February 12, 2026 • 14 mins
Meet The Differently Journal!
Today's episode is a celebration + peek inside this new guided journal.
I'm also sharing my 5 favorite ways to use writing to navigate life, and more.
Get your copy today!
Get The Differently Journal at carlareeves.com/journal
Group pricing? Please email to carla@differentlyco.com
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Website: https:/www.carlareeves.com/
Get The Differently Journal:
https://carlareeves.com/journal
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Connect on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@differentlythepodcast
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
A deep change in the way that we live requires a deep
change in the way that we think.
I'm Carla Reeves, and this isDifferently.
Happy Thursday.
I it's a little extra happyThursday because even though I'm
not recording on Thursday, I'manticipating you listening on
(00:23):
Thursday, and I'm so excitedbecause I have in my hands the
Differently Journal.
And it's a real physical journalthat you can now get a copy of.
And I'm so excited to share itwith you because it is the first
journal that I have printed inover 20 years.
(00:44):
And it feels like a very fullcircle moment that I want to
share with you.
And this episode is really asneak peek into the journal.
And I want really want to remindyou and hopefully inspire you by
what this simple, easy,accessible, affordable tool
(01:05):
called writing can actually befor your life.
I lived my life for many years,feeling at the mercy of what was
happening around me and felttrapped in my own thinking and
noisy mind.
And I knew in my heart there hadto be another way, but I had no
(01:25):
clue how to get there or whatthat looked like.
And writing helped me find myway out, and it can help you
too.
This is why I created theDifferently Journal, and it's
officially available.
Um, you can go toCarlareeves.com forward slash
journal and check it all outthere.
(01:47):
But this journal is designed andfilled with so much love from my
heart to you to guide you inwriting your life forward so
that you can stop surviving yourdays and really start creating
your life on purpose.
So I mentioned this is the firstjournal I've printed in 20
years.
The first journal I printed wascalled Little Me.
(02:09):
I may have mentioned thisbefore, but it was a baby
journal, and I created it for myboys as a way to record and
remember all the precious littlethings that happened so early in
their life because I knew overtime I would forget so much of
it.
And I actually wanted to recordand remember it for them so that
(02:31):
perhaps someday they could goback and remember who they are
and who they were created to be.
So, as if you've been listeningto the podcast for a while, you
know my probably original storyof writing, but it happened when
I was a young mom.
And in a season where I feltlike I was just surviving and
not even just surviving, I feltlike I was slipping into just a
(02:55):
place I didn't want to be.
I felt like my sanity wasslipping.
I didn't feel myself.
I looked around and so saw somany other moms too that were
unhappy or overwhelmed, and thatwas quietly starting to ripple
into the way they parented andshowed up in their marriages.
And I knew I didn't want that,but I felt myself kind of going
(03:18):
down that same path.
And I knew I wanted to be ahappy mom.
I felt like that was one of thegreatest gifts I could give my
children.
And at the same time, I felt Godtell me to write.
And I listened, I startedwriting, and here I am today, 20
plus years later, still usingwriting um daily.
(03:39):
Um, you know, daily, I do adaily morning journal.
Um, as far as using it as a toolto navigate my life, I use it as
needed now, but multiple times aweek, um I am writing in some
form or fashion.
And teaching it and sharing thistool.
So shortly after I startedwriting, I flipped through the
(04:02):
pages of my journal and realizedall the things that had
happened, and also felt, Godsay, you're here to teach people
how to use writing as a tool tonavigate their life.
And that's what it is, friend.
This is not just a recordingyour life, recording what
happens, although that might beimportant too.
It's really about using it as atool to manage your own mind,
(04:26):
sort through your own thoughts,um, hear and listen for truth,
and align yourself and moveforward so you can do that on
purpose, so you feel like youhave agency in your life.
So today, in celebration of uhthe release of the journal, I
want to just share really the myfavor, my very favorite things
(04:50):
that you can do inside of ajournal and how you can do that
inside of this journal so youcan go grab a copy.
Okay, so my very favorite thingsthat I use a journal for, and
that I actually use with myclients to do too.
