I started it. And at the time, before I did this, I was actually in a bit of a depression and this is one of the things that help me get out of the depression, and just started a renaissance in my life, and it’s the idea list. And here’s how it works. What you do is you come up with a topic and the topic can be anything. Some of mine have included ways that I can make my spouse feel more special and loved and wonderful in her life. Another one might be books that I could write that would change the world. Something I write a lot, this is one I keep coming back to one every several weeks is what can I do to improve my life easily right now. And those are just examples of things that you can do. 

 

And they don’t all have to be functional things like that. You could also be like 10 movies that I would like to make which you may not make at all but it’s just a really good exercise for your mind. But when you do that, you write down the topic and what you want to do is come up with at least 10 ideas for that particular topic like ways to make my wife feel cherished or loved. One of the things that came out of that list is a 20-minute cleaning session for me every day that I clean up some before she gets home and that’s the kind of thing that makes her feel very loved and cherished or leaving notes everywhere for our little post-it notes or things like that. Those are just examples of those ideas but you want to come up with those and I actually will often go to 20 ideas because I just really want to give my brain a workout. And that is the whole point of this, by the way, is to get your brain sweating. James talks about it and he says, “It’s just like a muscle in the gym. When you work it out, it gets better and better.” And when you do it long enough, and James says it’s about six months or so, you become an idea machine now doing this every day, because your brain shifts, and it gets to become this magical thing that always knows what to do. And I love writing it down in my journal and it is a great thinking exercise that just has me, gosh, it just has me doing more and being more each and every day and I love that because my brain is a lot more fit than it used to be going through this exercise. So, I heartily recommend the idea list, technique number ten. 

 

So, that is it, guys and gals. I just want you to know I really appreciate this time. Those are 10 journaling techniques and I hope you can come back to this and you can use it for a resource that maybe you can pass it on to other people but what I’m hoping for this is that it made a difference in your life, and that it can help your particular scribing/journaling practice with this, something that’s helped with mine. And just real quickly, I’m going to give you a couple of resources, and then I’m going to challenge you and then we can sign off for the day. But if you want to find out more about journaling and how to do it, Jim Rohn has been one of my greatest mentors on this. And you can go to YouTube and search for Jim Rohn How To Use A Journal. There is a practice called The Morning Pages by Julia Cameron that you want might want to take a look at, and we’re going to put this down in the resource notes on this page. So, again, I encourage you to go to MiracleMorning.com, click on podcasts and search for Chip Franks and you’ll find this one. If you’re listening to right after it comes out, it’ll be right here at the top. 

 

But the Morning Pages by Julia Cameron, and she talks about basically how to clear out your soul and your mind every day by doing freestyle journaling. And it is more like the Dear Diary type of things, stream of consciousness, just writing whatever comes to mind and it’s like a toothbrush for your soul, you know, just where you get to take that off of your plate every day so you can be creative and be wonderful. So, that’s it, The Morning Pages by Julia Cameron. And then I’d also suggest going to BulletJournal.com with Ryder Carroll. And he’s actually been interviewed by Hal on this podcast, which is wonderful. And Hal’s quote is like front and center on the website, which is really cool so that’s neat. And his book is called The Bullet Journal Method. And I read that and although I was already a voracious journaler, that taught me a lot about the techniques to keep my notes straight, to keep my to-do list because I used to have a separate planner, and now I actually have my daily planning, my to-dos, everything in my journal, and he explains how to do that. So, those are some resources you can use. 

 

And then lastly here, at the beginning of this, I asked that if this made sense, I would encourage you to make a commitment to try this. So, if you’re up for this and you want to do it, please give this a shot. And what I recommend is setting the bar really low and just saying I’m going to journal for five minutes a day, and just do it every day for this next week and see how it works for you. And if you’ve done it before, and you’ve fallen off of the habit, if you’ve never done it before, or if you do it every day, hopefully, these different techniques here will give you better ways to go about doing that. So, that is it. That is my challenge to you. If any of this has made sense, give it a shot. And Hal and I we talked about that a lot and that is that it’s very rare that a Facebook post or a blog article, or in this case, even a podcast can change your life. And the reason for it is not the lack of information that’s given but we have this conversation with Pat Flynn out in San Diego and I’ve termed it The Educational Investment. Now, Hal’s entire concept of the Miracle Morning could be explained in a blog post. But if that were the case, most of the people, most of you who have actually started it or tried it or made it a way of life would not have done it because you don’t have enough time or investment in the concept. 

 

Now, when you go further and you actually take action on something, of course, you’re making more of an investment in this. So, with this podcast, and these particular journaling techniques and methods, what I encourage you to do is put more investment into it. Actually, listen to it again, write it down, figure out which of these techniques, if any, that you would like to use and start using them. And that’s going to increase the educational investment you have on it and it’s going to increase the chance that something like this, that a voice coming through this microphone to your speakers is something that can actually change your life. So, I encourage you to do that. And that, my friends, is your podcast on journaling techniques. 

 

Chip Franks: Again, this is Chip Franks. And if you found this interesting, if you like this kind of thing, if you want this kind of thing in your life, especially coming from Hal Elrod, Hal freaking Elrod, just one of the greatest human beings I know and actually, I’ll say this right now. Hal is everything that he portrays to be on this podcast, in his books, on stages. He is all that and more in real life and he actually walks the talk like no one else I’ve ever known. So, you can feel very, very good about anything and everything that you get from Hal Elrod because he is just one of the most genuine human beings there are. And if you are interested in hearing more from him, hearing from him every week, not just in the podcast format, but something that will challenge you, something that goes into detail about ways, specific ways and methods to make your days, your weeks, your months and your years better, then you might want to give the mentorship a try. And again, if you want to get on that waiting list, it’s MiracleLifeMentorship.com. Sign up for the waiting list and we will email you as soon as we have something on it. And it’s not saying you’ll get it but it’s just saying that you might want to find out more about it. So, sign up there MiracleLifeMentorship.com. 

 

And, folks, this has been wonderful talking with you. I don’t take this opportunity for granted. I love being able to reach you and again, I hope that this has been helpful. I have so much appreciation for you and the type of person you are in listening to this. Thank you very much and I hope you have a fantastic day. Thank you. 

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