Why Everyone Should Keep A Journal And How To Start Today
Few moments are as precious and productive to me than when I am able to find a quiet place to sit down with a pen, a cup of coffee, and my journal. During this time I let my mind wander out of the present moment, forget about the things that are to come in the future, and reflect on one of the few things that is certain and concrete - the past. As Seneca wrote in On The Shortness of Life:
"This is a part of our time [the past] that is sacred and set apart, put beyond the reach of all human mishaps, and removed from the dominion of fortune...this can neither be troubled nor snatched away - it is an everlasting and unanxious possession. The present offers only one day at a time, each by minutes; but all the days of the past time will appear where you bid them. The mind that is untroubled and tranquil has the power to roam into all parts of its life."
While it is important to enjoy the present moment as well as plan for the future, I find both of these things much easier to do when I examine the past. Taking the time to reflect on these precious moments and to think about them individually helps to appreciate the beauty and importance of the little things. It can also provide a way to examine things in a different mindset and help to develop new perspectives and insights. Before the pen even meets the paper, reflecting on a day or week can even force an examination of things in life that may not have received a single thought otherwise.
Are you convinced yet? If you have not yet sprung up with your pen and paper in hand, keep reading to learn why it is good to keep a regular journal and inspiration on how you can get started today.
Why Everyone Should Keep A Journal
Even though this trip was several years ago I still can look back in my journal and relive that moment with the people I care about.
Writing about the people you care about will help you to appreciate them more.
Just like we overlook the small moments in life, it can be easy to overlook the importance of the people we interact with on a day to day basis. Oftentimes those that we care about most are the ones that we take for granted - it can be harder to value something that is always there rather than something that only comes about every once in a while. Taking a minute to recognize how often someone sacrifices their time and energy for you can help you to truly recognize the full worth of how amazing that person just may be.
Sharing entries from your journal is a very personal choice and something that should be done with care, but this is one type of writing that can be very rewarding to share with another person.
A pen and a paper can help you with life’s problems, challenges, projects, and scenarios.
Whenever I have a tough life situation that I am grappling with, the first thing I always do is sit down and hash it out with my journal. Even if I do not come to a resolution after one, or even many journaling sessions, for me it is always helpful to get an unfiltered thought stream on paper. Seeing my unconscious assessments provides me with a more holistic viewpoint and greatly aids in seeing the bigger picture.
A great example of this was when I was struggling to decide on making the move to Honduras. I was basically looking at changing everything about my life - starting a new job, moving to a new country, moving in with a partner - and I was anxious about whether this was the right decision or if I might be making a huge mistake. Instead of letting these feelings fester I took the time to sit down and write the following. This journal entry (pulled verbatim from my journal) opened my mind and helped to guide me towards a decision.
Having some crazy / scary / anxious thoughts about this whole change. I have been living basically the same life for about 4-5 years and thinking about up and leaving is really playing with me. Even just writing those words shows that what I am actually afraid of is the change and uncertainty. The future I am living now is relatively certain; that future is not. For this reason alone I should do it. Life is no longer exciting when everything is so certain. Risk and fun and adventure are what keep life fresh. Without it we stagnate. In order to grow and become better people we need new challenges, environments, and routines. We need to reach out and feel something we have not felt before. The comfortable, certain life will always be there when you are ready for it.
The soon to come Fantasium Media logo brainstorming session - all natural.
This strategy can also be used for brainstorming projects, working through a complicated challenge, or providing a launch pad for a bigger idea. Technology is a great tool and can be used for many different things, but when you open a program you are constricted by that program’s functionality. A pen and a piece of paper has no boundaries, no limitations, and can serve any purpose that you might need it to.
Thinking back can trigger a remembrance of things otherwise forgotten.
Our lives are sometimes so busy and jam packed with happenings that it is difficult for our brains to keep up with everything. We are constantly bombarded with alerts from all directions and are expected to drop everything to respond to Facebook messages, Emails, work texts, and more. Taking the time to intentionally reflect on what goes on can help to remember moments that otherwise would have been lost.
