[WI] 5 Great But Also Necessary Reasons To Keep A Daily Journal

To keep a journal, or diary, is not only a great idea for young and old, but in most cases a necessity. Don’t think you will always remember everything… The many far outweigh the few minutes it takes to make a few entries in your journal every day. The effort is minimal; the advantages huge.

A diary (or journal) is a must for adults and children. As a matter of fact – schools and even life coaches demand that journals are kept on a daily basis.

Here are 5 important reasons to use a diary/journal:

1. Keep record. It happens every day that you try to remember when something in your past actually happened. What day was it last week? When did I go to the movies last month? When did we go on the cruise – was it 2014 or 2015? Are you always in an argument with someone about when what happened? Who wins the argument?

• If you have a diary and use it every day, you will have everything at your fingertips. Something that is even more important – it also provides a window of what happened in your life in the past.

• As time goes by, days seem to blend into each other and disappear in the past. You wake up, do your morning routine, rush to work, battle the traffic back home, eat or go out, stay home and watch TV, and go to bed – day in and day out for 40 years.
• But if you keep record by making journal entries every day, your life will become quite interesting. Just recording everything will help you live a life worth recording. It may even inspire you to add a bit more fun and adventure to your daily existence, simply so that you have something to write about.
• One day you can pass these memories on to your children. Just imagine how you would have enjoyed being able to read about your parents or grandparents “back in the day”?

2. Keep a record of the lives of your children. How great would it be to keep record of your child/children growing up, maybe handing it to them as a 21^st birthday present or wedding gift some day?

• That way you will have a record of everything that happened during those years when they were too young to keep a journal themselves. It should be a bit more than just a photo album and will be a great reminder of important dates and happenings in their past.

3. Journals are great for personal and private thoughts. “Dear diary, today …” Sometimes it may be the only way to “talk” to someone – to get something off your chest and down on paper, or just to have someone “listen” without interrupting (for that reason every woman in a relationship should have one!)

• It makes things a bit more objective and realistic – especially when you go back and read it later. You might be surprised at what you figure out about yourself if you take the time to write your journal on a daily basis.

4. Chip away at your goals. An important part of reaching your goals is the recording progress and the ability to prioritize on a daily basis. Writing about your goals every day helps you to reaffirm the goals that are worth achieving.

• We often think of something we want to do, set it as a goal, and within a few days or weeks forget all about it. Writing it down in your diary and keeping journal of it, you won’t forget about it that easily.

• Also, keeping a journal helps you record the progress you are making (or not) towards your goals. Write down new ideas to help you move closer to your goals.

• Once you have achieved a goal, you will always be able to look back and recall how great it felt to accomplish it. That will help you reach the next goal even easier. It will also detail where you made mistakes or wrong choices so that you do not repeat the same ones.

5. Having and keeping a journal will take away a lot of stress in your life. Writing in your journal or diary on a daily basis (sometimes more than once a day) forces you to take a break and fully focus. Sometimes the best way forward when you are stressed out is to sim ply close your diary or turn off the computer, sit back and relax and simply ponder your thoughts.

• When you record the challenges you face on a daily basis, your brain keeps looking for ways around it. Getting a solution around a challenge is an immediate stress reliever!

Apart from yourself, consider keeping a journal for your children as well. The benefits are considerable, and it doesn’t have to take more than a few minutes per day. When your children are grown up, challenge them to carry on. Keeping a journal is a great tool that doesn’t really cost anything at all. You probably have a computer or a smart phone, but if not, a simple pen and notebook (diary) are all you will ever need.