Start a Personal Journal
Start a Personal Journal-to better content. It is a simple way to improve your content creation skills. It lets you write unfettered, free, and out of control.
Writers are sensitive to abuse and ridicule, so writing a personal journal lets you express your thoughts and keep them well away from snooping eyes. Write whatever comes to mind, and remember that part of this exercise is to improve your fluency with words.
The Tools for Journaling
Pen and paper remain the most popular method to record our daily entries, and many journalists write their feelings and ideas in large school scribblers. Others use fancy moleskin books, but their beauty and expense are not for the rough and shoddy.
It is easier to let your pen run wild and free, and write like a mad, in an old school scribbler when you first start out.
Later, a beautiful book and a better quality paper can be a reward for your efforts. I use both because I’ve stopped caring about things that don’t matter as much as in years past.
Most journalists are not comfortable with leaving their private thoughts in the virtual cloud.
Improve your Writing Skills
Writing is a skill, and the more time we spend practicing our skills, the better results we achieve. If you write every day, it stands to reason that your writing will improve. Maintaining a journal becomes a deliberate attempt to become a better writer.
We can introduce new words, develop a personal writing style, and learn how to build better sentences that become more interesting paragraphs.
A Method to Track your Progress
Writing every day in a journal is an admirable way to track your progress. Setting goals serves no purpose when we are unable to keep track of the results. Reviewing what we have written on a previous day is one of the benefits of journaling.
Each new entry records the progress we attain on our pet project. This daily exercise shows how our ideas evolve over time, what works, and what doesn’t.
Journaling compels us to be more accountable, and loyal to the path we have set for ourselves.
To better track our progress, it’s important that we are very specific about what we write, and what we want to achieve.
Develop Better Habits
Habits are what we do on a regular basis, and developing better habits is a skill that requires effort. Writing every day is a habit worth cultivating.
Pouring your thoughts in the pages of a journal is a habit that can improve character as well.
Journaling about our flaws shows where we are deficient and can help change our approach on the road to self-improvement.
Reduce Stress and Anxiety
Writing about the ups and downs of our daily struggles can shed light on areas that need improvement, but more importantly, it can also show you the parts where you perform well. Being positive and upbeat has never hurt anyone.
Beautiful entries reveal the blessings we share with the family and friends that support us and make us more grateful. We all benefit when we learn to appreciate the small things that bring joy to our lives.
Journals Serve to Inspire
Leonardo da Vinci filled the pages of his journals with drawings and sketches of his inventions. This is another feature that can adorn your daily entries. If you like to draw, this will add character to your pages.
Remember that your journal is to benefit you. Ideas that pop up can be introduced to your pages and developed over time. Sketches and drawings inspire and stimulate us to expand an idea to fruition.
Personal Journals Serve Different Purposes
Journals are used to track our progress at home, work, or play. A journal can be beneficial when beginning a new diet, and setting new sports goals. Runners, for instance can use their entries to track what foods give them better results and which foods are more problematic.
Entries can describe if running in the early morning feels better than running in the evenings. Some of us are morning persons and some are not, so running at 5:00 a.m. is not for everyone. This method of recording can be applied to any sport or activity.
Start a Personal Journal for Better Discipline
Persistent effort and hard work have never hurt anyone and serve to elevate our levels of discipline. We like the easy life, so having a method to keep us in line and on track to victory is useful.
Keep you Thoughts Organized
A well written and properly organized journal will aid us in gaining a greater degree of control over our lives. Recording events, feelings, and ideas is beneficial to a strategy on the road to success.
Leave your comments in the space below if you have suggestions to support the practice of journaling.
I am no stranger to this but I like the approach you have taken here. Sometimes what I will do is carry pieces of paper to work with me just in case I develop negative thoughts. It helps if I write them down vs leaving the circulating in my mind and I have done both.
Yes, I agree as writers we also need to write down the personal problems we face.
Happy to hear that you journal, JC.
Journaling is an easy way to stay positive, and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Writing a few kind words on paper has never hurt anyone.
Being and staying positive can be challenging in the best of times, but writing about our challenges, can help to sort them out a lot more quickly.
Paul