Why keeping a daily journal could change your life

Why keeping a daily journal could change your lifeWhy keeping a daily journal could change your lifeThe life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it. J.M. BarrieYou know exactly what you want in life. But you cant seem to get there. You have all these resolves.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraYoure going to get healthy.Youre going to write that book.Youre going to be mora present with your loved ones.Youre going to abflug that home-based business.Youre going to learn another language.Youre going to be more patient and happy.Youre going to get out of debt.Youre going to be more organized.Youre going to be a better friend.Youre going to overcome bad habits.But the problem isDoing these is really hard. And it gets harder every day. Some days, it seems more realistic to just give up entirely. The whole taking one step forward and one or two steps backward pattern is getting old.Youve been telling yourself for a long timeToday is the dayonly to fall into old ways before the day, or if youre lucky, the week, is spent.When theres a gap between who you are and who you intend to be, you are incongruent and unhappy. Youre torn, mentally exhausted, and regretful. You always slightly feel like a fraud to yourself, and probably to the people around you.Conversely, Gandhi has said,Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.The Need For A Powerfully Transformative KeystoneHabitIf you try to tackle everything wrong in your life, youll quickly burn out and quit. Its happened many times before.Life is super busy. You dont have time to focus on a thousand different areas of your life to change. Thats exhausting, and frankly, not helpful.More effective than microscopically analyzing your sabotaging behaviors, i s nailing down a keystone habit which tightly locks all of your other habits in place. Without the keystone, everything falls apart.In his book,The Power of Habit,Charles Duhigg describes keystone habits as,small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that unintentionally carry over into other aspects of their lives.A person might start exercising once per week, and unknowing begins eating better and being more productive at work. She begins smoking less and showing more patience with her colleagues and loved ones. She uses her credit card less, feels less stressed, and has increased motivation toward her goals. The ingrained patterns in her brain reform and she becomes an entirely different person.All because she started exercising once per week.You acquire one of these habits andeverythingin your life can change. Keystone habits spark a chain reaction of other good habits and can rapidly alter every aspect of your life.Journal EveryDayKeeping a personal journa l a daily in-depth analysis and evaluation of your experiences is a high-leverage activity that increases self-awareness and enhances all the endowments and the synergy among them. Stephen R.CoveyJournaling daily is the most potent and powerful keystone habit you can acquire. If done correctly, you will show up better in every area of your life everyarea Without question, journaling has by far been the number one factor to everything Ive done well in my life.The problem is, most people have tried and failed at journaling several times. Its something you know youshoulddo, but can never seem to pin down.After you read this post, youll never want to miss another day of journaling again.Heres whyJournaling Optimizes Your Creative PotentialMost people live their lives on other peoples terms. Their days are spent achieving other peoples goals and submitting to other peoples agendas.Their lives have not been consciously organized in such a way that they command every waking, and sleeping, moment of their life. Instead, they relentlessly react at every chance they get.For example, most people wake up and immediately check their phone or email. In spare seconds, we hop on Facebook and check the newsfeed. Weve become addicted to input. Or in other words, weve become addicted to reactively being guided by other peoples agendas.On the other hand, Josh Waitzkin, author ofThe Art of Learning,wakes up and immediately writes in his journal for 30 minutes.He does this because while hes been sleeping, his subconscious mind has been brewing, scheming, problem-solving, andlearning.So when Josh wakes up, he rushes to a quiet place and engages in a bust of intellectual and creative flow.I recently wrote about the importance of morning routines. If I were to re-write that post now, Id include my journal. Ive been doing this the past few weeks and its reframed my entire approach to life. Additionally, Ive never before had so many creative ideas crystallize.Creators focus on outputs r ather than the general populace who focus on inputs. In their free moments, creators utilize their subconscious breakthroughs. Their days are filled with creative bursts, making them incredible at their craft.If you want to have more creative flow in your life, stop checking your social media and email so much. Check them once or twice per day. Detach from the addiction to numb your mind and escape reality. Instead, get lost in the creative projects youve always wanted to do.Journaling Accelerates Your Ability To Manifest YourGoalsAs part of your morning creative burst, use your journal to review and hone your daily to-do list. Review and hone your life vision and big-picture goals.As you read and re-write your goals daily, theyll become forged into your subconscious mind. Eventually, your dreams and vision will consume your inner world and quickly become your physical reality.Journaling Creates A Springboard For DailyRecoveryPeople struggle drastically to detach from work. More now than ever, we fail to live presently. Our loved ones are lucky to experience a small percentage of our attention while theyre with us.However, utilizing your journal can curb this mismanagement. At the end of your workday, re-open your journal and review your to-do list from that day. If your morning journal session was excellent, youll have likely gotten everything done you intended to do.Private victories always precede public victories.Journal sessions are your post-work reflection time. Account to yourself what you got done that day and what needs to be moved to tomorrow. Write the things you learned and experienced.Lastly, direct your subconscious by writing about things you want to focus on tomorrow. As you put work behind you for the evening, your subconscious will be preparing a feast for you to consume during your next mornings creative and planning session.This end of the workday journal session need not be as long as the morning session. Greg McKeown, the author ofEssent ialism, recommends writing far less than you want to only a few sentences or paragraphs at most. This will help you avoid burnout.A primary objective of this session is to mentally turn-off work-mode. Just as in physical training, you need to rest and recover between work days in reservierung to get stronger.Use this session to completely unplug and detach from work. This is your time to recover and be present with your loved ones there is more to life than work. The higher quality your recovery, the more potent and powerful your creative sessions will be.Journaling Generates Clarity And CongruenceThis keystone habit has so much power By journaling in the morning and evening, youll quickly see the incongruencies