Here Are Some tips If you are new To JOURNALING and don’t know where to begin
Journaling has the ability to shift your life in such a powerful way. You wouldn’t believe it until you give it a try. The power of journaling is something that not too many people know about. I didn’t know about it until I saw a YouTube video one day on all the life changing benefits it can provide.
So, I decided to take on the habit of consistent daily journaling. I first started off by doing it on my lunch breaks at work and then I slowly shifted to journaling first thing in the morning. Once I began journaling first thing each morning, I began to notice a difference. I realized that journaling doesn’t need to be over analyzed, or over complicated. I just used it to organize my thoughts.
Like you, my mind races all the time with different ideas. I decided to use journaling as a way to organize my thoughts onto paper and see what that looks like after time. The beauty of journaling consistently, is that you keep track of what works for you on every level of your life and what does not.
Sometimes, I can’t figure out how I got to a certain point in my day, or in my week or in my month. I was working and everything was going good, then somehow, I veered way off course.
I learned that with time, this happens throughout life. Thanks to journaling, I can now spot when things are moving in the wrong direction. I don’t have to move twenty steps backwards to realize I am doing something wrong. With journaling, I can spot my successes and my lessons each and every morning. This allows me to make adjustments and know what to work on with high precision which in turn leads to higher productivity.
Here Are 5 Tips To Help You Start Journaling:
Just Start
When the topic of journaling comes up, people always ask me, — “what do I write about?”
Great question.
I’m going to share the approach that I took and hopefully it can add some value to you. One of the many lessons that journaling is going to teach you, is that you need to get rid of the word “perfection.”
When it comes to journaling, it is just you and your ideas. It is a judgement free zone. You can write about anything your heart desires. The more you write, the more comfortable you will get with journaling. It’s like a relationship, you start off as strangers and with time you become best friends.
Look at journaling as a blank canvas. The words you put down become your picture and that picture gives you perspective to what is taking place in your world. It is a completely different lens than you are used to, and that lens can lead you towards a high level of accountability with yourself.
It’s really important that you don’t overthink what to write about, or what it will sound like or look like. Perfection is just your brain displaying your insecurities. Perfection comes with time and mastery. You don’t start something for the first time and become a professional at it on one attempt. Perfection is cultivated over time. Right now, you are beginning something new. So, just start.
Find One Area In Your Life That Needs Improvement
A great way to get started with journaling is to focus on one area of your life that needs improvement. This can be your health, finances, relationships, career, spirituality, hobbies and even your darkest nightmares.
Journaling will help you get a grip over your life. It can be a way for you to vent frustrations, track progress and get to know yourself better. What I would recommend, is to think about one area in your life that just sucks right now and start there. I see journaling as a way to improve myself. With that being said, I choose to use it as a tool to work on areas in my life I want to build and then use it as an accountability tracker. If you want to use journaling to document your successes and write about what got you there, that is a great approach too.
Journal First Thing In The Morning
This one tip was a game changer for me. As I stated earlier, I started journaling in the middle of the day going over things like goals, trajectory in life, purpose, and meaning. But then I decided that I was going to start waking up at 4 am and because my family was still sleeping, I would use that time to journal and exercise.
There is great satisfaction in waking up early, grabbing your journal, a hot cup of coffee to keep you company, and reflecting about the results that you reached yesterday and the plan for today. It becomes a great way to hold yourself accountable too. If you journal consistently, it will hold you accountable for the things you write down. If you start off each morning by saying “well, yesterday I didn’t do what I said I was going to do” — you will quickly pick up on the fact that you are just wasting your time and something needs to change.
Each morning, sit back and carve out your day. Go over the lessons from the day before, look within for anything that you feel needs to get done and go after that. The next morning, sit back and do the same. Over time, you are going to form a strong focus and connection, that you will begin to see the power of journaling.
Find Your Journaling Method
This one is not a biggie, but I do feel like it is worth touching on, so I added it. There are different methods of getting your thoughts down from floatation devices in your brain to out into the real world. You can choose from paper, a notebook, a computer, a tablet, or a voice recorder. There are plenty of options. I think you just need to find what is most comfortable for you and stick with it over time.
I personally started with a pen and paper. Over time, that shifted to notebooks and then I started using my computer. Every now and then, I like to shift things back and forth, so I have found utility in many different methods. It will be up to your own personal trial and error to see what works for you. I would just advise for you to find one that you prefer and stick with that. The power of journaling is simply doing it consistently. The method is not going to make or break you, so don’t overthink it.
Create Questions For Yourself
In my opinion, asking yourself questions is an underrated approach to getting results in life. We can ask so many questions in our lives, but we never sit down and ask ourselves some of those great questions.
If you are real with yourself and not scared to look at the reflection in the mirror, you could solve almost anything that takes a wrong turn in your life. We can’t control what takes place in life, but we can control how we choose to react. Sometimes, certain things don’t even deserve the time and explanation. However, there are things that do deserve the time of day and if you can better those things, your overall quality of life will improve too.
When beginning to journal and you find that you just don’t know where to begin, start off by asking yourself a series of questions that you have created for yourself beforehand. Questions that should be answered daily.
Here are a few questions to help you get started:
- What am I grateful for in my life?
- How am I feeling?
- What did I do yesterday that I was proud of?
- How can I challenge myself today?
- What lessons did I learn from yesterday?
- What is the plan for today?
- If I can only get 3 things done today, what would they be?
- What can I journal about daily that will increase the value of my time?
- What areas of my life need improvement?
Asking yourself questions is not only a very effective and powerful tool to manage change, but it is a great way to re-discover who you are and help you to move towards the callings and dreams that crave.
If you can discipline yourself to journal every morning, I am confident you will see life through a completely different lens. Things that you thought were important before aren’t so important anymore, and the things that I never saw myself being drawn towards, have all been discovered and cultivated through journaling every single morning before my day even starts.
I hope that my experience has helped you find a way to start journaling and make positive changes in your own life using this powerful life tool. I know that if you give it a try and stay consistent over time, it will change your life for the better too. 🙏
