Five reasons why you should start the positive life plan
Did you keep a diary when you were younger? I kept one for a few years when I was in my early teens, and me and my best friend also wrote to each other all the time (this was before the internet, people!) and I kept those letters for years and years too. I’d love to read them again now and get to know my teenage self again. I wonder what happened to them? Think of the positive life plan as the grown up equivalent of those teenage ramblings: a constructive and uplifting way to keep track of all aspects of your life and maybe even make a few changes along the way too. Here, we’ve listed five reasons why you should start the positive life plan.
1 Mindfulness equals happiness
Mindfulness is all about the here and now: allowing yourself to be ‘in the moment’ requires all your attention. Think of the positive life plan as your own few minutes of meditation, allowing your feelings to wash over you, leaving your stresses and worries behind, and then recording any useful, positive thoughts and ideas just as they come into your head.
Erica: ‘Neuroscientists have discovered that gratitude has exactly the same effect as Prozac, they both release serotonin making you feel more positive. What’s really interesting is, it’s the act of searching for something to be grateful about that does this, you don’t even have to find anything! This is further evidence that happiness really is a choice and not connected to your situation at all!’
2 Make your dreams come true
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a huge life goal like moving to a different country, or wishing you could change jobs, or something as simple as noting down the title of a book you want to read: the first step in any plan is to put it down on paper. Sometimes just the tiniest seed of an idea can turn into something fabulous, so take the time to jot it down - you never know where it might lead. Erida says ‘the act of writing something down tells the brain to subconsciously gather information to help you achieve your goal. It’s almost like having an invisible assistant to help you. It’s why when you decide to buy a white Mini, you suddenly see them everywhere - you’ve sent your brain a subconscious message to notice them!’
3 Take time out for you
We all lead busy lives, have stressful jobs, family demands, social lives, corners of clutter that need sorting… The simple act of journalling means that you’re taking time to focus solely on yourself. Performing your little life edit becomes a bit addictive and after a while, the time you take out of your busy schedule to update your positive life plan becomes really precious. And of course you can tailor the plan just for you - don’t want to focus on your work? Miss the category out. Want to keep more of a daily/weekly journal? Use the categories as prompts and write whatever you like!
4 Work out what makes you happy
It wasn’t until I started keeping notes that I started to realise how unhappy not exercising regularly was making me. The quest to find an exercise I loved kept coming up over and over again in my thoughts. I started on my couch to 5k journey honestly not expecting to like it or keep at it, but it’s been a revelation, and 7 weeks on, I find that the days I run are the ones when I feel happiest and have more energy and enthusiasm. Erica agrees: ‘I’ve revisited things I enjoyed as a teenager to see if there is anything that provides the same high today. As a result, I’ve started playing cornet again and joined a brass band, and I’ve also just joined a netball team!’
5 The power of positivity
One of the rules - in fact, the only rule - of the positive life plan is that everything you write must be positive (the clue’s in the title), and one of the great things about writing positive things down is that it makes them permanent, and available for you to relive over and over again! You just can’t underestimate the fabulous, mood-boosting power of flicking through and reading your positive life plan, inspiring you to add even more positivity that you can come back to later. I find it especially useful to flick through if I’m not having a great day - it’s an instant mood booster.
Great article, information provided are valuable. Points are described in a good and easy way.
Thanks for sharing this article.
Thanks 🙂
I would love to begin a new life now that my child has moved out. I need a plan.
international travel
To remind myself who I am outside of mum, counsellor, special needs advisor, peace negotiator, taxi, cook, cleaner, ironing lady… oh and to try and have an excuse to focus on me ❤️
This is the perfect time for me to start my positive life plan. Currently recovering from sudden unexpected surgery has given me plenty of pause for thought during my recovery time.
As a mum of two children I’m juggling life just as much as the next but I guess I’ve had a rather clichéd wake up call in terms of health and taking care of me. With my youngest child starting school in September and my eldest child’s turning 10 now I’m in a great place to make some positive changes for me. September will see a refresh to my writing and blogging, family life as well as placing an emphasis on the health of my marriage. September 2017 will see a new Mrs T!
