Journaling can change your life. Even if you are young, writing out your thoughts every day can have a positive impact on your well-being.
I began to journal when my life wasn’t in the order I wanted it to be in.
After fine-tuning my journal technique over months and years, I decided to share it here.
Self-reflection isn’t just for adults. Looking back on my childhood days, a structured way of writing down my socially anxious thoughts could have been incredibly beneficial to my personal growth.
I hope what I’ve learned can help others too.
I would suggest journaling purposefully every day, even if you are quite young.
Each morning I use a simple structure to kickstart my day, and it only takes a few short minutes with the following sections:
- I write a few good things that happened yesterday.
- I write a few bad things that happened yesterday.
- I write what I can do to work on those bad things.
- I write who I am. Five times.
Here is an example journal entry with my messy writing:
Let’s break down each section.
Write down the good.
Writing down the good things that happened in your day is powerful for growth-oriented thinking. We need to reflect on positive moments to feel encouraged. This helps to steer us in the right direction.
Write down the bad.
Often, we ignore the bad things in our lives. We hope these bad things will just go away if we push them to the side. I would suggest tackling bad things head-on by writing them down. Bad things can be negative habits, people or thoughts and feelings that get in your way.
Write down ways to improve.
Once you’ve written down the bad things, you can brainstorm ways to overcome these bad things. I like exploring different ways to improve my life, which helps to wash away the bad. If you have a healthy mindset, you can start working on the growth you seek.
Write who you are.
When I’m writing down who I am, it brings a sense of self-confidence to my chosen direction in life. Creator of the Dilbert comic strip, Scott Adams, took a similar approach when he began his creative pursuit. Years later, his daily habit of writing down who he was helped him reach the level of success he desired in his pursuit. In my journal, I write down who I am five times (example from above: I am Trev, quirky children’s author).
If you grab a notebook and start journaling every day, you can get your self-limiting beliefs and thoughts down on paper. Then you can start to work on them piece-by-piece, step-by-step.
I feel all teenagers and children would benefit tremendously from a simple journal process.