So if you haven't been listeningfor a long time, um I also coach
with a journal.
So anytime I'm working with aclient, they have an online
(05:13):
journal that we share, and Itake them through writing
practices, many of which are inthis journal.
But one of the very first thingis to calm my own mind.
So maybe you can relate thatyour mind gets really noisy, it
gets really spinny, it can justgo down a rabbit hole without
(05:35):
you even realizing it and derailyour whole day.
So calming my mind is one of themy favorite things to do.
And that is simply just to emptyyour mind.
Take out the mental trash daily,just like you do in your house.
So it can be just emptying outall of those thoughts because I
promise you that when you canstart to get some distance from
(05:58):
your thoughts and realize theyare not you, and that you don't
have to believe everything thatyou think, just doing that does
wonders.
Number two, keeping me awake inmy life.
Do you know how easy it is tofall asleep to this life and
just go through the motions ornumb out or drift off?
(06:19):
Writing helps me stay awake inmy life.
And it is a practice of justpaying attention, paying
attention to what's happening inmy mind, paying attention to
what's happening in my life,paying attention to the actions
that I'm taking and the outcomesof those actions, like what's
working, what's not working,what needs my attention in my
(06:40):
life.
If I look around therelationships in my life, so it
keeps me aware.
It's like a dashboard in a car.
It's like uh keeps me aware ofall the different parts of my
life and what needs attention,or what is uh drifting off or
going astray, or what is workingso that I can do more of that.
(07:01):
Number three, it's an incredibletool to process your thoughts.
So when you're spinning aboutsomething or you're grappling
with something, or you're tryingto make a decision and you're
just on the fence and can't seemto do it, writing is an
incredible way to get out allthe things that you're thinking
and then stand back and askdifferent questions, approach it
(07:25):
from different angles.
Imagine if you were givingsomebody else advice, what you
would say, and even kind ofinterrupting those negative
patterns that you typically umspin around in.
Like I was just recently workingwith a client, and her default
thought pattern is to imaginethe worst and find, find all the
(07:49):
ways that something's not goingto work out or it's not going to
be good for her.
And so I'm in the process of howteaching her how to approach
that differently, to interruptthat pattern early on.
So, for example, if you'retrying to figure out, like, oh,
do I go on this trip?
Do I not go on this trip?
Is it going to be safe?
(08:09):
Am I going to be okay?
Is it a good idea?
And all the fear comes in,right?
When we think of something bigand exciting we want to do.
Well, in a matter of seconds,she had talked herself out of
doing it for all the reasonsthat something could go wrong.
And so I asked, I'm asking herto step back and start
interrupting that thoughtpattern earlier on.
(08:31):
Like, what is this trip?
How does it align with yourbigger goals and dreams for your
life?
What is the timing in your life?
Does the timing make sense?
Does it, is it, does it fall inin line with your other
priorities?
What is your intuition feelingabout it?
So that you're not just lookingat all the things that could go
(08:52):
wrong, but you're standing backand going, how does this line up
with who I am and what I'm up toin my life?
So incredible and so helpful.
Um this other way thatprocessing things, I believe
it's like a leader superpower,but just taking five minutes
before a meeting or an importantconversation to get out your
(09:13):
thoughts, to really stand back,think about what your ultimate
outcome is here so that you canalign to increase the likelihood
of the best possible outcome.
Um, so powerful.
Number four, create newapproaches to old problems.
So similar to what I was tellingyou in walking a client through.
(09:34):
But if you see like a repetitivepattern that is not producing
the fruit that you want to seein your life, this is a good
indicator that it might be agreat time to write and actually
just kind of get out what you'rethinking, get out your default
approach and think about how hasthat impacted you in the past
(09:55):
and what could you do slightlydifferent?
Just change your dance ever soslightly to tweak the outcome.
And then over time, you canpractice and experiment with
that and refine it and amplifyit.
That that alone can produce umjust new results almost
immediately in your life.
(10:16):
You can start to shift thepatterns.
And lastly, number five is toreally create.