Recently retired and feeling very nostalgic. Looking back is wonderful, but I need to focus on looking forward and making new and exciting plans now I have the time to focus on me.
I want to stress less and beat my anxiety!!!
With 2 young children i can bearly think at the best of times, this would be so helpful for putting down my need-2-knows!
I’m 39 now and moving into a different phase of my life gotta get my artwork out into the public and see what happens arrgghhh!
As my kids get older and need me less I need to find something that I can call mine. This is the start of an exciting journey, and all good adventures need to be recorded.
I am starting a new buisness and need to maintain my positive attitude. This would definately help
I need to be more organised in life as I constantly have birthdays, work meetings, school events and social events whizzing around my head causing me to have sleepless nights or be frantically finishing off things for school at midnight. I have been known to double or triple book myself recently so this planner would make my life day to day a much calmer experience hopefully!
Im always writing lists that normally end up scattered around different pieces of scrap paper or in my childrens note books! So it would be great to have my own to keep the, all in one place
I would love to see how I progress throughout the year with and be able to reflect and watch the goals that I have set out evolve and see the progression develop throughout the journey captured in this journal. I think it would be incredibly motivating and a great tool to for self-discovery!
I would like to be more organised.
would like to journel my weight loss and well being, after my marriage breakdown
I would love to get my day to day life into some sort of recordable order at long last. I have tried so often using notebooks, diaries, etc. but to no avail!
The TOAD diary may be my last hope - and it sounds just perfect!!
I’ve got custody of 2 of my grandchildren and we have recently started two websites which we hope will be a business for them in the future. I would like to record the ups and downs as we go along on our new adventure.
I’d like to record my roller derby skills progression and gym work outs and weight loss
I want to journal my weight loss as I think this would be a positive use of my diary 😀
I am starting to work on dealing with my anxiety. This would be great!
I like to have goals to work towards 🙂
I would like to start my own personal life plan because my life is so busy and hectic with work and 3 children, and it’s easy for the days to zip by and for stress and negativity to build up. I’d like to take time out to look for positives in my life, and to turn the little things I find stressful around into challenges in a positive way. Also to give me goals to work towards!
I would love to have a place to put all my ideas and plans for a positive and happy life journey
i just love making plans it makes my hectic schedule so much ore eaier to manage with a diary!
I would love to have this for my daughter who is starting her A’levels 🙂
I’m starting an A Level and freelancing so a lot of changes!
i’m a list person i wright everything down good and bad place that look nice place we have been etc so has to make lots more happy times and not waste time on things that make us unhappy
I like to keep a journal. I’m also about to start a fresh course with MOOC online.
I’m the most negative person I know!
im starting a college course
I’m getting more motivated in every aspect of my life and this would really help me to get everything organised.
I would love to feel more organised so the days don’t feel like they go by in a busy and sometimes stressful blur!
I always kept a diary when I was a kid which I still have and I love reading back on my time then. Would love to keep a diary again to look back on in years to come. x
I would like to start my own positive life plan as I’ve recently split from my partner so am starting a new life on my own, I’ve been living back with my mum for a few months but I hope to get my own place in the next year or so!
I need to be a more half full cup kind of person so I would try and write down all my positive thoughts and not let negative ones into my head!
I am just beginning to practice mindfullness and the law of attraction and a lovely journal will be fabulous to keep track of al my positive thinking and goals achieved.
How lovely 🙂 I would love to win one of these TOAD diaries, as I have recently started a long weight loss journey. So far in 4 months I have lost little under 2.5 stone! It comes with a lot of emotions, which I need to log some where and this diary would be ideal!!! Fingers crossed 🙂 xx
so I can be the best mum I can be for my kids.
Getting married soon so the organisation would help, changing my name is also like a new positive start so would be good to plan new regimes.
I used to have a yellow book of happy thoughts which fell by the wayside so it would be good to have a blue book of bloomin’ beautiful thoughts instead.