This goes not only for everyday events but also things that we learn. The way that we internalize and process information is directly linked with the associations we create related to them and the amount of times we review them. We learn so many new things each day that it is impossible to remember everything, but writing down the new things we learn each day and reviewing them on a regular basis can help to solidify that information and allow it to be used as an on demand resource.
A written journal provides a record of life for those in the future.
How cool is it to look at the handwritten notes of a long lost relative? My handwriting is not nearly as neat as my forebears, but I like to think that one day when I am long gone my journal will provide the same type of awe and guidance that countless journals and mementos have provided.
It is great for vacations, trips, adventures, and new experiences.
“It’s important to change routines regularly, and take vacations to exotic locales, and have as many new experiences as possible that can serve to anchor our memories. Creating new memories stretches out psychological time, and lengthens our perception of our lives.”
New experiences are the foundation on which we grow and become the person that we ultimately want to be. The value that we can obtain from novel moments can be multiplied many times by writing them down, thinking through them, and reflecting on what they may have meant to us, both in that moment and after the moment has passed.
Vacations, travels and the beginning of new things are perfect candidates for journaling exactly for this reason. Whether it is a week long trip to a new place, a long term traveling adventure, a blossoming relationship, or the first days at a new job, writing down thoughts, feelings, events, and lessons can help to process these new life events and provide a deeper understanding about what they mean to us.
Ways To Start Journaling Today
Recap your life.
This is one of the most simple and straightforward ways to get started. Just write down what happened in your life during a certain time period! Personally I like to do weekly and monthly recaps, but I have also written as often as every day and as little as every few weeks. After experimenting with different cadences you can find what works best for you and your journaling schedule.
Keep a gratitude journal.
No matter what you write about in your journal one of the side effects almost certainly will be the appreciation you gain for important things in your life. To help bolster this gratitude you can write specifically about the things that you are grateful for on a regular basis. It could be something as simple as showing thankfulness for a random person who did something nice for you, or it could be as deep as writing about all of the amazing things that your parents or someone important has done for you. Once you get the ball rolling you start to realize how much time people spend doing things for others that they often do not get thanked for.
Write a short self reflection at the end of each day.
Many highly recognized individuals throughout history are known to have kept some type of daily self reflection journal that they used to evaluate their actions on any given day. One of the most famous examples of this is Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues reflection template. Each night before bed, good old Ben Franklin would examine each one of his 13 virtues and write down whether he displayed that virtue during the day or not. If he did not he would put forth extra effort during the next day to live up to that virtue.
You do not have to get as in depth as the 13 virtues - your self reflection can be as simple as you want it to be. The important thing is that you do it every day and make a habit out of it. If you need some inspiration the template that I use for each day is:
What were the highlights of my day?
What were my learning opportunities today?
What did I learn today?
How can I be better tomorrow?
These four simple questions help me to reflect on the good, learn from the bad, and review my studies from the day.
Keep a travel journal.
There is something about new experiences, places, and people that lends itself to art and literature. As a people we generally enjoy reading about new and unfamiliar things; it is how we learn and get inspired. The same goes for writing. By being a part of something that is completely new to us we form paradigms about the way that the world was, is, and should be. These are opportunities for exponential and rapid growth towards the person that we are working to become, and by writing and reflecting on these new experiences we can add jet fuel to the fire of growth that exploration can feed.
For an example on content that was inspired directly from a travel journal check out our article Don’t Hold Your Breath. Pictures are always useful to help with reflection, but the finer details and the feelings that powerful moments instill you with can only properly be expressed in words.
Write about things that are bothering you.
Time and talking are two things that can help you to heal after going through a difficult time. We all inherently know this, and yet at times we neglect to acknowledge both of those medicines as treatment. Often we do this simply because we are not yet ready to talk about a situation with another person - we can be embarassed, angry, fed up, or any other emotion under the sun that we feel as a part of being human.
