Why You Should Not Keep A Diary
Recently when I was cleaning my book-rack, some of my old diaries caught my eye. I love them very much because even though I started to write a diary to plan my studies it eventually became a daily habit of mine. So I sat down at my table and started to read them one by one appreciating myself for writing down them because I was so excited to read my own autobiography.
I’ve been writing diaries since I was 16 and I was preparing for O/L exam at that time. As a teenager and a pupil I had lots of dreams which I don’t remember most of them today. But when I was reading them I felt that those diaries are logbooks of my dreams. I have heard that once late Indian president Dr. Abdul Kalam had said “You have to dream before your dreams can come true”. I started to think that my diaries are some real proofs of that utterance. My biggest childhood dream was to become an engineer and I saw that all my other dreams were converging to that big dream. Do you remember the Stanford speech of Steve Jobs? He said “You cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards”. I started to believe that statement. So if you don’t want to connect your dots, don’t keep a diary.
A diary can embarrass yourself. Have you ever found any book you used to write or any painting you drew or any kind of handicraft you made when you were in kindergarten or primary school. I am pretty sure if you could find you would laugh at yourself. I felt shameful of some of my past thoughts and activities. It is because the way we see the world, the way we think and the way we define tend to change with experiences. Some decisions we take today might be felt totally wrong tomorrow. So if you don’t have a diary you can just forget all your stupidities.
A famous American Basketball player has said that “I missed more than 9000 shots in my career. 26 times I was trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed”. Our failures are the teachers of our success. When I read my diary I found sometimes I had failed and sometimes I had succeeded. But the interesting thing is that I can understand why I failed and why I succeed by just reading the diary. So if you don’t want to figure out your mistakes, don’t keep a diary.
I remember the interview which I faced for my internship. The first question I was asked was to describe myself. That’s the most difficult question that anybody has to answer. Understanding ourselves is a tricky task even though it seems trivial. It is true that nobody does not know about yourself than you but most of the time you are the last one who identifies your faults. We go before a mirror to make sure we are perfect in outer appearance. The diary is the mirror that reflects your thoughts and behaviours. So if you don’t need to see the reflection of yourself there’s no point of having a diary.
It is a common thing to be stuck yourself in your tight schedules and having high stress. One thing I do when I am in stress is listing down all the activities I have to do in a paper. It gives me an overall idea of what to do and releases the stress. Diaries can do the same thing. You can mention what you have done so far and what you are going to do next in your diary. Actually it increases your confidence level. When you are on sick bed it makes some comfort to read your previous diaries. So if you are good at stress management, you don’t need a diary.
The great philosopher, Socrates has said “To find yourself think for yourself”. As a leisure activity if will be enjoyable to write about yourself, think about yourself and plan your future. Some psychologists say appreciating yourself increases your mental strength. A diary is a good place to appreciate and salute yourself. It is often to see greetings such as Happy New Year, Good Evening, Good Night and Happy Holiday in my diaries and when I am reading them back again I can’t help smiling. So if you have rich leisure activities you better do them instead of worrying to keep a diary.
That’s all I wanted to share with you and thank you for reading this. You are always welcome to share your thoughts.
