Why You Should Keep A Journal

in #life7 years ago

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It came to my attention recently that there are some people in the world who do not take time to think and reflect on their day and their life.
Life is short, And time moves fast. People don't realize how harmful this can be. Before you know it your life flew by and you didn't accomplish all of the things that you wanted. You live with a deep amount of regret as a result.

Something as simple as journaling can have a huge impact. Sometimes when you only focus on your issues on the surface, you cannot dig deeper to address the true problem.

We often fail to see what the actual problem in our life is. We are left confused Or addressing the wrong thing. This wastes time and gets us nowhere.

Allows Us To Accomplish Our Goals!

When we write down our goals, we are more likely to achieve them. This also allows us to quickly lay out a game plan on what we want to do with our lives. Planning = Success. A journal doesn't even have to be a concrete plan. You can just lay out a basic plan for what you want to do with your life so you can actively start pursuing it.
Even if you don't think you are working towards your goals, Writing it down will put it in the subconscious, so you will start heading slowly in that direction even without thinking about it.

A Record Of Progress

Do you ever have those disgusted moments where you think "What the heck was I doing during that time"? Because it seems like you did absolutely nothing productive.
I feel like that sometimes, And I often can pull out my journal to see what the focus was on my life, Whether it was me obsessing over something that Never produced results, Or sometimes it was simply a really bad situation that took up all my mental power.
This allows you to better learn from your mistakes; You will start to understand your thought process and why you chose to do specific things. Sometimes it can be tough to change our way of thinking; It affects every area of our lives. If you know you are more likely to cave into certain temptations, you can avoid those situations where you may cave. Making it easier to follow through with your goals.
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Allows You To Cope!

Sometimes we fall into really bad situations that can consume our lives. They are painful, And unfortunately, sometimes we don't do anything to get in those situations. They just sort of just happen to us. And we are forced to deal with them.
Like when I was 19 and had to get an emergency surgery to have my appendix removed. I had no health insurance, and I was put in 15,000 of debt overnight.
Journaling helped me write about the possible solutions. As a full-time college student working 2 part time jobs. I was struggling. I was able to brainstorm things that I could do to get out of the situation. Without acting on them with impulse. I then could use my journal to also vent on how much I hated how expensive health insurance was.
Eventually, I was able to work things out for myself and get myself out of debt. People around me recommended I file bankruptcy as well as other extreme measures. Without thinking deeply about what I could do, I may have fallen into a trap like this. Destroying my credit score at the time of my life where it is most important.

Whenever I go through a tough situation writing it out in a journal is also a great pain reliever.
It allows me to write whatever I'm thinking, Without being judged by the people around me.
Sometimes we have bad thoughts that shouldn't be shared. A journal is great for this.
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A Record of Your life!

Your future self may want to read these journals. It's so easy to "change" the memories we have in our heads. Or forget about the new and exciting experiences we had in life.
Remembering those fond experiences can produce feelings of joy all over again. And journaling will allow you to keep those in crisp detail.

Journaling is so easy, Yet many people don't do it. It can help in so many ways. Everyone should keep a journal! You can keep a pad of paper or do it digitally. There are benefits of journaling that everyone can use!


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Even if I'm not very constant to do it, I love journaling! Thanks so much to share this interesting content ^_^

Aww Thank you ! you should keep journaling it's such a great habit.

:) I agree, I kind of use steemit as my journal though!

Thats fine too :) A public journal is just as good!

@kaylinart, I have been using Steemit as a platform to record my thoughts as I have been dealing with some new changes in life.

I am finding it therapeutic to write down my my thoughts instead of just letting them spin around in my head.

I like your ideas of journaling for goal planning, accountability of time used, and working towards finding solutions to problems.

Great article as usual!

Exactly! I didn't mention that, but when you write them down you can release them from taking up your mind.

Great topic, @kaylinart! This reminds me of the 3 things Jim Rohn says we should leave behind for our loved ones:

  1. Photos
  2. Library
  3. Personal Journals
    Here is a source: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialJimRohn/posts/10151682627635635

I have been pretty bad with following through on journaling myself, but it is never too late to start a new discipline. Thank you for sharing.

Good one! Having all three would make a difference.

Very useful topic for our daily life, we should keep practice of regular journaling to cope up all life situation and to remind ourself that life has meaning in this world. thanks for sharing @kalinart

my version is to make checklists of everything I want to do, and by the time I'm done I can look back and see all the things I have accomplished :)

Yes. I've recently started this "bullet journal" and it's been amazing. It's like an agenda with the option of it being a journal. You can make it anything you want to be.

It's amazing. Good post.

I use to have one for a while, but did not stick with me. Maybe your post is a good reminder :)

True! I think you just need to build the habit.

Thanks for sharing a little part of your life.. I am a student now... I am happy that you chosen Steemit! I think you have made a great decision!

Thank you!! Heheh What is your major?

beautiful

Thanks :) It's a stock photo.