I would love to have a positive planner so that I can focus on the route ahead rather than the glum rut I’m stuck in. Having my training and positives down in front of me to follow would be fantastic
I want to reduce negativity and negative people in my life and increase my positive outlook
Lose weight - feel great - batch cook - I need daily motivation - and visual clues!
lists for everything, new job too so much needed
both my children have left home and I finally feel like I want to get my life in order!
After battling personal issues and health, coming out of the other side of depression and mental health, I am picking up the pieces and starting out in rebuilding my confidence and health, my career was lost also so i am trying to make a plan for the future and recreate a working life, many thanks
I have a baby grandson!! I would love to write down my experiences i had whilst growing up. All my plans for myself and my family, including what i would like for him, in the coming years. i would love to write about the world, how it is now, then give him this book on his 18th birthday.
I could really do with some positive energy in my life. I’ve had to take some time out from everything due to anxiety and panic attacks. I was advised to start writing all my thoughts down and it has helped immensely so I think a positive life plan journal would be really effective at keeping my anxiety and worries in check.
I would like to organise my time better to get the work life balance correct. I have 2 kids so planning my time better would be great.
I really want to organise myself to earn enough money to do this amazing cookery diploma I’ve seen, it feels hugely unrealistic at the moment but if I can just set some goals and keep to them I’d be a lot closer to getting there.
I have been so busy that i rarely get time to myself
i have recently quit my job to reevaulate my career so this would be very helpful in planning interviews
I need to start making plans and becoming accounatable to them rather than wasting time faffing about. A notebook would be the perfect way to do this
I’ve been out of work for the past few months, so I’m feeling it’s time to get my life back on track and focus on the positive!
I’ve realised lately that life has taken over and I’ve not spend any time or energy on myself, and also become quite disorganised and unfocussed, so now everyone is happy and healthy, no one is moving house or changing job or anything else major, I want to take the opportunity to pull myself together and regroup!
I have suffered with mental health issues for 11 years now. I love writing & live by writing lists. I think this plan would help me massively to get onto the right track of being positive more often!
My mind is all over the place at the moment in terms of mental wellbeing and I have realised that one aspect of my mind is that it needs to become more organised and focussed. A postitive life plan diary would help x
I’ve dabbled with bullet journalling but I really need a nice notebook to start looking towards a positive future. I’m determined to learn to be more positive because its something I find challenging!
I would love to increase the positivity in my life, there’s far too much negative stuff just now! And it is so pervasive, even when you try not to let it be. I really believe if I can be more positive it will bring so much happiness.
I see death and violence most nights in my job which can bring you down.I like to leave the bad bits on paper to live a normal life.
I just wanted to reduce the negativity in my life and bring in more positivity and gratitude. I feel in the hustle and bustle of the world today, we don’t take enough time out to just sit with our own thoughts.
I am starting my open university course as well as moving house so the next few months will be very stressful so this would be perfect for keeping me organised
I’m very much a notes and list person to keep my busy life in order so this would come in so useful!
I want a fresh start, to be more positive, and get to where I want to be in my life
to keep me on track x
I’m naturally a positive person and am loving this plan of yours! I try to follow these rules every day.. I’d love one of these notebooks as I use so much odd scribble paper for things like this! I need to organise it better!
I need to start refocusing and sitting down to plan all my goals and positiveness activities effectively and this will help do that!!
I’m going to be tackling this PLP this month (yes, I know I’m 3 days late but it’s in my head) - I can’t plan too far ahead so I’m going to do this on a monthly basis with some attainable goals. And OBVIOUSLY I need a new notebook to plot this in…
My friend is starting her teaching career in september and this would make a lovely gift for her!.
Hello gorgeous lady! As you know, I have been embracing happy for a good few years now but I am also beginning to fully appreciate how necessary it is to plan and make time for yourself. It’s not selfish and is so important. I also love the idea of keeping track of something with the old school NOTEBOOK. I am far too fixated on the digital version of everything because it’s easier and to hand but I need to make a better commitment to myself and make a better use of my time.
Love what you and Erica are doing! <3
Karin xx
I am starting a new course of study and hobbies so this would be ideal for recording key points and moments.