I started journaling to ease off the heart-wrenching experience I was welcomed with when I newly got into medical school.
It spiraled into writing when I’ve been hurt, to writing my devotion and planning my schedule to writing down dramatic ideas.
That reminds me, if you came here from You-tube, I'm glad you here. I really do hope you find this helpful. If you wouldn't mind, you could get signed up to get notified of other inspiring updates.Back to where we stopped, a common myth is that journaling is for writers or creatives.
That’s not true; every individual on a journey of personal development should actually have a journal.
Here is a guide to start off .
1) Write down what you’re feeling as soon as awake
We all wake up with a level of energy which varies from day to day & a time in the day to another time in the same day.
Did you wake up anxious? Think through what led to that emotion.
Did you have a fight the night before? Did you have a terrible dream?
Write all the emotions and make a score of 1 to 10; 1 which is the least ‘negative’ emotion and 10 the highest positive emotion.
2) Write your dreams:
Did you have a dream(the one you have when you’re sleeping), put it in your journal.
Sometimes they’re vague, other times they’re a pointer to something worthy of consideration.
Also write your future goals & dreams at the beginning of the year. Then, get them into monthly, weekly & daily fragments.
When we write down our dreams, we transform what we imagine into reality.
3) Write your devotion:
If you have notes from school, why shouldn’t you have notes from studying the scriptures which is your spiritual school?
Write in your diary the lessons learnt, promises from God, prayer highlights and whatever you find worthy of note.
You could also put in names of people you want to pray for.
4) Write all of the things you’re grateful of: It’s so easy to get anxious over many of the things we haven’t received answers to that we forget to be grateful for the many blessings we receive everyday.
I think thinking through them & writing down reinforces it so much that we don’t become entitled. When they become answered, it provides a fortress for other requests we are in hopes for.
5) Your schedule for the day: Write what you intend and have to do at the beginning of each day or the night before.
You need to read, fix it in. You have some left over chores from the weekend, write it. You want to check on someone, put it in your journal.
Writing down in your journal instead of having it just in your head comes off as an agreement and whenever you don’t fulfil, it appears like a breach which would pump you to doing better the next day.
I even go the length of scoring myself with a percentage of the work done daily. Without this, I bet the day would be lived aimlessly & without purpose.
You might want to see SELF-AWARENESS: A PRELUDE TO PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
6) Your strength and weaknesses: Every human is wired to have strengths and weaknesses . Given that, no one’s actually better than the other by birth. But by choice, we can decide whether we want to weave through them into polished products.
In default, we can fight off criticisms by people but I think it’s important to sieve in such a way that the destructive part is discarded and the constructive part perused.
“Journaling gives you such an appreciation for the good things in your life while also helping you improve on the not-so-good things in your life.”
— Steve Cicco
I like that the conscience no matter the defiance will somewhat give a nudge as to whether something should be considered or discarded as a piece of thrash.
in candor, note all of them and write how you can work through to becoming a better person.
7) Experiences during the day & lessons learnt
Whether they are personal to you or from other people, you could put them down as a learning curve.
I write in my journal, moments of disagreement, my thoughts & actions and place next to the expectations of the other party. This makes me heard & also provides room to understand the other person’s concern.
Journaling definitely wouldn’t come off easy at the beginning, but as you master the discipline each passing day, it becomes enjoyable and would become something you look forward to doing.
A journal has something to offer everyone who cares to start writing.
