8 Journaling Prompts to Stop Making Excuses (and start pursuing your creative goals)

in 2015 I was broke jobless and had recently been dumped by my girlfriend of 3 years her reasoning my lack of ambition it been confirmed I was a loser aimless and hopeless I was faced with a choice continue down the losers path and blame my life circumstances for the situation I was in or pick my miserable self up and make a change fast trck to now I'm happily married with a home and pets that I love I play in a band with my best friends and I get to create things I love Every Day Life is good so what changed what's up everyone I'm Zach Rollins and today I want to share a story about how I changed my life and became a person who started taking action I'll also be sharing a journaling problems that'll help you stop making excuses and start pursuing your creative goals they're all prompts I regularly use myself so I know they work if you feel like you've been making a lot of excuses lately or life's been piling up real fast I truly believe these journaling props are going to help you out with that situation so all right let's finish the story let's go back to 2015 at at that time nobody would give me a job where I was living I had to look into Alternatives that's when I found out about ride sharing apps like Lyft and Uber at the time you only needed a decent car and a license to get started the problem was I didn't have any car or any money this is where loser Zach would have given up but I knew I couldn't continue down that road anymore I knew it was time to do something different so I devised the plane I signed up for local community college classes for the sole purpose of getting financial aid since I was below the poverty line I called qualifi for the full amount $5,000 with that $5,000 I bought a Ford Focus that Ford Focus became my business vehicle at the time these right share companies were giving out lofty bonuses for doing your first 30 rides so I drove that car out to the Palm Desert during Coachella weekend and I drove day and night trying to get as many rides in as I could that weekend alone I was able to make an extra $3,000 I called a friend of mine living in San Diego and I told him I'm moving down there that $3,000 got me into an apartment and there I was just a few weeks after being dumped broke a loser Living in Sunny s Diego suddenly I wasn't making excuses for my life anymore I was creating a new story to tell for years to come a story about how I took control of my life a story about taking action so why don't we take action anytime we're facing the problem there are two options one seek out all the reasons it can't be solved two seek out all the ways it can be solved most of us fall into the of the former it's too easy to have a dream and let it die before it has a chance to breath you hear it all the time I want to start a Creator business but there's always a butt I don't have time people will judge me I don't know where to start I don't have anything interesting to say it all Roots down to the stories we tell ourselves my old story was one of someone who didn't have control over their life a story that allowed me to stay in my comfort zone never taking action until I was broke depressed and alone but what if you could change your story what if the the story you told yourself was one that got done and figured things out along the way the type of person who says I want to do this what's the first step I can take most people think of creativity in artist terms painters musicians graphic designers video makers but the real definition of creativity is finding novel and useful solutions to problems signing up for financial aid to buy a car in start driving for Uber was an act of creativity last I check that one wasn't on the Google search for how to unfuck your life problems are opportunities and in that moment when my back was against the wall I saw an opportunity to be a creative person is to be a person who creates their own reality you don't have to be like me and wait till you hit rock bottom to start fixing things in your life you can get started right away if I had goals a plan of action and a belief I could achieve them my life would have changed a lot sooner and that's what I'm hoping to provide you with today journaling has become a new Love of Mine one I wish I would have found all those years back when I was struggling so much in an effort to find new prompts I came across a great video by Dr Izzy cely in it she details the belief outcome axis in simple terms the stories we tell affect our thoughts and feelings these thoughts and feelings affect our decisions and intentions those intentions affect whether we take action or not the actions we do are don't take affect the outcomes in our life those outcomes create new beliefs and stories about ourselves or reinforce old ones in essence what we do builds proof that we are or aren't the person that we tell ourselves to be I can tell myself I'm aeric marathon runner all day but if I never go running I won't actually have any proof that I am that person journaling gives us a tool to Target each phase of the belief outcome axis it allows us to create new stories to tell while developing a plan for action so here are some prompts to Target beliefs and stories when was the time you made something happened when the deck was stacked against you that's the journaling prompt that led to the intro in this video this prompt forces us to take a look at our lives and find proof of a moment where we overcame an obstacle even though we weren't sure that we could if you could find proof that you are the type of person you want to be then it can positively affect your thoughts and feelings here's another prompt I like what is the belief that held you back in the past are there any beliefs currently holding you back this prompt helps us see that we've had beliefs in the past that didn't serve us well and by dropping