Why journaling is an important part of personal development 

Are you sometimes forgetful or you can’t seem to remember things you’ve done to develop yourself overtime, and  you’re getting overwhelmed? Have you tried the act of journaling.  One of the ways to develop your personal development skills is by keeping a journal 

One of the ways to develop your personal development skills is by keeping a journal.  

The act of journaling has to do with tracking your ideas, your thoughts, your goals, your feelings happenings around you. The act of journaling is not limited to the above things. There are many more things you can use journaling for.  

Journaling is important for gratitude, to track your worries, identify stressors, track your imaginations and much more. 

The act of journaling is not limited to the use of a pen and a paper. You could use a phone, note pad, or a drawing book. Yes, a drawing book can track your thoughts and ideas using drawing.  

 The thought of keeping a journal can be pretty exciting. Until you start it before you realize that It requires more than excitement to get started.  

Starting to journal is not usually a walk in the park. It requires intentionality, a strong will. This is because the act of journaling could feel like it’s burdensome, and could feel like work.  

How to journal  

 Below are guidelines for journaling effectively for personal development  

• Know why you want to journal 

This will inform your decision of what the journal is for, could be a worry journal to express your worries, business journal, or a journal for random ideas. 

• Have a notepad and pen, your phone. There are phone applications  that aid the act of journaling, a drawing book would do too.  

• Know how long you want to journal for. Is it a month? For a particular period of time in your life? The duration depends on you. It’s not out of place to have an idea of how long you want to keep a journal after identifying the purpose. A motivational speaker once mentioned that your journal becomes invaluable once it has fulfilled its purpose. How long do you want to journal for? 
• Remember to keep things simple. No one is marking how well you do. It is YOUR journal for your personal development.  
• Be free and don’t be uptight. Be free. Be true to your self, connect to your true self. Be vulnerable.  
• Another way to effectively journal for personal development is to reflect on what is in your journal. It helps you to see the lapses, the improvement overtime, and the things that you can always work on. 

How important is the act of Journaling? 

•  Track progress 

It’s possible to have so many wins and results that you forget them or don’t realize how much you grown overtime. That’s where the act of journaling comes in. It helps you to track your progress. You get to see how far you’ve come. When people lose sight of how much progress that they’ve made, it’s easy to experience low self esteem, the feeling of incompetence all because they don’t even know how much they’ve done overtime. Write it and make it plain.  

• Goal setting made easy 

Journaling your ideas, your insights, imaginations, your plans, your thoughts would make it easy to set your goals as you already have an idea of what your thoughts hold especially regarding what you’d like to achieve. Write down your goals. It’s been said over and over again that journaling your goals  will help you achieve them. 

• Connects you to your creative self 

Journaling has the tendency to awaken the creative in you. Improves your writing, or your drawing skills, your interpretation of ideas, or the way you analyze them. 

• Keeps to declutter your mind 

One thing journaling also does is that it helps to separate unnecessary information that your mind may have gathered over time from the relevant ones. It helps to keep your mental health in check by helping you identify the unimportant and unnecessary things that could be stressing you out.  

• Tracks information 

It helps you track information as you can always refer to them after a while or at a later date if there’s need for them.   

• Helps you practice mindfulness  

 Journaling helps to redirect your focus from the past or future to the present. Helps you take charge of the things currently happening to you and keeps your mind from wandering around. 

• Helps with productivity 

Tracking your ideas help with productivity as you get to remember them and put those ideas to effective use that could eventually yield results. 

• Organizes your thoughts 

There are times it feels like you’re not in control and your thoughts are all over the place. The act of journaling would make them plain right before your eyes and help you identify the things that are bothering you.   

Benefits of keeping a journal 

• It is not expensive. That is it doesn’t cost you much to keep a journal 
• Keeps your mental health in check and helps to keep you sane. 
• Improved productivity 
• Makes you more aware of things you’ve done that worked and those that didn’t work. In other words, your wins  and your losses.  
• Develops your intellect 

• Aids personal development 
• Helps you remember information easily, especially those who have a low attention span. 
• Keeps you informed about past ideas and thoughts that could come in handy. 
• Trains you to be more observant. 

Disadvantages of journaling 

It has been mentioned that the act of journaling has its benefits. Now, we’d look at its disadvantages. 

• Your journal, if lost, can give anyone access to your “sacred” thoughts and ideas .  
• Makes you live in your head much more than you live in real life. 
• You may be uncomfortable with experiencing things and allowing yourself enjoy them and you would rather write them down than allow yourself live in the moment. 

• Could become unhealthy for you when you write the negative thoughts and focus on them much more than the positive ones.  
• Could stifle your social health as you’d rather keep to yourself and express yourself through the act of journaling than interact with people 

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