Crystal Clear Sky .com

Journaling is one of the best habits you can develop. If you already have a journal, you know it’s invaluable. The effort is minimum, and there are lots of benefits:

• Mind clarity

  As you write down your thoughts, you start to become aware. You realize what are the things that bother you, what you like doing etc. You might say yeah, but I already know what bothers me, I don’t need to write it down. Yes, you already know what bothers you, but I don’t agree you don’t need to write it down. When you do, some process takes place in your mind. You gain clarity. You start looking into the root causes of things. Journaling makes you realize what you could have done to prevent something. And here’s the good part: it also makes you realize that there’s always something that can be done to change things, if you really want to. Things are constantly changing anyway, you might as well influence their course a bit.

• Track progress

  Reading what you were thinking and doing a year, or a month, or even a week ago, you will realize how much progress you made. We are constantly changing, and 99% of the times the individual changes are very small and we tend to discard them. All those small changes sum up in bigger changes. You might think you’re in the same place you were a month ago. But actually, if you could read your journal back a month, you’d be surprised at how many changes happened.

• Motivation

  It also has a way of increasing motivation. Writing down what bothers you makes you want to change it, that is, more than if you didn’t write it. For things that make you happy - it makes you want to pursue them even more. Journaling cultivates passion.

There are many more benefits: good therapy, more honesty toward yourself, knowing yourself better, source of inspiration etc.

What would I write about?

Write whatever you feel like writing. Trust your intuition. If you feel like writing three pages, write three pages. If it’s one paragraph, then so be it. In time, you’ll learn what are the important things you want to write in your journal, and what doesn’t belong there. Don’t worry about it for now. You write for yourself. Just get started.

Tools

Everybody’s different. Some people keep their journal in files / documents on their computer. Others create a private blog. Some use Google docs (keep a document per month or year). Others like paper notebooks, and others like to use specialized software. Choose the medium you like best.

If you’re still not sure whether journaling will be a good investment of your time, consider doing a 30 days trial. If you aren’t familiar with the 30 days trial, it’s a great concept from Steve Pavlina (you can read more on the above links). Basically, for this particular challenge, you commit to spending a few minutes each day writing in your journal, for 30 days. After 30 days, you can do whatever you want. If you think it’s a good thing, keep it. If not, throw it away. I’m sure though that 99% of people who try this will find it so beneficial that they’ll decide to continue journaling in some form.