(11:01):
But what if it does happen?
What if it happens because youstart to write it down, you
start to remember it, andwithout you even realizing it,
because you're doing that, youstart to aim and align your
actions to that.
This is so powerful, and it'ssomething I have used in every
area of my life to createchange, to um to grow, and to
(11:28):
realize outcomes.
So what you can do in thedifferently journal that relates
to all of these things is reallyall of it.
So I'm looking at it right now,and it's got some instructions
for how to start.
It's got five ways to write yourlife forward.
And then I take each each way,and there's a page for each way
(11:53):
to kind of walk you through thatand walk you through what does
that mean and what does thatlook like and give you some
prompts to actually do it.
So the beginning of this journalis a guide for you, and then
it's filled with lots of blankpages, uh, lined pages, I should
say.
It's filled with lots ofreminders and inspiration that
(12:14):
you're gonna love.
You could turn to a page and apicture and let that inspire
your writing.
I all the photographs in thisjournal came from our three-week
trip to Costa Rica.
So it's all of my ownphotography.
And so I'm giving you a littleslice of Costa Rica, which um is
pretty magical.
(12:36):
And then there's also pages andinspiration where you can link
to a QR code that takes you to apodcast episode where I talked
about that specific thing.
So it's filled with ways toinspire your writing as well.
So I can't wait for you to checkthis out.
You can get your copy again atcarlareeves.com forward slash
(13:00):
journal.
If you are interested in givingthis to your team, which a
client of mine did, she justgifted a copy to each of her
team members.
If you're interested in morethan one copy, you're gonna need
to email me directly at Carla atdifferentlyco.com or Carla at
(13:20):
Carlareeves.com, and I we canarrange for that.
The shopping cart on this site,you can just order one at a
time.
But it makes a great gift,definitely something for you,
but also makes a great gift.
Um, could be a great item ifyou're hosting an event for a
swag bag or a giveaway, so lotsof ideas there.
(13:42):
It is a practical tool to helpyou clear your mind, see
differently, think differently,and move your life forward on
purpose.
I am so excited for you to getyour hands on this and just know
from my heart to yours it's atool to help you stop surviving
(14:02):
your life and really startcreating it on purpose.
Thank you for celebrating withme.
I hope you have a beautiful dayand I'll see you next week.
A deep change in the way that we live requires a deep
change in the way that we think.
I'm Carla Reeves, and this isDifferently.
Happy Thursday.
I it's a little extra happyThursday because even though I'm
not recording on Thursday, I'manticipating you listening on
(00:23):
Thursday, and I'm so excitedbecause I have in my hands the
Differently Journal.
And it's a real physical journalthat you can now get a copy of.
And I'm so excited to share itwith you because it is the first
journal that I have printed inover 20 years.
(00:44):
And it feels like a very fullcircle moment that I want to
share with you.
And this episode is really asneak peek into the journal.
And I want really want to remindyou and hopefully inspire you by
what this simple, easy,accessible, affordable tool
(01:05):
called writing can actually befor your life.
I lived my life for many years,feeling at the mercy of what was
happening around me and felttrapped in my own thinking and
noisy mind.
And I knew in my heart there hadto be another way, but I had no
(01:25):
clue how to get there or whatthat looked like.
And writing helped me find myway out, and it can help you
too.
This is why I created theDifferently Journal, and it's
officially available.
Um, you can go toCarlareeves.com forward slash
journal and check it all outthere.
(01:47):
But this journal is designed andfilled with so much love from my
heart to you to guide you inwriting your life forward so
that you can stop surviving yourdays and really start creating
your life on purpose.
So I mentioned this is the firstjournal I've printed in 20
years.
The first journal I printed wascalled Little Me.
(02:09):
I may have mentioned thisbefore, but it was a baby
journal, and I created it for myboys as a way to record and
remember all the precious littlethings that happened so early in
their life because I knew overtime I would forget so much of
it.
And I actually wanted to recordand remember it for them so that
(02:31):
perhaps someday they could goback and remember who they are
and who they were created to be.
