I am currently in a season of my life and business where writing things down is crucial for me to stay successful and focus. And when I say write it down, I mean everything.
Creativity, whether we are talking about music, painting, writing, drawing, poetry and so on, can have real, positive effects on the physical health of the brain and on our overall mental health, and has the potential to heal damage from toxic thinking and toxic lifestyles.
Here is a list of things that I write down:
· Monthly goals
· Weekly goals
· Daily to-do list
· Business tasks
· Calendar items
· Favorite quotes
· Partner goals
· House goals
· Business wins
· Personal wins
· Business struggles
· Personal struggles
· Grocery store list
· Costco list
· Vacation Packing List
· Random Thoughts
You know, there are some people in this world where maybe they think something, and they can make it happen. Not for me. Writing things down is my accountability partner. Whether I am trying to accomplish something, or remind myself of how far I have come, writing it down is crucial. Seeing it on paper in a list IS important. Writing them in an email or text and sharing them is important. Why? Because it gives you a chance to celebrate the wins, process the losses, and allow your village to support you. Village – you need one. More on that later.
Write down the wins.
We have all heard it a million times to make a list and write down. That’s easy for the things like going to the grocery store or getting ready for a two-day trip and trying to remember to pack the entire house for your 1 year old to come with you. They have to have every single thing you could ever possibly need, right? Anyways, the point being, sometimes it’s easier to write things down than it is to not. These are the easy ones. Writing down wins that I have had, now that’s a struggle. For example, in March 2019 I launched my second business, Gro Group, a boutique events and marketing firm. Before we even launched, I had 3 clients. Looking back, I should have processed how amazing that was, but when I was in the thick of it, I wasn’t even paying attention.
Fast forward 4 months later. Business slowed down. The excitement of the launch was wearing off and I hadn’t done much to truly market the business. I decided I needed to really sit back and review my plan. And in that moment, I realized, instead of getting down on myself for not putting more effort into marketing the business, I needed to take a week and celebrate the victories. Write them down. Be proud of them. Within the first 5 months of launching the business, while running the wedding planning business and growing it, I did over $10,000 in revenue. Some may say that’s nothing but for spending zero marketing dollars and not really advertising it, I would say that’s pretty awesome. I also decided to count up how many clients I had helped grow or start their business: 12. I had 12 clients and counting. THIS was my why. I started the business because I was passionate about helping people grow their business or get it up and running. I may have only made $10,000 in my own pocket but the revenue I helped others gain by helping them was my why. Had I not spent time calculating all of these numbers, I would have never fully understood how much work I had done with minimal marketing effort, as well as how much I had helped others. #winning.
This is why writing it down is important. You have to be able to comprehend your needs, goals, successes, stresses, etc. The brain struggles at times to try and categorize everything and make sense of all of the mumble jumble, so by writing down whatever you need to in order to help slow your mind and guide you, you are allowing more room in your brain for growth and creativity.
Reasons why I write it down:
· I want to remember it
· I want to be reminded by seeing it over and over
· I want to clear space in my brain
· I want to lower my anxiety level by getting the stressors out of my brain
· I want to stay organized
· I want to have a guide to keep me on track with the business
· I want to be able to see my weeks and months planned out
· I want to be reminded of my why
· I want to continue to focus on building relationships with the goals in mind
There are a million tools out there to help you but my top things to help me are a classic notebook, the notes app on my phone, a hand written planner, my calendar on my phone, and Google Keep. This app is amazing! It is how I keep all goals for myself and the husband, as well as our grocery list and house to-do list AND even our packing lists for vacay! It’s amazing because we both have it so we can both add things to the lists and check them off simultaneously.
So today, as you are enjoying your Monday off and not laboring, I encourage you to write down something, express yourself, organize your thoughts, clear space in your brain, and embrace it!
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