Nice. I love your posts and photography.

completely agree, It's realy good idea. long ago I was journaling and when I'm reading it now it seems like I returned in past,now I record some important things of my life and hope it will help me in future

I'm glad you are journaling now! I hope it helps you.

Thank you very much @ kaylinart, keeping journal of ones daily activity will surely help in reflecting back to issues therby having knowledge of how issues arises in ones life and the opinion of resolving them. Thanks.

Thanks! Heheh so true

Good advice! It is a good way to achieve your goals! Great piece of blog @kaylinart

Thank you <3

Journaling is something that I always thought i should do, but have never managed to do on a consistent basis. I guess i sometimes use my Steem posts as a type of journal.

Thats good at least! Sometimes journaling can be time consuming.

That's so true! Each of your points. But will you tell me how to stay motivated to keep a journal. In my own life I tried it several times and after some days i just couldn't continue it!!

Oh boy, yet another person tells me to get back to journaling haha. I think I actually will get started right now. Thanks for this!

I have to agree. Going back and reading your journal in retrospect puts things in perspective, and journaling, in so many ways, enriches your life, allowing you to relive the highlights of a forgotten day in just a few minutes.

Yes! Just the processing out of thoughts onto paper is so beneficial.

I have an extremely difficult time journalling.

Many teachers have told me to journal my dreams. Right down all you remember. But, if I did as they asked, my day would be completely filled with writing. Only to sleep, and begin writing the next day.

In journalling, I do not know what's important to write down.

After 1000s of hours of class, I finally found that all the notes I needed to take was the important people's names and the dates, everything else I had as almost perfect memory.

And further, I do not know what people find important or note worthy. Nothing in my life seems to be particularly important. Sure I work on the secrets of Tesla, but that is an ongoing process and impossible to put into words without much deliberation and more researching.

While your values may be different from mine, I believe that we can all learn from history, specifically the history of our own experiences. I find that taking just 10 to 20 minutes each evening to write down an accomplishment or two for the day, no matter how seemingly small, helps me to appreciate my own efforts to do things well and to do them right. If I made a mistake that day, I write that down too but I also write what my solution was to fix it (or impending solution to fix it asap). If something is really bothering me, I write that down and do my best to rationalize it, solve it or even figure out why it is bothering me so much. I may not have the answer that night, but if I re-read my writings again, I may be able to figure it out. I find that reading what I've written always reminds me of my achievements, my progress in life and that problems have a solution and are temporary. I find that writing in my journal is an excellent way to remind myself that I am alive and that I have an abundance of control over my life. A journal written and reviewed often, because it contains your past successes, failures, mistakes, solutions to mistakes, etc. can be the springboard to further success in your life. I hope this helps you to come up with some ideas for your own journal. >Oliver

I read the words you write, but cannot do them.
I think that it is something like, all that I have done today has been menial little tasks (even if they are considered impossible for most others) unworthy of note. And such, I cannot bring myself to write them. It seems silly, idiotic, time wasting.

I really do not get it. Probably because I am missing something from the 101 level. And not the 501 level I usually work in.

But, I did by a journalling book to journal in.
Thanks for your reply.

Another good word of advice as always! :). I recognize how impactful this is in life, as it came to my realization through highschool especially, whether you're a student, business owner, or an 'average' joe.
Building a journal and keeping records of what you do is powerful, given that you also have the advantage of writing. The way Kaylin describes this is dead on: We want to write these things down to help us keep track of our lives, cope with what's going on, setting goals, achieving them, etc.
Personally, I know tons of people who's lives and success have changed due to simply writing it down and keeping a journal.
There's a successful young man I've been able to meet recently (K.L for initials) who's been able to grow from $16,000 in yearly revenue to $200,000 revenue in just 2 years for himself. One of the things that helped him 'flip the switch' as he mentions was simply keeping a journal, and schedule. It allowed him to remember his thoughts clearly and stay focused on them to prevent himself from losing track. From doing that, he was able to just grind harder and achieve notable success.
In his own words, "My schedule is law".
Anyway, thanks again for a great post as always, looking forward to the next @kaylinart.

~FD

Great post! I've been going through a time in my life where it feels hard to stay grateful and motivated. So I know I can definitely benefit from the act of journalling.

And on that note, I have recently decided to start vlogging and posting on Steemit, which is totally new to me, but just might be the perfect thing to kickstart me into better habits and much much more. One day I'm sure it will be great to look back on my posts and see how much I've grown :)

I used to have a journal before the internet, now I use evernote and google keep as well as steemit which I discovered recently.

Great topic @kaylinart!

Great topic

Sometimes the reflections are painful. Often truth is just that. Like you, I do journal. It helps to clear my mind. Thanks for a great post. 🐓🐓

I definitely see the value of keeping, and writing a journal. My challenge is I haven't found a style that really works for me. Writing it just to record what happened in the day feels to flat and clinical for me as I feel there's a lot that I can learn on a purely EQ level if I can get the style right. It's almost too easy to be overly analytical around what happened. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to find that right fit?

Oddly enough, one of my most successful posts was on keeping a journal--and you are spot on right about it!