Social Sector Performance Journaling

Writing regularly in a journal is for me, the one habit that creates the most out-sized tranquility for the amount of time invested. Developing a consistent  journaling practice, releases the thoughts churning around in your mind and places them on a written page. It frees up that part of your mind, and opens up space to enjoy life and take action. Journaling is so transformative that I’ve come to see performance journaling as one of the most important practices that a Social Sector professional can do to create the change that we want to see in the world. ​

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As Social Sector workers we deal with hard things. Let’s take the example from the 2021 pullout of the US from Afghanistan. The rapid fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban hit me and my fellow aid workers with an emotional and physical blow. Although I had not personally served there, many friends and colleagues had lived and worked for many years throughout the country. Their insights and a piece from my friend Eric James are guiding my evolving understanding of that place. My work in Central Asia included Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Although those nations are vastly different, they share geography and history with Afghanistan. As a student of geopolitics, and a practitioner in the modern aid industry, I followed events closely in Afghanistan for years. 

The fall of the government following the US pullout represents a failure of military, economic development, and statebuilding strategy. The humanitarian movement that seeks to save lives with essential assistance will continue under any government, but the road has been much more difficult since the US pullout. Societies can only remake themselves; they are not recreated from the outside. 

But as an American whose country and colleagues invested so much time, money, and lives in Afghanistan, I was emotionally and strategically shaken by the events. My way to make sense of these events and bounce back emotionally as well as to  learn from these strategic errors starts with performance journaling. 

Journaling Mindsets
Journaling can appear unnecessary, self serving, and overly introspective to those who have not experienced its transformative power. Why work and write about your own mind and self when the world calls you to work, live, and act as a part of external events? This is false thinking. All correct and strategic action starts from a clear mind.  The fastest way to a clear mind is to write in your journal. 

Embracing the time spent with a journal as some of the most important moments of the day can open up your mind to the transformative power of letting thoughts escape and move onto paper, out of the echo chamber of your mind. 

Journaling Strategy
Journaling strategy differs widely across people and purposes. The Five Minute Journal provides a template for a quick dose of introspection and gratefulness. Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way is a more extensive program of three stream-of-consciousness pages followed by a set of evolving questions. Author Ryan Holiday has a great writeup of his journaling approach, calling it the most important thing you can do everyday. Journaling is a highly personal activity and your strategy should be unique to your own needs. 

Journaling Tactics
My personal journaling tactics are a mash up of several sources, I’ll share the outline and process that currently works for me. Though many find that the physical act of writing with pen and paper are an essential part of the process, I’ve struggled my entire life with writing quickly and legibly by hand. I’ve fully transitioned to digital journaling so that I and others can read my words. In an ideal morning routine, I’ll meditate using the Insight Timer app for 7 minutes, then open a new note in a folder in Evernote, and follow the process below: 

Free writing - a few paragraphs of whatever is on my mind. This could be something that happened, a feeling that I have, or a description of where I am sitting. This gets my fingers moving and releases any thoughts that are knocking around in my head. 

Thankfulness - Writing three things that are immediately around me that make me grateful, such as a hot cup of coffee on a cold day, the shirt I’m wearing, or recalling a breakfast conversation with my young daughter. This rewires the mind towards all that you have, and counteracts the human evolutionary tendency to look for what is wrong. 

Yesterday Good - What was good about yesterday? Recall a positive thing that happened and note it down. 

Loving Kindness - Pick a few people and groups that matter to you, and send them loving, kind thoughts. My targets are my immediate family, my teams at work, then I think about the people that I’m working to help, the wider universe, and myself. Just a quick moment to send out those vibes to specific targets.   

Pain Points & Could Have Been Better- Things that have been going wrong or causing pain that I can work on to improve. 

High Level Mission - What am I here to do? I’ve distilled this down to three concepts of Freedom, Tranquility, and Service. 

My Principles -  As a part of the journaling process, I quickly read a set of principles that I’ve established to guide my choices and actions. These are the core ways of acting that remind me  how to best move forward. I’ll share a few here: 

• Live  right now. Do the work, feel the joy.
• Pain + Reflection = Progression: keep moving to higher levels of contribution & problem solving.
• Move to the outer edge in the disciplines that matter to you. 

The 7 Disciplines - These are the things that I’m trying to do every day and week. These areas are the things that matter to me, that I work on and try to practice in blocks of time throughout the day, week, and month. 

• Serving the world - Doing something that helps other people and the world
• Connection, relationship, and network - Creating strong romantic/friend/family/professional relationships.
• Wealth & Seamless Administration Systems - Creating wealth through adding value to the world, maintaining administrative, management, and operations systems to support other disciplines. 
• Body & Athletics - Consistently working on physical health and strength through training, recovery, and outdoor events. 
• Nature, Expedition & Adventure - Physical outside expeditions, small ones each month, one larger expedition per year. 
• Mind & Spirit - Facing fear, being tranquil and free in my mind. This includes journaling and meditation. 
• Art & Expression - Practicing and creating art. Working toward original published music.

Fear Setting - This is a  wonderful practice from Tim Ferris that has roots in social work practice. Identifying things that are causing outsized or background stress, and playing them out in your mind to develop a worst case scenario. Playing out the scenarios prepares you for a worst case scenario that usually never happens, and gets the fear cycle out of your head and onto the paper so you can move forward with your life. 

Questions - Writing down any relevant questions that come to mind. Not answering them, just posing them. 

Affirmations - Reading out a few aspirations. These sayings train your mind toward growth areas, and repetition can lead to learning and rewiring the brain. A few that I’m using: 

• I am consistent, methodical, and can realign to my vision. 
• I try, feel pain, reflect and improve
• I can learn from my mistakes.

Goal for the week - write out a few high level things that you are working on for the week. Check in each day. 


Making it work for you
Journaling has become essential for me to clear out the inevitable closed-loop thinking and fear cycles that the human brain develops. It is well worth taking some time to develop a short journaling practice that works for you and your path, and I’m curious to know your approach.

Happy Trails!

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