You may have kept a journal in the past. Maybe you were a teenager, maybe you were in college, or maybe you still keep one today. Regardless of your experience with journaling, it can be an effective tool to reduce stress and reach your goals. Where else can you get all of your thoughts and feelings out without judgment, fear, or a lot of money?
The Frugality Game™ has a great tool for journaling. It actually allows you to electronically create an unlimited number of entries and record your overall outlook on life. After each journal entry, you will be prompted to state whether you feel Secure/Insecure, Happy/Unhappy, or Abundant/Limited in three categories: Basic Needs, Relationships, and Self Worth. This is an effective way to track your progress while you build financial strength and long after.
What do I journal about?
You should mostly journal about events in your life and your thoughts and feelings toward those events. Rather than simply state what you are going through, you may want to write about how you feel. Maybe you saved $20 today by driving an additional mile to get cheaper gas. Instead of just writing down that you saved $20 on gas, how did that make you feel? For example, “Saving $20 truly made me feel hopeful about saving money and achieving my goals. I’m now realizing that every little step can make a huge difference.”
Since things don’t always go our way, you may have bad days where you feel completely hopeless; and that’s okay too. On those days, you might write something like, “I don’t know what I am going to do about all of this debt. I feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel.” Writing down your thoughts and feelings has several benefits:
- It allows you to “get it all out” without the fear of judgment
- It can reduce stress
- It helps you track how you’re doing emotionally
- It is private
- It actually does help
Some argue that writing by pen and paper is most effective; however, this is ultimately a personal preference. If you prefer writing by hand, then by all means, do it! If you prefer to type, use the journal within The Frugality Game®. What’s important is that you are setting time aside every day, or every other day, and writing. Avoid over-analyzing what to write. Instead, just write.
