Tomorrow’s going to be busy. Probably a 10 hour work day tomorrow, but that’s okay, that’s okay, the extra cash will go into the vacation fund. Wow, I can’t wait to visit Italy. If we ever make it. Oh, I need to remember to pick up black tea at the grocery tomorrow for my in-laws visiting next week. I wish our kitchen was bigger so we could host them comfortably. I wonder if I’ll ever have my dream kitchen. Probably not. I think I’d want a silver Kitchen-Aid, though. Crap, it’s 2 AM.

Does this nighttime stream of consciousness sound familiar? How many times have you laid in bed, anxious thoughts running 100 miles an hour keeping you awake? If your answer is at least more than once, keep reading.

How Journaling Saved My Life

I’ll get real with you for a minute: journaling sort of saved my life. When I first started my business, I was experiencing severe anxious thoughts that I was losing sleep over. I remember the moment I realized how bad it was.

Chris and I were out to lunch on a Sunday. It was the first real time we had spent together all week– my nights back then were late, late, late. He had been talking to me for about 10 minutes before I looked up and realized I hadn’t heard a word he said. My mind was racing through our lunch, eager to get back to work, stressing over meetings that weren’t for two more weeks. I felt so bad that I couldn’t even be present for a single hour of my life with my husband.

We stopped at Target on the way home. I had read something about how journaling every day could improve mental health on a podcast, so I thought I’d give it a try. I grabbed the first pretty pink journal I saw and sat down at my desk the minute I got home.

I had no idea that that day would be the start of a long and beautiful relationship with myself, all built using my pen and paper.

My journal became a safe space for me to spill my thoughts (the good, the bad, and the ugly) and process the chaos in my head. I don’t use it as a “dear diary,” but rather a place to goal plan, map out my desires, and process anxious thoughts to find their root and potential triggers.

Journaling every day has been a game changer for me. As I wrote more and more, I also read more and more about others’ approaches to journaling. That’s when I stumbled across Andrea Owen’s podcast episode on pray rain journaling.

Pray Rain Journaling

Since learning about pray rain journaling, I’ve used it to manifest my biggest goals (including my first 40k cash month), plan my dream wedding, and pay for the entire thing all on our own, cash. It’s safe to say I’m a pray rain journaler through and through. I’ve made a few tweaks to Andrea’s system to suit my taste better, and I’ll tell you all about both so you can choose with pray rain method is right for you.

Here’s Andrea’s method: 

Go out and buy yourself the most high vibe journal you can find. The type of journal you use is totally up to you– some people like to write on big, sprawling page, where others like something small that they can fit in their purse. Don’t cheap out– buy a nice one that you’re totally in love with. Your thoughts are worthy, I promise.

Now, devote that journal to one of your biggest goals. Write in it every day as if that goal has already come to fruition.

For instance, my first pray rain journal was for my wedding. I wanted to plan and pay off the entire thing before the wedding so I wasn’t carrying any debt with me afterward. I wrote about how amazing the wedding was, how much everyone loved the food, how in love I was with the professional photos, how gorgeous the flowers were, how beautiful I looked in my dress, how fantastic the weather was, how stress-free the day was knowing it was all paid for– you get the picture.

And guess what? Every. Single. Detail. Came. True.

I was engaged in January, and by April my wedding was paid for.

It’s the law of attraction, and it’s real girl. All you have to do is start vibrating at the same frequency as your goals, and the two of you will link up like you’ve known each other your whole lives.

My Pray Rain Journal Hack

After my wedding, my goals changed focus toward my business. And I had a lot of goals for my business. The journals started stacking up. I couldn’t keep up with journaling all my goals in each journal, which bred anxiety over them. Eventually, I found that I would be halfway through a journal and that goal still hadn’t come to fruition yet, making me even more anxious.

So I switched things up a bit. Your journaling practice shouldn’t be stressful; it should be the complete opposite. I tweaked the traditional pray rain method a bit to find the way it works for me.

Here’s the Karina method:

Definitely, buy that high vibe journal that you love so much it makes you excited to write every day, but keep it to one journal. Every day, spend 30 minutes journaling the pray rain method about whichever goal you feel aligned with that day. If your car is giving you trouble one week, perhaps you want to focus on your goal of buying a new one. If you’re trying to get pregnant, maybe you write about how wonderful it feels to be a mother.

The point is to not drive yourself crazy by singling out one specific goal when you probably have a ton.

Before I write about my perfect day living in my goals, though, I start with a very important exercise that helps me get into the right mindset for the day. First, list five things you’re grateful for having now and then 5 things you don’t have yet but you are working towards them every day and you know one day they will be yours. Show gratitude for those things too! Next, list one thing you want to accomplish that day. Finally, list one thing you’re proud of for accomplishing the day before.

This can be something as small as doing a sinkful of dishes or as big as buying a new car. Both the big wins and the little wins matter in this life we’re building together.

Starting my journaling practice and day in this grateful mindset makes me happier and more productive every day. I light a candle, surface my emotions with the right music, and set some time aside to step inside myself and my goals.

One of the biggest reasons I use one journal to visualize multiple goals is because my goals change. They’re fluid, they change with me, and they’ll change with you, too. Don’t get left behind trying to dogmatically hang onto one journal while the rest of you moves forward.

Journal Your Way to Success

There are other tweaks to the pray rain method besides mine, too; a quick Google search will yield a ton of options out there for you as you get into this practice. I’ll tell you what, though– being accountable to my goals by showing up in my journal every day changed my life and my business in 2017. I’ve never seen a more successful year. That’s on the horizon for you too, babe. Hit up Target or Home Goods, find your new best friend, and bring it home. A year from now, you’ll be glad you did.

Check out The Hub for other journal prompts to help develop your CEO mindset. 

Are you ready to generate your first six-figures in business? Click here now to get access to – The Hub – a resource library for the modern CEO that’s brimming with tools, videos, templates and resources which are all designed to help you up-level your mindset and create a plan of action to execute your goals and get where you want to be in your business.