March 14, 2017

Note From Rochelle

Dear Readers,

Greetings!

Today’s tip provides one of my favorite writing exercises. You can use it to increase your confidence, work from your strengths, boost your daily successes, and discover your next book idea! Read on to learn more about this amazing tool.

Enjoy!

Rochelle

The Write Now! Coach

Write Now: Keep a Positivity Journal

by Rochelle Melander

Over the years, I have frequently asked clients to record their achievements, the encouraging events in their life, or the positive steps they took in a challenging situation. More recently, I have invited clients to write detailed journal entries about a success they have achieved. It seems to me that we richly describe our problems and failures while we mention our successes only in passing. When we do talk or write about our successes, we often diminish our own role in what happened. But when we write in detail about what we did to achieve something, we get better connected to our strengths and how we use them. As a result of doing this exercise, we’re more inclined to work from our strengths. When we encounter a difficult situation, we remember that we can use our strength of curiosity or woo to solve it.

The Positivity Journal. So how about keeping a positivity journal? Grab a new journal (or open a new document on your computer) and use it solely to record your successes and the positive events in your life. Ippoliti suggests that when we start recording positive events, we begin to experience even more positive events. Not a bad outcome for simply writing down the good stuff!

Try this. Here are a few exercises you can do in your positivity journal:

• Record positive events that happen during the day. This can be anything from seeing a baby bunny to landing a new client.

• Record the times when you felt engaged, authentic, powerful, confident, and smart. These are signs that you are working from your strengths. Do you see any patterns? How can you apply this knowledge to the times when you feel less engaged?

• Record your past achievements. It might help to separate your past into categories by theme (the curious years), time (my 20s), or locale (Seattle).

• Look at a difficult event in your life, perhaps something you have had trouble overcoming. What were the positive actions you took in that situation?

• Write a detailed account of a significant success in your life. What happened? What positive actions did you take? What strengths did you use? What did you learn about yourself from this experience?

And here’s how this can help you write your book: A few years ago, I attended a day-long event with Fabienne Fredrickson. She had us consider how we’re uniquely brilliant—when we’re working out of our true strengths and feeling engaged, energized, and wise. Try this exercise for a week, and then look back at your journal for examples of your unique brilliance. Then consider: how can you turn your unique brilliance into a book that will benefit your clients and boost your business success?

If you need help discovering how your unique brilliance can become a business-boosting book, connect with me for a complimentary consultation. I’ll be launching a brand new program soon that will help you imagine, create, and publish your business-boosting book!