When these feelings strike, what better person is there to talk to than yourself? Writing down how something or someone is making you feel can be a giant stride towards understanding those feelings and working to address them in a mature and productive fashion. It will not always be easy, but oftentimes you will find that once you start these conversations with yourself you realize what you have known all along - you cannot hide anything from yourself. At first it can leave you feeling exposed, but as you learn to accept the fact that it is healthier to face your feelings and yourself rather than stash your troubles deep down in your soul you start down the path of self acceptance and inner peace.
Use writing prompts.
Up to this point all I have told you to do is write about yourself in your journal. That is absolutely not the only option! Writing prompts can be a great way to get your creative juices flowing and help you to explore deeper and more philosophical life questions.
There are tons of writing prompts available online; you can also make up your own. Below are some examples to get you started:
What was the scariest moment of my life?
Who is the person that has made the biggest impact on my worldview?
Are there things that I wish I spent more time doing? How can I alter my priorities and focus on the things that I care about most?
How can I best contribute to the advancement of humanity?
What are my values, mission statement, and purpose?
Keep up a correspondence (offline) with another person.
Writing does not need to start and end within the confines of your journal’s pages. Letters are a wonderful way to express what you are feeling and thinking in a genuine and time tested way. They can fulfill many of the benefits of journaling while simultaneously allowing you to keep in touch with a loved one. Even if it is just writing little notes to someone, that small token of your time and your thoughts can go a long way towards showing someone that you care. The most important thing that you can give somebody is your time, and by giving them a handwritten note or letter just for them you are showing that they are worth your most precious resource.
Log important information.
You never know when inspiration may strike or you need to write some important piece of knowledge down. A journal can be a great place to enter a quick note, write down something you need to remember, or something you want to write about later. You can even utilize different sections of your journal to condense important information from many different books into one convenient record of your most valuable learnings.
One girl that I met had created an incredible tome of all her favorite quotes, resources, information, memories, and more. It was like an encyclopedia for her life. She had logged tea recipes, yoga workouts and references, information on different places she had travelled, memories of people, the rules to card games she loved, and more. Each page was intricately decorated with beautiful images and font design. It was one of the most amazing things I had seen and inspired me to try to take my journaling to the next level.
Everyone’s journaling style, design, and methodologies are different. You can get as detailed and nuanced as you would like or keep it short and to the point. As you progress with your journal you will find what works best for you.
Write fiction and short stories.
This image has always made me think of a lost hiker wandering through an enchanted forest…what story does it spark in your head?
Have you ever imagined an alternate universe or a storyline that you actually thought would make a pretty good tale? A journal can be a great place to let your mind run wild and to flex your creative muscles.
In today’s world everyone is so focused on having an end goal or a final stage of things we work on. The whole point of journaling and especially of writing fiction is that this does not apply whatsoever. You have the freedom to start a story about a fictional character living on an asteroid that contains valuable resources making it a target for space pirates…and that can be it. There is no pressure, no need to do something to make money or to post it anywhere on the internet. You write for the sake of writing. Fiction can be a great way to write for the sake of writing because there are no rules, no boundaries. You just put your pen to the paper and whatever comes out of it is fair game.
Moral of the story - pick up your pen, a piece of paper, and start writing.
There is no right or wrong way to journal. Nobody will ever see the words that you write in that sacred book if you do not want them to. A journal can be a sanctuary for deep thought, a place to work out life’s problems, a creative outlet, and more. That is the beauty of journaling - it can be molded to whatever purpose will best serve your life at that moment in your life. Not only that, but once you start down one path in a journal, you can fork off in any direction you want, or start a new road of thought.
Succeeding in a creative or novel field can seem daunting. Learn about ways you can set yourself up for success in your field and long term happiness from the work that you do.