Since March of this year I have been writing goal statements in a small, unnamed, regular looking notebook that I carry with me everywhere. I just got done revising my most current goal statement and thought I’d spend a few minutes sharing with you how to get started in the world of what I like to call, “Prophetic Journaling.”

Don’t let those last two words above scare you. I’m not talking about some new religion or saying that we are prophets, I’m simply creating a catchy name for a product I’ll be launching soon. As always, you lucky few here get to the meat of the product for FREE all because you’ve been blessed enough to stumble upon this site.

So what is Prophetic Journaling? I thought you’d never ask! Prophetic Journaling can be defined as:

Writing down that which you intend to happen in your life.

Short and sweet, huh? The basis of this idea comes from the study of many different “self help” books and even goes back to the classic book, “Think and Grow Rich.” To get started with your own Prophetic Journal, you need only follow a few quick steps.

1) Decide what you want to be, do, or have.

This can be tough if you’ve never done it before. It took me about 3 hours when I made my first journal entry. Now, I update and make changes about once a month and it takes somewhere around 30 minutes.

2) Create a flow of sentences that describes yourself having already completed your goals.

This means that instead of saying I want to lose 30 pounds, say I have lost 30 pounds or I weigh (enter goal weight here). The premise of this is rooted in congruency. Us humans get caught up with being congruent all the time. We can’t say we’re one thing and consistently do something that goes against what we say we are. That’s why the word hypocrite is such a nasty term in humanese all around the globe.

3) Write out your Prophetic Journal statement in a form that is pleasing to your eyes and mind.

As long as it makes sense to you, it makes sense. I usually begin mine with a positive affirmation that I hold true. Right now, mine begins with my phrase, “Today is the greatest day in the history of the world.” When you have written down all your goals, you should have about a full page of goal statements.

4) Commit to reading your goal statement or as I like to call it take the “Biblical Challenge.”

What do I mean by Biblical Challenge? Well, if you’ve ever read the Bible or even gone to Sunday School once or twice you’ve no doubt heard the story of the Noah and the great flood. How many days and nights did it flood? 40. When Moses fled from Egypt on a hiatus from his fellow Jews, how long was he gone for? 40 years. When Moses came back and led the Jews to the Promised land, how long did they wander in the desert? 40 years. When Jesus fasted and prayed in the desert how long was he gone for? 40 days, seeing the pattern yet?

I believe that 40 is a strong number with much spiritual significance. I mean, why else would it appear over and over again in the bible and usually in regards to some sort of a trial or challenging time? That is why I want you to COMMIT yourself to reading your goal statement for 40 days and 40 nights.

Now that may sound like a lot, but it really isn’t. Start with 1 day, then 1 night, then a week, then a few weeks, and then you’re pretty much at 40 days. It’s not hard, trust me.

5) Cleaning up the Details

I have made this article very intangible in some ways, so I want to make sure you understand the key concepts. I’ll also come back later and type in a copy of one of my first journals for your review. I’ll update the link on here when that’s done. The only other thing I want to stress is that you hand write the page and keep it near your bedside. Read it OUT LOUD when you wake up and before you lay down for sleep. Writing with your own hand creates stronger neural pathways and reading it out loud in your own voice takes it one step further because it causes the stimulus to cycle twice through your brain. Once when you read the words and again when you hear the words being spoken. This combination is powerful.

6) When you feel compelled to do or not to do something, heed your own feelings.

The greatest thing will begin happening when you write your goals down in a Prophetic Journal, you’ll actually begin to see the incongruency in what you are saying to yourself everyday and the current life you’re living. Pretty soon, you’ll begin to feel like you want to make changes. The important thing is to DO IT!

You see, we humans CAN’T live incongruently. We either are one way or we aren’t. Prophetic Journaling FORCES you to choose. When you commit to reading your statement for 40 days and nights, you will have to start making changes to your lifestyle or quit reading the statement. There is no other alternative. You can’t say to yourself twice a day that you are a thin person and continually go out eating bad food and not feel any twinge of incongruency in your actions. Let this power work for you!

I dare you to write your statement, read it for 40 days and nights, and see what happens. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results.

