Start tracing back to all your approaches…a pattern will emerge. You can then start to train yourself to detach your emotions with the help of your journal.
Analyzing and looking at your approaches to see what you could have done better is a good start, but you have to use your journal for more than that. Relive your approaches, in your mind go through those emotions again. This requires you to be quiet and focused. If you are serious about getting good at approaching these are essential steps you have to follow. Like Sherlock Holmes the crime is solved in your mind, with evidence supplied by your journal.
I will say that you use your journal for several things:
1) A guide
2) Checklist
3) Information Booklet
4) Reference
5) Emotional release
The most important in my opinion is the emotional release. Typing up the interaction allows you to look at problems objectively .
This is a huge benefit, but do realize that it will take some practice.
A guide helps you along the way…especially when you are in self doubt…it happens to us all. Look back in your journal and read and see just how far you have gone. You will be surprised at the results.
How do you go about keeping a journal?
Ok some quick tips …
1) Be quick but accurate
2) Be honest
3) Be regular
These are my 3 B’s of journaling next up or the 3 Ds’
1) Don’t get distracted
2) Don’t trust everyone's opinion on your entries
3) Don’t clean up your entries
Lastly I have the last cardinal rule
1) Write down everything and anything. All information is useful and helpful.
Let me explain my 3 Bs first
1) Be quick but accurate. Well this is really when you have a pile of approaches coming along. Don’t spend too much time thinking about what you want to write. You are not going to write a novel. The emotions are the important part you want to note down because we are using the journal as an emotional release to help us.
2) Be honest!!! You know I had this problem when I first started, I used to dress up my journal. I have no idea for what! Maybe I thought that my girlfriend would like to read it someday (my current wife). It turns out that she wasn’t really interested at all (quite the crushing blow to my ego I must admit…). You want to be totally honest because only then can you analyze yourself correctly. Your journal has become a tool for you to help you better understand yourself. This can only be accomplished if you are completely honest with your feelings.
3) Be regular. A lot of my own students have this problem, and they only write in the journal when they feel like it. or when they remember to write in it. You got to write in your journal EACH & EVERY approach. There are no excuses, because writing in your journal is an exercise in building your discipline.
Next, my 3 Ds:
1) Don’t get distracted. When you are writing in your journal, focus on it. Completely unload everything into it. Do not look at the TV screen or multi-task. You want to capture your emotional state and the interaction like a photograph.
2) Don’t trust everyone's opinions on your entries. I know that it is cool sometimes to talk about approaches. Normally a journal is quite private and on the internet you open yourself up a lot of comments and advice. You have to be focused on your own plan and realize that someone else might not have any idea what is happening in your approach life, and their remarks might adversely affect your approach confidence and judgment. There will be good advice too so evaluate the source before you take it to heart
3) Don’t clean up your entries!!! I can’t stress this enough! No editing at all. You want to relive your approaches, not publish your journal as a bestseller!
Lastly my cardinal rule:
“Everything and Anything” I really mean everything and anything. Just write what is on the top of your mind. Usually you will find that you can describe your state of mind in a single word. These, keywords are called “pattern language” and are used in many fields to help create easily recognized patters so that it shortens the time needed to describe and analyze things.
It is important to note everything down as you will never know what is the most important information you might need for your analysis later on. So if omit 1 or 2 things…you might have just thrown away the critical clue.
Well, I hope this helps in your journal writing. Remember to use what you have learned and follow the rules taught before branching out to evolve your own style.
