In this Motivational Monday episode, Chris Prefontaine shares his personal gratitude journaling system, emphasizing its role in achieving success. He introduces his exclusive "President's Club" coaching group, co‑led with Derek Dombek, and recounts a 2018 mastermind where a successful founder recommended the book Thought Revolution, which he urges viewers to read. Prefontaine demonstrates his own journal, noting he is on day 307 of an uninterrupted gratitude streak, explaining that any missed day resets the count. He outlines practical journaling techniques: (1) recording present‑moment gratitudes (weather, coffee, loved ones) and (2) writing future‑oriented gratitudes for desired outcomes (buying or selling companies, closing deals). He claims consistent practice over 2‑3 years yields serendipitous opportunities. Additional methods include using the right hand to pose questions or ideas and the left hand to answer or brainstorm, and conducting imagined conversations with past mentors or historical figures. He addresses common objections from his President's Club members about habit formation and journal opening rituals. Prefontaine also promotes a recent podcast episode with real‑estate influencer Rod Khleif (April 1 2026), where Khleif discusses a $50 million loss and recovery, echoing similar journaling themes. The episode concludes with calls to subscribe to the Smart Real Estate Coach podcast, visit smartrealestatecoach.com for free resources, and tune in to weekly Q&A Thursdays and Deal Structure Sundays.
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How cool would it be to know that when you're doing your gratitude and you're doing that via journaling, that this stuff is going to in fact come to fruition? Isn't that cool? Hey, welcome to this week's Motivational Monday. We were talking about something today in my private President's Club. That's a level that I personally coach along with Derek Dombek. We only allow like 6 members in it. It's not cheap. But it's high, high-level discussion. And what's really cool is we brought it back to sort of ground level today, in my opinion, ground level, because it's something that I think we all should be doing and immersing ourselves in. And a few techniques that I had picked up regarding journaling came from a mastermind way back in 2018. It was the founder of a big company. He had just actually sold it off and was starting another one, and he recommended a book. I'm going to recommend it to you, and it's called Thought Revolution. Okay, so that's one takeaway here. Go ahead and pick up the book Thought Revolution. Secondly, this is going to be short and sweet. I want to give you some really cool things to be able to journal about. Now, if you don't have a journal now, just go to your local bookstore or go on Amazon and grab a journal and get into this habit. I'm going to show you mine physically. I just like certain, certain looks that get me excited to do it. Along the lines of gratitude, though, if you take a peek at my entry from today, the 19th of March, 2026, Up in the top corner here, up in the top line there, it says day number 307 of gratitude. Now, what is that? How does that work? Well, if I miss a day, I go back to day 1. And that happened over and over and over. I'd get to like 30, I get to 70-something once, and then I forgot a day because it wasn't habitual yet. It wasn't discipline yet. So I had to go back to day 1. I am on day 307 without missing a day. All right. Knock on wood. Now, here's some thoughts for you on journaling. Number 1, On the gratitude side, you're going to journal the things you're grateful for— the weather, your cup of coffee, the people you love, the people you spend time with, your animals, whatever it might be, present tense. And then I suggest you keep going and you journal about gratitude for things that you want to happen. You're buying a company, you're selling a company, you're doing 20 deals, whatever it is. Super, super cool when you do this and you don't do it for a week and go, Chris, it didn't work. You do it for like— I'm on day 307, right? You do it for like 2 and 3 years and you will be blown away at how serendipitously— and there's no coincidence, but I'll say coincidental things just kind of get in your path. Absolutely. I'm not going to call it magical, but super powerful. Other thoughts about journaling? You can— your mind is an interesting contraption. You can write it if you're righty like me, you write with your right hand. You can write a question that you're working on or something you want a solution for or an idea you're working on with your right hand. And then you can, with your left hand, answer the question or brainstorm different ideas. It triggers different things in your brain. Really cool. You can— so you can ask questions and answer the other one. You can have a conversation with past family members or past mentors, or you can have a conversation mentally with someone that you consider to be a mentor that you either haven't met yet or maybe won't get a chance to meet yet in this point in your life. Like, you know, I, I don't know, pick a big political figure. I won't use anyone's name, but maybe you won't meet them, but maybe you know certain things they do and you can journal and have a conversation about that. So I'm just giving you ideas because in Presidents Club what came up was, yeah, but I don't get the habit, or yeah, but how important is it? Yeah, but What do you do when you open the journal? So all these things came up and then this discussion ensued. So I wanted to share that with you. Hope there's a takeaway or two there for you. Be sure to share this episode because this has zero to do with real estate. You know, yesterday, quick comment, I had Rod Khleif on my show. Rod's got one of the largest, most highly downloadable podcasts in real estate, I think, in the world. And Rod was on my show and we said before we started, we said, hey, Let's not even hit like real estate specific. He said, I got some things that are super important, how I lost $50 million and how I then earned it back, you know, super important. So if I were you, I'd go ahead and listen to that episode. It comes out or it came out on April 1st, 2026. And we talk about journaling and things in there. And it was remarkable because I hadn't seen him in 7 years and he brought up some of the same things that I do. So just that was super cool and it'd be a cool takeaway for you. Go to Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast. You can subscribe to that podcast on any of your favorite platforms, Apple, etc., Spotify. Not sure where to get started? Go to smartrealestatecoach.com/getgoing for free books, strategy calls, and a whole bunch more. We're going to help you get going the wicked smart way. We've been after this for over a decade doing exactly that. With that, make it a great week. I'll see you on next week's Motivational Monday. Remember, it's every Monday, so be sure to subscribe. You'll also get the Q&A Thursdays and the Deal Structure Sundays. Make it a great week. It's your choice.
