Day 24 — Journaling for 3 years: how I started and the results so far
“He who has a why can endure any how,” is a popular quote by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It simply means that you will persist and keep on fighting for what you want regardless of what life throws at you because you have found your sense of purpose.
Hi, I’m Krizza Bullecer, a Filipino working as a software engineer at HENNGE. This is the first time I’m writing for HENNGE as an official employee since my internship with them! For this year’s HENNGE Advent Calendar, I’d like to talk about journaling and how it’s helped shape the person I am today.
What is journaling and why am I doing it?
A quick Google search will tell you the many benefits of journaling, mostly related to mental well-being — it helps reduce stress, regulates your emotions, keeps you grounded, helps clear your mind and encourages intentional awareness.
Personally, I enjoy the fact that it allows me to record significant milestones in my life and set goals. I am very fond of looking back at the mistakes I’ve made, how I’ve learned from those mistakes, and whether I’ve achieved the goals I set.
For instance, I recently looked back at an entry I wrote in 2020 when I just started learning about AWS and got my first certification. I wrote down how confused I was about the use-case for this technology and it brought a smile to my face as I read it. Today, I see how much I’ve grown as an individual and in my career as I continue to develop and deploy apps on the cloud and continue my pursuit of knowledge while journaling my progress and how I feel about it on the way.
When did I start journaling and what was the trigger?
I started journaling when I failed my thesis defense at university. It was the lowest point of my life since I already had my life planned out after graduation and as it turned out, I couldn’t graduate on time because I failed.
Before I discovered journaling, I explored a career in customer service because of the resentment I had in my current field and the failure made me feel like it was something I could never achieve. My work in the customer service industry was tough and it required my full attention so much so that I couldn’t make the time to find out what I actually needed to do in order to achieve my dream of working in tech. Or perhaps the better word is that, I “didn’t” make time for it because I was coming from a mindset of hopelessness.
I woke up every day feeling unmotivated, feeling like I lost my sense of purpose until I stumbled on a YouTube video about how journaling can be used as a tool that creates a space for you to plan out a more fulfilling life. That video struck a chord in me. I was doing something I didn’t want to do out of spite and the reality is that I would never be able to move forward if I stayed stuck where I was. I wanted to try again so I started small and created a folder on the Notes app on my phone dedicated to journaling my journey back to where I wanted to be.
That was a long time ago and it feels so far and so foreign to me now. The peace of mind in knowing that nothing is constant and you can always do something about your current situation is one of the greatest things that I’ve learned from journaling.
Current goals and current results
I’ve picked up the habit of journaling every day and I have a streak of over 365+ days already. At this time, my goals are not as life-changing as they were before but it still helps me understand where I need to focus my energy and it fuels my sense of purpose. I have multiple goals but for my own privacy, I’ll share my top 2 and how those have been going so far!
Mentorship and community
I’ve learned a lot from all the people I’ve worked with in my career and I was able to get this far from the community that supported me (shoutout to Women Who Code Manila). I wanted to give back, so I started mentoring aspiring engineers and speaking at events. I learn so much about myself and from others when I do this, and it is very fulfilling. Sometimes, I spread myself too thin and get burnt out so as a point of improvement, I need to learn my limits for this.
Passion Project
I don’t use physical materials to journal. From the very beginning, I’ve been journaling with an app called DayOne. But this entire time, I’ve also been developing my own journal app with additional features. It started as a means for me to practice software development but eventually, I do want to publish it on the Apple App Store or Google PlayStore soon!
Ad Astra 💫
Writing is the best thing humans have invented. It frees up space in our memory and we can easily recollect ideas and emotions from what we’ve written for later use. I plan to write my thoughts for many years to come. The ability to simply read about my humble beginnings 3 years ago, today, is the best privilege in the world!
I know I mainly focused on goal setting in this article but you can journal about anything you want. I don’t always write about tracking my progress every day or setting new goals. Sometimes, I just write about what I’m grateful for, if I’m feeling blue or the little wins that made my day. No one’s going to read it except you (hopefully with proper security measures in place) so write about whatever!
I’d be happy if you gained some value from this article and perhaps inspired you to start doing it too! Happy journaling! 📖
Check out other 2023 HENNGE Advent Calendar articles here.
