Today’s Quote: The first person you have to sell yourself to is you. – Dr. Phil
Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today I am going to talk about how to explode your thinking with a success journal. It’s a tool that helps you focus on the positive, every day.
Click the play button above to tune in, or choose your favourite podcast player below:
Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
Today I am going to talk about how to explode your thinking with a success journal. It’s a tool that helps you focus on the positive, every day.
First of all, focusing on success is a good idea in general.
What we focus on grows, and success does too.
When you are looking for good, when you are looking for positive, you need a source – and the success journal can really help you do that.
Sure, getting testimonials from clients can be helpful to let others know how great you are is fantastic – but how many clients do you have? Many none yet!
Enter the success journal.
You do so many great things every single day that no one ever sees – or talks about.
And the success journal helps you keep track of those.
Okay so what is it?
It’s a book where you keep all of your accomplishments, compliments, and general feel-good info.
I started mine again and I am really enjoying it, and I’m really finding it makes a difference in my mood – and my mindset.
It’s very therapeutic.
Today I want to focus on three ways that your success journal can help you as a VA.
Mindset and Motivation
Track Accomplishments
Do More Of What Works
Let’s begin:
Mindset and Motivation
It goes without saying that the more positive things you say about yourself, the more positive things you will think.
I don’t know about you but many days I won’t say anything out loud in my office – if I don’t have any meetings. But I sure think a lot!
And sometimes even if I do have meetings, I don’t focus on the positive things about ME.
That’s where we begin.
To make a shift in your motivation or your mood or your mindset, you have to think good things about yourself. And you have to say them out loud so you can hear them!
And those are the things that should make it into your success journal.
I’ve never been someone who can be a journaler – writing out my feelings. I’ve done it, but it’s never stuck.
It doesn’t feel natural to me.
But I am a list maker and by gosh I can make a list!
I love them. I use them for everything.
That’s why my bullet journal is such a great tool for me. It’s a book of lists!
So that’s why the success journal is much more functional for me as a tool to brighten my mood and mindset.
The basic idea is to write down (at least) 3 things every single day that you did that were positive.
If you want you can write as many as you can, or want to – but the habit of writing 3 can help you pick out the best 3 things.
Who did you help?
What made you smile?
Who did you reach out to?
Who did you get a result for?
The thing you write down should be business related but if you don’t have that many of them right off the bat then you can start with whatever you can that is positive.
Focus on things that helped you with your mindset, your mood, or your motivation.
Examples: I answered a question in a Facebook group and got great feedback from the OP. I reached out to a contact I met in person at the monthly networking event, we have a consult tomorrow. I helped my client launch her new program.
Track Your Accomplishments
We all have very long to do lists, not just as business owners, but as moms, wives, women, whatever.
I find that when I put something in my success journal that I’ve accomplished, it actually motivates me to do something else.
Like a bit of a chain reaction. It’s the accomplishment train.
One of the things I have kept for years is a tolerations list.
I attended a VA conference many years ago and the speaker told us that there are certain things that are holding us back from getting all ‘the stuff’ done – things we don’t even realize.
These are things we are tolerating, but that are populating the spaces of our brain and maybe even overwhelming us.
The exercise is simple – start at point A and note all of the things that you notice need doing. Write them down onto a list. Get them out of your head. Then do them one by one when you have a little extra time.
For example, what I did was drive into my laneway and started there. What needs to be done on the outside of the house? Our garage window and trim need painting, our siding needs patching, our walkway needs to be done, and so on. All of those things go on the list.
Then go in the front door. Go room by room through your house and do the same thing.
Then do the same thing in your office. You get the idea. The list might be very long but it’s so effective to clear things out of your mind. Why?
Because now you have a list of things that you can fix or clean or tidy or do. It’s less overwhelming because the list exists -and then you can pick one or two things a day to do and cross them off that list.
Anyway I digress a little but you get the picture.
When you get something done and you can cross it off your list, that releases some kind of serotonin and it makes you feel good. At least it makes me feel good ha ha.
You feel like you are accomplishing something and that’s a great feeling.
So for your success journal, when you note the things that you have accomplished, it makes you feel good. Boom. Serotonin.
Maybe you posted your first video. Or you completed your blog post. Or you create some social media templates. Or you send out your newsletter on time.