So, as if you've been listeningto the podcast for a while, you
know my probably original storyof writing, but it happened when
I was a young mom.
And in a season where I feltlike I was just surviving and
not even just surviving, I feltlike I was slipping into just a
(02:55):
place I didn't want to be.
I felt like my sanity wasslipping.
I didn't feel myself.
I looked around and so saw somany other moms too that were
unhappy or overwhelmed, and thatwas quietly starting to ripple
into the way they parented andshowed up in their marriages.
And I knew I didn't want that,but I felt myself kind of going
(03:18):
down that same path.
And I knew I wanted to be ahappy mom.
I felt like that was one of thegreatest gifts I could give my
children.
And at the same time, I felt Godtell me to write.
And I listened, I startedwriting, and here I am today, 20
plus years later, still usingwriting um daily.
(03:39):
Um, you know, daily, I do adaily morning journal.
Um, as far as using it as a toolto navigate my life, I use it as
needed now, but multiple times aweek, um I am writing in some
form or fashion.
And teaching it and sharing thistool.
So shortly after I startedwriting, I flipped through the
(04:02):
pages of my journal and realizedall the things that had
happened, and also felt, Godsay, you're here to teach people
how to use writing as a tool tonavigate their life.
And that's what it is, friend.
This is not just a recordingyour life, recording what
happens, although that might beimportant too.
It's really about using it as atool to manage your own mind,
(04:26):
sort through your own thoughts,um, hear and listen for truth,
and align yourself and moveforward so you can do that on
purpose, so you feel like youhave agency in your life.
So today, in celebration of uhthe release of the journal, I
want to just share really the myfavor, my very favorite things
(04:50):
that you can do inside of ajournal and how you can do that
inside of this journal so youcan go grab a copy.
Okay, so my very favorite thingsthat I use a journal for, and
that I actually use with myclients to do too.
So if you haven't been listeningfor a long time, um I also coach
with a journal.
So anytime I'm working with aclient, they have an online
(05:13):
journal that we share, and Itake them through writing
practices, many of which are inthis journal.
But one of the very first thingis to calm my own mind.
So maybe you can relate thatyour mind gets really noisy, it
gets really spinny, it can justgo down a rabbit hole without
(05:35):
you even realizing it and derailyour whole day.
So calming my mind is one of themy favorite things to do.
And that is simply just to emptyyour mind.
Take out the mental trash daily,just like you do in your house.
So it can be just emptying outall of those thoughts because I
promise you that when you canstart to get some distance from
(05:58):
your thoughts and realize theyare not you, and that you don't
have to believe everything thatyou think, just doing that does
wonders.
Number two, keeping me awake inmy life.
Do you know how easy it is tofall asleep to this life and
just go through the motions ornumb out or drift off?
(06:19):
Writing helps me stay awake inmy life.
And it is a practice of justpaying attention, paying
attention to what's happening inmy mind, paying attention to
what's happening in my life,paying attention to the actions
that I'm taking and the outcomesof those actions, like what's
working, what's not working,what needs my attention in my
(06:40):
life.
If I look around therelationships in my life, so it
keeps me aware.
It's like a dashboard in a car.
It's like uh keeps me aware ofall the different parts of my
life and what needs attention,or what is uh drifting off or
going astray, or what is workingso that I can do more of that.
(07:01):
Number three, it's an incredibletool to process your thoughts.
So when you're spinning aboutsomething or you're grappling
with something, or you're tryingto make a decision and you're
just on the fence and can't seemto do it, writing is an
incredible way to get out allthe things that you're thinking
and then stand back and askdifferent questions, approach it
(07:25):
from different angles.
Imagine if you were givingsomebody else advice, what you
would say, and even kind ofinterrupting those negative
patterns that you typically umspin around in.
Like I was just recently workingwith a client, and her default
thought pattern is to imaginethe worst and find, find all the
(07:49):
ways that something's not goingto work out or it's not going to
be good for her.
And so I'm in the process of howteaching her how to approach
that differently, to interruptthat pattern early on.
So, for example, if you'retrying to figure out, like, oh,
do I go on this trip?
