If your mindset is far from optimal when it comes to the thoughts and beliefs it entertains about your health and fitness goals, if your mindset could use some strengthening, there are tools you can use that will help to strengthen your current position, foster a more positive and growth-oriented mindset and help you to start achieving greater success with your health and fitness goals as well as all areas of your life.

However, shifting your mindset does not happen overnight and it’s important to remember to never let yourself get discouraged as you go about improving and reworking it. Patience is the keyword here.

Shifting mindset comes more naturally to some than others and if you’ve been entertaining a really negative mindset for quite some time, you’re definitely in for a bit of struggle as your current thoughts fight to hold onto their present negative domination. After all, they are well aware of your decision to rid yourself of them, and they don’t take that lightly!

However, if you focus on taking action, working hard and staying positive about the process, you will notice vast improvements not only in your mindset, but you’ll receive benefits in other areas of your life as well. Eventually, if you stick with it, the snow ball effect kicks in and everything starts to feel and flow easier.

One very empowering tool you can use to shift your mindset from negative to positive is the use of a journal. The power of journaling is nothing new. It has been used in stress management techniques for quite some time with great success to better control day to day levels of stress and invoke a calm and centered feeling.

A growth journal becomes an extension of you as you write down how you are feeling about your life, what you are doing to enhance your life and any issues or problems that you are aware of. You need to be reflecting back on your life and how you feel about your future going forward.

Far too often, we do not take time to think about what’s currently going on in our lives – what makes us happy and whether we are on track to actually feeling fulfilled in what we do.

By writing things down, we become more self-aware our current situation and of the dreams we hold for our future and we can make sure we are taking the proper steps towards reaching these dreams.

Taking action puts us in control and gives us a sense of empowerment and we’ll feel more positive in all that we do.

On the other hand, sitting pat and doing nothing imparts an unhappy and powerless feeling.

By taking a few minutes daily to write in your journal, reflecting on where you’ve been and where you are going empowers you to take charge over your future.

Additionally, you’ll want to take some time to write down what it is that you are working on doing or improving at this point.

What steps are you taking to enhance your life?

How are you currently trying to better yourself?

Are you enrolled in a course?

Are you reading a self-help book?

Are you networking with certain people?

Write it all down and keep tract of the results.

You will learn a lot through this exercise as you discover more about yourself and what methods of growth enhancement work best for you and produce the most positive self-growth forward.

Remember, everyone is different, what works for others may not work as well for you. Taking time to track this information allows you to do just that. If you hit a “slow spot” and feel as though everything you are doing is not producing the results you hope for or you feel there is really not much change happening in your life compared to a few months ago, you can always use your journal log and clearly see that you have in fact moved forward.

The last thing you want to use your journaling for is to write down any potential problems you face and what you will be doing to overcome them.

Be honest with yourself, what issues stand in the way of you seeing the self-growth you are after? What steps can you take to move past these?

By identifying potential problems, you can focus on coming up with a constructive plan of action to overcome them so that you anticipate them before they start and move right past that hurdle if and when it occurs in real life.

Your own personal self-growth journal is your creation and you should be the only one that sees it…so make sure you are totally honest with yourself and tailor it to best suit your needs.

It only takes 5-10 minutes each day to write in your journal but it is time well spent. Planning for success takes effort but your chances of moving forward will be that much greater.