in your life.Youll see crystal-clearly what needs to be removed and what should be included in your life. Journaling is a beautiful and powerful facilitator ofself-discovery. My own journaling is how Ive come to form my sense of identity and path in life.Not only will you ha ve more clarity about your path in life, butjournaling improves your abilityto make small and large decisions along the way.On the pages of your journal will be the future world you are creating for yourself. You are the author of your lifes story. You deserve to be happy. You have the power to create whatever life you want. As the designer of your world, get as detailed as you desire.Journaling Clears YourEmotionsSeveral research studieshave found that writing in your journal reduces stress. These benefits includeReducing scatter in your lifeIncreased focusGreater stabilityDeeper level of learning, order, action, and releaseHolding thoughts still so they can be changed and integratedReleasing pent-up thoughts and emotionsEmpowermentBridging inner thinking with outer eventsDetaching and letting go of the pastAllowing you to re-experience the past with todays adult mindWhen you are in an intensely emotional mood, journaling can help you more fully experience and understand those emot ions.After youve vented on the pages of your journal, youll quickly find a release. Objectivity will return and youll be able to move forward.Without a journal, intense emotional experiences can be crippling for hours, days, and even years. However, an honest and inspired journal session can be the best form of therapy quickly returning you better and smarter than you were before.Journaling Ingrains YourLearningHumans are bad at retaining information. We forget most of what we read and hear. However, when you write down the things youve learned, you retain them far better. Even if you never re-read what youve written, the simple act of writing something downincreases brain development and memory.Neurologically, when you listen to something, a different part of your brain is engaged than when you write it down. Memory recorded by listening does not discriminate important from non-important information. However,writing creates spatial regions between important and non-important pieces of information allowing your memory to target and ingrain the important stuff you want to remember.Furthermore, the act of writing allows your subconscious mind to work out problems in unique ways, intensifying the learning process. Youll be able to work out problems and get insights while you ponder and write about the things youre learning.Journaling Increases Your GratitudeEven if you start a journal session in a bad mood, the insight writing brings has a subtle way of shifting your mind towards gratitude.When you start writing what youre grateful for, new chambers of thought open in the palace of your mind. Youll often need to put your pen down and take a few overwhelming breathes. Youll be captivated not only by the amazing things in your life, but by the awe and brilliance of life in general.As part of your morning and post-work journaling sessions, be sure to include some gratitude in your writing. It will change your entire life orientation from scarcity to abundance. The w orld will increasingly become your oyster.Gratitude journaling is a scientifically proven way to overcome several psychological challenges. The benefits are seemingly endless.Here are just a fewGratitude makes you happierGratitude makes other people like youGratitude makes you healthierGratitude boosts your careerGratitude strengthens your emotionsGratitude develops your personalityGratitude makes you more optimisticGratitude reduces materialismGratitude increases spiritualityGratitude makes you less self-centeredGratitude increases your self-esteemGratitude improves your sleepGratitude keeps you away from the doctor by strengthening physiological functioningGratitude lets you live longerGratitude increases your energy levelsGratitude makes you more likely to exerciseGratitude helps you bounce back from challengesGratitude makes you feel goodGratitude makes your memories happier (think of PixarsInside Out)Gratitude reduces feelings of envyGratitude helps you relaxGratitude makes you friendlierGratitude helps your marriageGratitude makes you look goodGratitude deepens your friendshipsGratitude makes you a more effective managerGratitude helps you networkGratitude increases your goal achievementGratitude improves your decision makingGratitude increases your productivityJournaling Unfolds The Writer InYouI became a writer through journaling. While I was on a mission trip, I wrote in my journal for one to two hours per day. I got lost in flow and fell in love with the writing process.If you want to become a writer one day, start by journaling.Journaling can help youDevelop strong writing habitsHelp you discover your voiceClear your mind and crystallizes your ideasGet closer to the 10,000 hoursMalcolm Gladwellsays are required to become world-class at what you doProduce gems you could use in your other writingJournaling Records Your LifeHistoryI started journaling in 2008 after reading an article about theimportance of journal writing.In the article, the author des cribed how much journaling had changed her life. She said that after all these years, she now has 38 recorded volumes of personal and family history.After finishing that article, I have never stopped writing in my journal. In my family room on a book shelf are 20-plus journals filled with my thoughts and experiences. Im certain they will be cherished by my ancestors as Ive cherished the writing of my loved ones who have passed on.19 Other Benefits Of JournalingSome otherbenefits of journaling includeHeals relationshipsHeals the pastDignifies all eventsIs honest, trusting, non-judgmentalStrengthens your sense of yourselfBalances and harmonizesRecalls and reconstructs past eventsActs as your own counselorIntegrates peaks and valleys in lifeSoothes troubled memoriesSees yourself as a larger, important, whole and connected beingReveals and tracks patterns and cyclesImproves self-trustDirects intention and discernmentImproves sensitivityInterprets your symbols and dreamsOffers new perspe ctivesBrings things togetherShows relationships and wholeness instead of separationStrategies To Enhance The ExperiencePray or meditate for inspiration before you begin to heighten your mental state and trigger creativityListen to music (I listen to either classical or dub-step depending on the output Im trying to get)Write about the people in your life youll get breakthroughs about how to improve those relationshipsWrite with confidence and power use this to strengthen your resolvesWriteToday is going to be the best day of my life. read that over and over until you begin to believe itIf you cant think of what to write, try writing about minute details of your day or recent historyOr start with gratitudeConclusionI dare say that journaling is one of the most important things to do in your life. If done effectively, it will changeeverythingin your life for the better.Youll become the person you want to be.Youll design the life you want to live.Your relationships will be healthier and happier.Youll be more productive and powerful.Enjoy.Ready toupgrade?Ive created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.Get the cheat sheet hereThis article first appeared on Medium.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people