One Person Project

I think that journaling is highly underrated. People believe that journaling is simply about replaying your day on paper, but it is actually putting your identity, dreams, and visions in writing. It can help you identify sore spots in your life, unravel deep-rooted insecurities, and provide ideas on how to repair the damage that has been done to you. If you have a vision of what you want your future to look like, jotting down the details can help to keep it at the forefront of your mind. Journaling is a powerful tool that can transform your life if used effectively.

Writing down issues that may have caused stress, anxiety, fear, etc., on paper can be a giant leap toward healing from old wounds. For example, I just started journaling about issues that I see within myself. I do not like to plan or envision my future. I sat down with my journal, started writing, and had an Ah Ha moment. My planning issue is that I am so accustomed to disappointment that I would rather not plan, as I already assume it won’t work out. To work through this, I will keep promises to myself. We can’t control other people, so others may still cause a slight disappointment, but if I can keep the promises I make to myself, it will change this mindset. If you notice that you have trust issues, you don’t like to plan, you are reluctant to do things, you are scared to put yourself out there to meet other people, or any other issue you may have, put pen to paper and work through the question of “why do I have this mindset?”. It is so freeing to solve the mystery of why.

In addition to helping resolve negative mindsets, journaling can help move your visions of your future into reality. If you have a dream to do anything, such as start a business, take a trip to another country, go back to school, be more social, or advance in your company, put it on paper. Write down the dream in detail, precisely what you picture in your mind, down to the most minuscule piece of the puzzle. Then, just as writers do, make an outline of the steps you would need to take to make the dream a reality. Let’s use the vision of being more social as an example. First, write down what the vision is: “I want to be more social”, then figure out what that looks like in your mind. Write down the vision: is it you being witty at a corporate function, finding people who share the same hobbies or interests as you, or approaching coworkers or peers and starting a conversation? No matter what, write down what this looks like to you. Then comes the action part: write down the steps you need to take to improve your social life. Are you finally going to tell that great joke at the office mixer, are you going to look up local meetings or groups that have the same interest, and then go to these meetings, or are you going to join in the conversation that your co-worker or peers are having when you have something to add? Every time you take a step in the direction of your vision, make a note of it, then move to the next step until your vision becomes your reality.