Do I not go on this trip?
Is it going to be safe?
(08:09):
Am I going to be okay?
Is it a good idea?
And all the fear comes in,right?
When we think of something bigand exciting we want to do.
Well, in a matter of seconds,she had talked herself out of
doing it for all the reasonsthat something could go wrong.
And so I asked, I'm asking herto step back and start
interrupting that thoughtpattern earlier on.
(08:31):
Like, what is this trip?
How does it align with yourbigger goals and dreams for your
life?
What is the timing in your life?
Does the timing make sense?
Does it, is it, does it fall inin line with your other
priorities?
What is your intuition feelingabout it?
So that you're not just lookingat all the things that could go
(08:52):
wrong, but you're standing backand going, how does this line up
with who I am and what I'm up toin my life?
So incredible and so helpful.
Um this other way thatprocessing things, I believe
it's like a leader superpower,but just taking five minutes
before a meeting or an importantconversation to get out your
(09:13):
thoughts, to really stand back,think about what your ultimate
outcome is here so that you canalign to increase the likelihood
of the best possible outcome.
Um, so powerful.
Number four, create newapproaches to old problems.
So similar to what I was tellingyou in walking a client through.
(09:34):
But if you see like a repetitivepattern that is not producing
the fruit that you want to seein your life, this is a good
indicator that it might be agreat time to write and actually
just kind of get out what you'rethinking, get out your default
approach and think about how hasthat impacted you in the past
(09:55):
and what could you do slightlydifferent?
Just change your dance ever soslightly to tweak the outcome.
And then over time, you canpractice and experiment with
that and refine it and amplifyit.
That that alone can produce umjust new results almost
immediately in your life.
(10:16):
You can start to shift thepatterns.
And lastly, number five is toreally create.
(11:01):
But what if it does happen?
What if it happens because youstart to write it down, you
start to remember it, andwithout you even realizing it,
because you're doing that, youstart to aim and align your
actions to that.
This is so powerful, and it'ssomething I have used in every
area of my life to createchange, to um to grow, and to
(11:28):
realize outcomes.
So what you can do in thedifferently journal that relates
to all of these things is reallyall of it.
So I'm looking at it right now,and it's got some instructions
for how to start.
It's got five ways to write yourlife forward.
And then I take each each way,and there's a page for each way
(11:53):
to kind of walk you through thatand walk you through what does
that mean and what does thatlook like and give you some
prompts to actually do it.
So the beginning of this journalis a guide for you, and then
it's filled with lots of blankpages, uh, lined pages, I should
say.
It's filled with lots ofreminders and inspiration that
(12:14):
you're gonna love.
You could turn to a page and apicture and let that inspire
your writing.
I all the photographs in thisjournal came from our three-week
trip to Costa Rica.
So it's all of my ownphotography.
And so I'm giving you a littleslice of Costa Rica, which um is
pretty magical.
(12:36):
And then there's also pages andinspiration where you can link
to a QR code that takes you to apodcast episode where I talked
about that specific thing.
So it's filled with ways toinspire your writing as well.
So I can't wait for you to checkthis out.
You can get your copy again atcarlareeves.com forward slash
(13:00):
journal.
If you are interested in givingthis to your team, which a
client of mine did, she justgifted a copy to each of her
team members.
If you're interested in morethan one copy, you're gonna need
to email me directly at Carla atdifferentlyco.com or Carla at
(13:20):
Carlareeves.com, and I we canarrange for that.
The shopping cart on this site,you can just order one at a
time.
But it makes a great gift,definitely something for you,
but also makes a great gift.
Um, could be a great item ifyou're hosting an event for a
swag bag or a giveaway, so lotsof ideas there.
(13:42):
It is a practical tool to helpyou clear your mind, see
differently, think differently,and move your life forward on
purpose.
I am so excited for you to getyour hands on this and just know
from my heart to yours it's atool to help you stop surviving
(14:02):
your life and really startcreating it on purpose.
Thank you for celebrating withme.
I hope you have a beautiful dayand I'll see you next week.
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