5 things to keep in your Journal

Today, while reading my Journal, I had a weird feeling. The feeling that my Journal was actually becoming valuable to me. Like I’d be willing to put up a reward if I’ve lost it.

Keeping a Journal has been so beneficial, I believe it is slowly changing my life, for the better. I’ve written about this already, but to add to it, I wanted to share with you the 5 categories I jot down in my journal as they come up. Anything else besides these, I generally try to keep out of my Journal. The reason for ignoring everything else is this, these 5 things give me the positive reinforcement I need when I read my Journal entries.

1. Ideas

Ideas that are positive, Ideas that build you up. Ideas for changing the way you think. Ideas that may help you improve and Ideas for a better future.

2. Keeping track of personal development

I still need to figure this one out, but a simple question here is how am I doing on the personal development front. I get to this category when I’ve slipped up. When I have not been disciplined with working towards my goals. It’s just a place of honesty where I can write about why I failed and then try to find some motivation for going further.

3. Important Events

Any important Event. I just write them down, good and bad. This to bring some reality to the lofty dreams, goals and Ideas I write down besides them. 

4. To put into writing what one cannot easily say in public

This is for those times when you have things on your heart that are hard to explain or say. They may cause harm in their raw form, they are hard because saying things mean dealing with them as well. Somehow dealing with things in writing is much easier for me than saying the challenging matter out loud. This kind of Journaling I use to untie the knot of the emotions and separate out truths and feelings.

5. To dump good thoughts

Thoughts and Ideas are very similar, but to me, they are things that linger. Things that build up. They may be inspired by ideas, events even other thoughts. These, I believe, form a core part of our character. I start my day with a clear mind, and as I go through the day, it gets clouded with many thoughts. I would like to hold on to good thoughts and minimize bad and sometimes destructive thoughts.

It’s your journal

This is not a list ascribing to you what you should keep in journal, but it is a nudge to help you think about a more structured approach to the things one should have in your journal. Being intentional brings you, the writer and hopefully the reader, a lot more value in the end.