Why Journalling Changed My Life

I’m experimenting, I hate the term “self-development” because it sounds so wanky… But over time I’ve realized, taking the time to learn about yourself, develop your skills, mindset and abilities isn’t wanky...it's actually something we should all spend a lot more time doing & prioritising.

How can we learn about, Marketings, Business, Nursing or whatever career path we choose if we don't even take the time to learn about ourselves. As part of “The Millennial Crisis,” I want to trial things in an attempt to learn more about myself and the steps I want to take moving forward with my life.

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To hear more about my results I explain my experience fully in my podcast episode, listen here: 

Apple podcasts

Spotify

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So, I’m starting off with Journaling.

What is Journaling?

The more I read into Journaling the more I realise it can be many things, essentially it is putting thoughts to paper or “virtual paper”, and there can be many ways you can do it.

Apps, Phone notes, Journaling books, Gratitude Journals, Bullet journaling, Free thought flows...the list goes on.

The Benefits of Journaling (according to the internet, include..)

- Increase creativity

- Increases gratitude & happiness

- Reduces stress, depression & anxiety

- Allows you to move towards your goals

- Discover things about yourself

- People who journal are shown to get sick less (there is some science to back this somewhere on the internet - google it)

My experiment

For myself I know that if I say “journal for 7 days” I won’t do it, no boundaries is my kryptonite.

I’m super "ADD" and need some structure/rules around things for me to be able to execute. PLUS I’ve never journaled before, so to sit down for 5 minutes a day and write… I would have no idea where to start?

So, I decided on 2 different ways to journal, I was to do them every day for 7 days & track how I felt/what outcomes I had.

- Via App. |"The 5-minute Journal"

- Self Discovery Q’s | 9 Questions - a combination of things I found online...

I'll be honest in saying I went into this as a fun experiment & a bit of entertaining content...what I didn't realise was that these questions would lead me to quit my job, and move my ass to South America. 

Let's start with the App.

The 5-minute journal requires you to answer a few questions in the morning, to do with gratitude and how you want to start your day, and similar with the end of your day, more gratitude questions & what you achieved.

This was nice, by nice I mean I didn't really see many benefits within 7-days, I do think it would be beneficial for a lot of people, I just didn't find this form of journalling beneficial enough for me to continue past the 7 day period...

(p.s. this is just a screengrab I found on google - I will most definitely ALWAYS use sarcasm & I do not have a son called Luca xx)

Final thoughts, I'd say give them a go because I do think they would work perfectly for some people, however for myself I prefered answering the questions & benefited most from them.

The 9 questions

These, these made me feel crazy, these questions I genuinely feel changed my life.

Reflecting upon my experience, I don't think it was the questions themselves that "changed my life" it was the fact that I answered questions honestly, questions that I tend to lie to myself about on the daily. I was forced to sit down for 10minutes a day and face "reality"...

So, what were these "life-changing questions"?

1. What will staying in the same career do to your life? 

2. Is your health helping or harming your purpose in life? 

hen is the last time you’ve gone outside of your comfort zone? 

4. What will happen if I continue to live this way?

5. Are you using your strengths?

6. What do you hate? 

7. What would you be doing if you had 6 months to live? 

8. What are you so afraid of? 

9. What’s the first step you can take?

This 7-day journalling experiment that I began as a joke, turned into a daily practice for me.

It's funny, when I first started answering these questions, I was truly stumped. I didn't know how to answer them, I was questioning them, and more importantly, I felt as though the answers I was putting down were wrong...I was judging my own answers, answers nobody else would see... I felt stupid.

It was about the 5-day mark that I started to hit some real "break-throughs" when I really started to see some results, that's why if you too would like to give this a go I highly recommend committing yourself fully to it, and I would suggest 14-days to get the full experience.

I've now been journaling daily (nearly), for nearly 5 months now. My questions change when I feel my answers are repetitive or if I've hit a real "breakthrough".

Journalling with the assistance of prompting questions will be something I don't see myself giving up any time soon. I am excited to see how they continue to shape and change my life.

It's funny how we can lie to ourselves on the daily, the convenient excuses we give ourself to do, or not do something. If you are looking for a way to discover more about who you are, what you want and block out the daily noise, news and people that are constantly trying to sell you ideas, lifestyles and "quick fixes" give this a go.

Worst case, it can be a funny story to tell your friends about how some random girl online challenged me to journal for a week...

I would love to hear from anybody who gives this a go! I want all of the answers, those that found it a waste of time, those who found it transformative those who thought it was EH.

I want to hear it all, so please send me an email or DM on Instagram. 

Finally here were my results from these questions:

- A deeper understanding of who I am & how I work

- Booked a trip to Mexico 3 weeks before leaving (convinced my bestie to join)

- Quit my job

- Moved to South America & joined Nomad Academy (where I currently am now)

- Backed myself and started my own business

- Began building my personal brand

- Identified my "limiting beliefs"

- Began to feel more at ease

- Living more "present"

Happy Journalling!

To hear more about my results I explain my experience fully in my podcast episode, listen here. 

Apple podcasts

Spotify