I Do This Every Day But 10 Years Ago, I Would've Found It Hard to Explain

Journaling.

I used to believe that journaling was a waste of time. It seemed like it was an activity that took away moments from actually LIVING your life to just DOCUMENTING it and all for an audience of 1, yourself.

But a couple years ago, I realized that it isn’t that at all.

I started journaling in my senior year of college. I was at a crossroads between taking a job in finance or launching myself into the tech startup space.

I talked about the decision with my friends and the career counselors, all who weighed in heavily. However, only talking about it out loud was not useful for me.

I needed to have a conversation with myself.

And so I opened a blank spiral notebook that I had in my dorm room and began to my write.

Everything.

I wrote about how I felt. I wrote about what concerned me. I scribbled a pros and cons list. I wrote things that I didn’t disclose to other people. Getting all my thoughts, concerns, questions, and feelings onto paper provided more clarity in my mind than the conversations I was having.

That’s when I learned that journaling is not merely documenting your life.

The habit of journaling helps you live a better life.

Let me explain why.

Using a couple minutes to journal is a self-investment. I approach it leisurely. Rather than it being a morning habit, I journal when I want to… which happens to turn out to be every day.

So here’s what happens personally when I journal:

• Free flow of thoughts

  Or stream of consciousness as some call it. You’ll write things that can sometimes surprise you.

• “self coaching” or Self examination

  Journaling is where the player-me meets the coach-me. On paper, I’m writing to myself, from myself. I know it sounds crazy but the most important relationship you can have is the one with yourself and no one holds me to a higher standard than I do. Journaling is where all that comes out.

• Reflection

  I enjoy writing about things I learned throughout the day, specifically things I learned about myself like reactions, emotions, thoughts I had when something happened, which helps increase my…

• …Awareness

  It increases my awareness about myself and my growth. But also, my surroundings. Sitting down at a cafe and opening my journal to a blank page and then taking the pen to paper gives me the quiet moments to be. To notice the whir of the espresso machine and jazz club. To breathe and sit still.

• I leave you with a quote from Socrates: “A life unexamined is not worth living.”