I’ve been talking to friends lately about inertia and momentum in starting and staying motivated in our various projects. We all decided that, for the most part, getting started is the hardest part. We all had stories of projects that got put off, worked around and downright dreaded until push came to shove and we absolutely HAD to make a move on them.  Then, invariably, something amazing would happen.  After all the dread and procrastination, suddenly, with that first step forward, everything would start to fall into place.  After finally getting started, the projects were not so horribly complicated or time consuming after all.  What’s more, once started, it takes very little effort to keep things moving right along. This is a concept we now refer to as “Productivity Inertia.”  In other words:

A project at rest tends to remain at rest and a project in motion tends to remain in motion.

The same thing holds true with starting a journal.  There is a never-ending supply of beautiful blank books available today.  I was given a fantastic journal for my birthday one year.  I remember it looked like a blank bible.  I think the edges were even guilt.  I never once wrote in it.  It was just too nice.  I didn’t always keep a journal, but I always wanted to.  That’s why I collected the great books.  But lets face it.  I am no Leonardo Da Vinci or Indiana Jones.  What did I have to write about? Then, one day I was leaving on a trip to Dallas and I saw the shelf of blank books.  On impulse I grabbed a small one that would fit in my back pocket and headed to the airport.  I was determined to start a journal that very day.  Unfortunately (or was it?) It turned out that the book I grabbed was not a blank book at all.  It was, in fact, a small week-at-a-glance calendar.  When I discovered this I felt like I had sabotaged myself somehow.  Then it dawned on me that this was perfect!

Follow my thinking here.  What I had was a small, pocket-sized book that is already dated and had a very limited amount of space for entries.  Instead of writing down what needed to happen on certain dates, I would make notes about what had happened.  The dates would add the motivation to not skip days and the small space in which to write would relieve the pressure of having to make epic entries!  That’s all it took.  I made a promise to make an entry EVERY DAY, no matter how lame.  I had started!  From then on the journaling thing took off.  I was soon making entries that were cramped into the space allowed in the calendar, but I was determined to fill the tiny book.  On New Years Day I graduated from the calendar to one of wonderful blank books on the shelf!

So that’s how you do it.  Don’t worry about making great journal entries just make entries.  I promise you the entire process will take on a life of its own in no time.  Don’t bog yourself down with wonderful books and pens.  You can always move on to them later.  Start simple.  A weekly calendar.  A decorated composition book. A steno pad.  Just get started! Make it a habit, a part of your day.  Once you get a dialogue going with your journal you will wonder how you ever lived without it.