Or you did any of those things for your clients. Accomplishments. Great things to list in your success journal. It makes you feel good!
Do More Of What Works
Sometimes I’ll ask VAs what they have done that worked for them – and they don’t know.
Like, if they got a client, they aren’t sure what led to that. I ask them where that client came from, and sometimes they know – but sometimes they don’t realize it.
Tracking where people find you is an important piece of your marketing.
I ask the question right in my registration boxes – where did you find us? My email system also tracks the leads but I ask the question.
One of my colleagues tracks where all of her business comes from. It’s quite cool actually. She knows what works for her.
I do too, to an extent – but a lot of my traffic comes from Google itself. I have a lot of content out there and I get lots of inquiries because I’ve been at this a long time.
But the idea of doing more of what works is just a good business principle.
I was talking with some VAs this week about just that. Our marketing, our networking, have to work for us. You don’t want to waste your time if you aren’t getting results – whether that means building a great network or getting actual clients.
You need to set a goal for everything that you do in your business – who you will connect with, who you will work with, where you will find them, what you will do for them, how many clients you will work with, what you will charge them, how you will maintain their business, how you will raise your rates, how you will expand your business, etc.
It’s all a series of goals that you need to measure your results again.
The interesting thing is that you don’t have to measure from the start to the goal. You should be measuring your progress. Dan Sullivan’s book The Gap and the Gain is exceptional to show you how to focus on your progress.
I love the concept, I talk about it a lot – and you should do it too!
In your success journal, note the progress you have made your goals – all of them. If you are working towards getting 5 clients, write down when you get one – you are on your way! two – you are building momentum – etc. don’t thing of your goal as unreached if you don’t get to your five. You are making progress all the way along.
And that’s what you want to note. What led to that small success on the way to your larger goal? Do more of that!
Maybe you are excited by being referred in a Facebook group – what led to that? What did you do, how did you conduct yourself, so that someone else thought to mention you to others? A huge celebration, always.
Naturally, do less of what doesn’t work. If you have been going to a networking group multiple times with no real connections or results, maybe look elsewhere (or change what you are doing when you go there).
You will start to spot patterns – when you signed a client, had you just finished a training and your confidence was sky high?
Were you part of a mastermind group and that’s when you were consistently reminded of how amazing you are, so things were going well for you?
Maybe you had a great morning routine – podcast, reading a few pages of a book, going for a walk, eating breakfast? What were the things that helped you create and maintain that positivity?
Your success journal can show you the path to your clients – and your success – and it will, when you use it daily.
Let’s get back to Dr. Phil for literally just one sec! You have to sell yourself to you first. And the only way that you can get clients is when your mindset and confidence are high. The success journal is a fabulous tool to help you get there. And it doesn’t take long! Three things a day for even one week gives you 21 times you did good. It can be very therapeutic to read at the beginning of your work day.
And on those bad days, just flip through it with a cup of tea. It really helps, I promise! You. Are. Awesome!
It reminds you of your positive mindset and mood, and all that momentum.
It reminds you of your accomplishments, no matter how small.
It reminds you of what has worked for you in the past – and what will probably work for you again.
Whatever happened that went well, we want to record that – and really understand what it was that created that moment, or what made it happen (write that down too!).
I challenge you to create your own success journal. You can start today. Just a blank notebook – you can date the pages or not (though I find that handy so I can remember when I recorded something).
Shoot to record three things every single day starting today. They can be small, but they just need to be WINS.
I hope that I bring some positivity to your life – I certainly try to. Every Wednesday I release a new podcast episode that I hope will inspire you and help you move forward in your VA business.
I enter that into my success journal every Wednesday. If you are listening today, then you can write this down ‘I gave Tracey a download today’, ‘I started my success journal’, ‘I started my journey to shift my mindset today by committing to using my success journal every day.’
That’s it, your homework is done!
Now go and start your success journal. I can help you kick it off or keep it going.
Need Some Help?
This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix whatever is going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you – there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.
I’ll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.
I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of.
I’d love to do the same for you.
You can work with me privately, or you can join The Virtual Circle, my mastermind group for Virtual Assistants. Check it out at www.YourVAMentor.com/TVC (the virtual circle) – I bet it’s exactly what you need to start running the VA business you dreamed of.
Reach out to me if you are interested.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week, see you next time!