them led to positive change it also asked the question are there some beliefs you currently have that aren't serving you anymore I used to believe social media was for narcissistic influencers and scammers trying to rip people off on the internet that belief prevented me from creating content myself even even though it's the most powerful tool for Distributing ideas I dropped that belief once I realized it was a story I was telling myself to avoid the fear of judgment that belief no longer serves me and by dropping it I've been able to take action towards my goals here's a prompt that targets thoughts and feelings what is your greatest fear about thing you want to do what is the worst case scenario if it came true again we don't take action because of the negative Stories We Tell ourselves and most of these stories stem from a place of fear I avoided creating content for the fear of being judged or looking stupid but once I played the scenario out in my head I couldn't find the boogeyman I was so afraid of what was going to happen a friend saw my writing and said wow you're a loser man then what I'd still be alive I'd learn that person wasn't a real friend I'd build proof that I could take a hit and move on actually sounds like it might have been a good thing if that happened at least then I would know who not to waste my time hanging out with take a look under the bed and realize the monsters aren't real here's a prompt targeting decisions and intentions what does my idea Tuesday look like I got this one from Shan Pur of my first million podcast it's basically asking what does your ideal random day of the week look like not your perfect vacation day but your average work day what are you doing what are you working on who are you with where are you at figure out what your ideal average day looks like and gain Clarity on what you actually want in life another great prompt for this is the Odyssey plan now this one's a little bit longer but it's worth the effort what does my life look like in 5 years if I continue down the current path this gives you some vision of what your life might look like if you don't make any changes this is what scared the out of me all those years ago I did not want to end up homeless and alone but the choices I was making were for sure going to lead me there the second part of the question asked what would it look like if I took a completely different path this generates an opportunity to create a new story about where your life could leave if you change the path that you're walking on creates the potential to see a different future for yourself and the third and final part of the Odyssey plan what would it look like if I didn't care about money social obl obligations or what people thought forget what everyone else says you should want what if you could live life any way you wanted without a care in the world write it down imagine it nobody's going to see it it's for you and you alone to explore what your mind can dream of and the truth is all of it's possible that's the new story you need to develop for yourself the only thing holding you back from that reality is taking action so the last thing we'll be targeting or prompts for Action what is the goal and what is the bottleneck I talked about this one in another video that I'll link below but it really hit home for me if we know what mountain we want to cly then what's stopping us this problem gets us crystal clear on what we want in life and the problem we need to solv to get it most people worry about problem number 37 out of 100 before getting started this causes them to not end up taking action cuz they get overwhelmed with all the problems in their head but the only thing you need to figure out is what's the next step and that's what this next PR targets specifically what's one thing I could do today to get me one step closer to my goal I literally ask myself this question every day now if I know exactly where I want to be going and I know one step I could take to get me closer then I have nothing stopping me except for myself and it really is that simple sometimes and if you don't know what the next step is and I have a final prompt for you what are all the ways I can guarantee I don't reach my goals at first this one seems counterintuitive but it works wonders list out every possible way you can ensure that you never reach your goals and once you've exhausted all these options invert them that's your action plan for instance I have a Weekly Newsletter and if I want to guarantee that it failed I could do these things I put minimal effort into it never include personal stories provide no value never give and always ask for my audience write only when I feel like it now if I invert it it'll look like this put as much effort in it as I can include real life examples from lived experience make sure that every time I send out a newsletter there's a real solution to a real problem rarely ask and always give send the newsletter out every week like I promised I would then I could break that down into actionable steps I would take notes and catalog interesting ideas throughout the week Journal about past experiences and how they relate to current topics catalog questions I receive and solutions I encounter write down a reminder audience first at the top of the page and finally set a hard deadline my ass better be riding Monday cuz Tuesday the newsletter is going out now look do you see the power in this how can you fail when the steps are so clearly laid out in front of you you don't need a coach you don't need a mentor you don't even need motivation the only thing you need is to take action thanks for watching like And subscribe if you found this useful I'm new here so I appreciate all of it take care guys

Channel: Zacc Rowlands

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Id: Yb1lY4ooDvI

Length: 10min 10sec (610 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2024