4 - Journaling

No, it’s not a diary… but you will need a notebook.

What is a journal?

• According to Wikipedia, the word journal comes from the French word “journal,” meaning “daily,” and the word was originally used to describe a daily record of activities. I like this definition because that’s all it is: a record, a place to store things. It took me a while to convince some of my closest friend to start journaling because they didn’t like the idea of “having a journal.” If you really don’t want to be the kind of person who has a journal (objectively the best kind of person) then fine, start a “notebook”.

Why should I start a journal?

• You should start a journal so you have a place to keep everything. You can think of it as a portable storage box. With the last three steps you’ve started writing down your thoughts, your lists of gratitude, and your daily to-do lists. That’s a whole lot of writing. And if you’re still using dirty napkins, that’s a lot of dirty napkins. The point is, it’d be nice to have a place for all of these things that you’re writing down. More importantly, following these steps will take you on a journey, and you’ll want to keep track of everywhere you’ve been, what you’ve tried, what worked, what didn’t work, what you liked, what you didn’t like, and so much more. That’s a lot of things to remember. And you definitely don’t want to keep them all flying around in your head. So how should you remember them? By writing everything down of course, in your newly minted journal.

How do I start a journal?

• Here’s my story. One day, I came home from school and found a notebook on my bed. I opened it, started writing in it, and what do you know I had a journal. I later found out that my dad left the notebook there for me to find, but at the time it was just a random notebook. What I’m trying to say is your journal doesn’t have to be anything special; it can be any old notebook. So, to start your journal all you have to do is find a notebook, open it to the first page, start writing (all that good stuff from the first 3 steps), and VOILA you have a journal!

4 – Start a journal. And once you’re using it every day head over to step 5!