How To Start A Daily Journaling Habit (And What To Write About)

Just open any given site that publishes articles on personal growth, and you will find at least a dozen articles that say: Why Keeping A Journal Will Change Your Life.

Please stop it for goodness sake. We know it by now! And to be honest, I’ve been saying that stuff too. Journaling is simply the best self-improvement tool that I’m aware of.

When I talk to friends, or when I coach people, I always ask: “Do you keep a journal?”

This probably won’t surprise you, but the answer is almost always “No.”

And the funny thing is that everyone knows that they should keep one. But should is not enough. There are a lot of things that we should do — but we don’t do them.

Why? We have no idea HOW to do them.

It’s just like when you were in school. Do you remember all those times you had a question on your mind but you didn’t ask. You probably thought: “Maybe the teacher thinks I’m dumb.”

Well, this is exactly the same. We all think that journaling is easy so we don’t bother asking how you do it. It’s not easy, but it’s also not rocket science.

Most people overcomplicate the act of journaling or putting your thoughts on paper. I think Ernest Hemingway put it best: