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4 Reasons to Start a Journal

4 Reasons to Start a Journal

Having a journal can help you have a better connection with your values, emotions, goals, and dreams. Journaling what you believe in, why you believe it, how you feel, and what your goals are can help you be more clear about life in the present moment, what you want out of the future, and give you a deeper understanding of yourself and the relationships around you. This is because you must sort through the mental clutter and provide details on why you do what you do and feel what you feel.

Listed below are four reasons why you should start a journal today!

  1. Learn from past mistakes. Do you ever feel like you are just passing through life and have nothing to prove that it even happened? Did you achieve something? Who knows. What you do know is that you do not want to make the same mistakes. Our lives are full of knowledge and insight and the most recent events in our lives contain the most useful hidden gems of them all. How do we get those lessons? The answer is simple. Journal writing. This simple practice can not only help you learn from past mistakes, but it will improve your mental clarity.
  2. See the bigger picture. Writing about our experiences offers the ability to see the bigger picture of our lives and what we want out of it. It will help us get clear on our priorities in life.
  3. Therapy. Writing can help bring yourself out of a bad place and acts as our own therapist as you can vent about your emotions.
  4. Goal Setting and Achieving. Lastly, you can even get clear on what you want out of life this month, the next six months, and even in five years. Journal writing can help you figure out what your goals are and make a plan to achieve them.

Other reasons…

  • See the bigger picture of our lives
  • See what you have accomplished big or small on a day to day basis
  • Learn from past mistakes
  • Increased productivity
  • Improved Insight and understanding
  • Increased self-awareness
  • Track overall development
  • More gratitude and appreciation for the little things
  • Clarity and focus
  • Better mental health
  • Increased mindfulness
  • More likely to set, chase and achieve goals
  • Strengthened willpower
  • Boosts confidence
  • Improves your mood

Where to start? Do you need inspiration? Attached are a list of things to write about.

For example, you may structure your journal like this:

  • What am I grateful for today? (Give 5 meaningful examples)
  • What are the top 3 tasks I need to accomplish today?
  • What goals am I currently working towards? Setting SMART goals are an great way to achieve them. They have to be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time oriented.
  • How do I want to better myself today?
  • To do lists (Fun Fact: Crossing off items off of your to do list will help stimulate a release of dopamine. Dopamine is what allows you the emotion of accomplishing a task. It is a good feeling that can help you feel motivated and keep you productive.
  • 1 Positive thing that has happened to you today
  • 1 Thing you are looking forward to
  • State your purpose and mission
  • Affirmations ( I am fully confident and secure in myself. I am beaming with confidence and self-assurance. I don’t let my insecurities prevent me from reaching my goals.)