I first began writing when I was in 4th grade, my first work was a poem called “The Setback” about Martin Luther King Jr. I read it to my teacher and she asked me if I copied it from a book. Haha! From that day on I’ve always felt the greatest compliment is when the person who reads your work doesn’t believe you wrote it. That poem was published in the St. Petersburg Times Alligator Alley section. So my first work was published! If you want a copy of the poem, which I still store in this wonderful brain of mine, contact me.

So maybe you could say I’m a “born writer”, but I don’t think so. I don’t believe that we are born anything, save male or female. We are inclined towards what comes easiest to us, but that doesn’t mean we were “born anything”. Anyway, I wrote poetry and the occasional short story as I grew up, but never focused on writing as a craft. It wasn’t until my twenties that I began to think of writing as something I could actually do for a career. So, I started doing what any great writer does; I started reading. I delved into fiction like I never had before and supplemented that with lots of “how to” books. After digging through Dickens, Kerouac, more Dickens, Caleb Carr, and Dickens again, I began my first novel. I got to 10,000 words and quit. I was well on my way to being a quitter.

Then something amazing happened. I read about a writer’s group in my little town that meets for 3 hours every Friday followed by lunch. What a great idea I thought. So I went and checked it out, and let me tell you I am the luckiest guy in the whole world. This club is full of published authors with years of experience under their belts. One lady has published over 20 books, another is an attorney, another is a retired college professor, and one lady lived in Africa for 20 years where she was held captive by her husband. I know, this group sounds like a good book idea. One step at a time.
I read my first chapter to them this past Friday and got quite a good response. Words like promise, potential, enjoyable, strong style, etc spewed forth. With all the good thought came the advice. “You need to be less passive.” “7 year olds don’t talk like that.” “If his kid was in danger, why wouldn’t he pick him up?” “Show me, don’t tell me!”

I was thrilled! Here I am, getting tips and advice from people who know what gets published. I’m writing this article now because I want to encourage you to get involved in some sort of a group. Don’t just join any group though. I tried out a few different ones that were awful before I settled on this one. Also, here are 10 tips to become a better writer I have learned from my author friends already.

1. Have a protagonist with a problem. Sounds easy I know. But this one really struck me. Create a sympathetic/fantastic character that has a massive seemingly impossible problem.
2. Show, don’t tell. Stock advice, I know, but worth it. Don’t ever lose a chance to let your character do something to show his character. Example- He was a bad man who didn’t care about children. Compare. Ebeneezer walked by the United Children’s Hospital, “Awful sick children, a burden on society and an expense to us taxpayers. Their death won’t be anything but a relief to us all.” OUCH!
3. Each chapter should move the plot forward. Every chapter is a chance to let something happen that takes the story to a whole new level.
4. Each chapter should end with a page turning sentence. A little cheap sometimes, but it works. Try ending chapters with lines that make the reader turn the page. Another dangerous situation had been avoided, but we were oblivious to the two men hiding up ahead, ready to make sure we were finished off this time.
5. Have a goal for each Character. Goals help drive the story. Just as you need goals in your own life, (like finishing your novel) your characters need goals too. It helps you as the writer think like your characters, and it gives you something to shoot for.
6. Create a formidable challenge/problem. We all know the main character will win, or do we? Create a problem so big, it takes all the character’s strength and determination.
7. The Ying and The Yang. I call this next tip the ying and yang. Don’t let any character be all good or all bad. Your antagonist needs some flaw, and your antagonist needs a redeeming quality.
8. Always Increase the Tension. Drama sells everything. Never miss an opportunity to make the love scene more passionate, the murder scene more gruesome, or your character more complex.
9. Everyone loves a twist. Every good book has a twist of some sort. Maybe that girlfriend is a spy or the guy down the street is involved in some way we never thought possible.
10. A satisfying resolution. We all love happy endings, or at least endings that actually end. Unless you’re writing the next great trilogy try to have some closure. And if you are writing that great trilogy, each book should still have a clear ending. Something has to be accomplished in each book. There’s nothing worse than a book that doesn’t tell you what happened to the characters when the dust settled.

I know you were only looking for 10, but I couldn’t resist. Here’s an extra tip for you, free of charge!

• Set deadlines. All the other tips mean nothing if you don’t write anything. I read a quote once that said something to the effect that you can edit bad writing, but you can’t edit the blank page. Set a time each week that a chapter has to be done, you can always edit it later, just get it done!