What Journaling for the Last 10 Years Has Taught Me

By Warren Wong

I’ve been journaling for the last 10 years and it has taught me some valuable lessons. When I first started journaling, I thought of it as a chore. I had heard from someone that I should try it and one night begrudgingly I did. What started that night and continues to this day has been a transformative journey. Journaling is a highly underrated and valuable habit that more of us should include in our day to day lifestyle. 

Clarity of Thought

Perhaps different from how most people journal, instead of writing about my day to day, I use it as a tool to bring clarity to my thoughts. If there’s a problem that I’m wrestling with that day, I’ll sit down and write down the problem, how it’s making me feel, areas I’m stuck on, and potential solutions. I find that writing this down forces me to question previously held beliefs, provide clear answers, and to think in a succinct and logical way that I may not have previously considered.

One day I was dealing with something frustrating my friend had said to me. As I began detailing what had happened, I realized how silly it was. Then I took the time to ask myself questions like how my friend must have felt. He must’ve felt angry and frustrated too. Sometimes we are only worried about ourselves, but journaling paints a clearer picture when you have to recount more details.

I was quick to note that isn’t the way I want to treat friends nor is it good for me to have these petty feelings. After my journaling session I had a clear grasp of what happened, especially since I had time to step away from the heat of the moment, which I believe is what makes journaling so great. It is a safe space with our thoughts, unfiltered, and raw. Journaling has provided clarity of thought in every aspect of my life, whether its relationships, career, finances, or love.

Another way I use journaling to clarify my thoughts is in my career. Whenever I have a complicated problem to solve, I like to journal about it. I’ll usually write down the problem as clearly as I can. Sometimes I find that I don’t actually know what the problem is or need to ask clarifying questions. This usually leads to some insight and follow-on discussions with coworkers, which are fruitful by providing clear answers or perhaps it leads me back to the drawing board, with more emphasis on planning and design. This process of journaling has had tremendous benefits to my career and how I problem solve.

This process has become one of my go to ways to tackle problems, plan, and think. Some people like talking out loud, I personally find writing better.

Therapeutic in Nature

Journaling is therapeutic in nature. When I first started writing down my thoughts for the day, it was simply whatever I was thinking at the moment while I’m at the desk with a pen and notebook. Usually I found myself journaling early in the mornings or whenever I had a spare moment from work. One day I noticed that I wrote about things that happened throughout the day or the past – childhood, conversations or arguments I’ve had.

While I wrote about these recollections I noticed that with the time that had passed, I had new insights and fresh perspectives. Old arguments revealed how I tended to jump to wrong conclusions or I had a big ego. Childhood moments that had been buried for so long would resurface as unhealed traumas. As a child I had a problem with procrastination stemming from fear of success, which manifested itself in my addiction to video games while I was a teenager. I preferred the easy, straightforward wins and leveling up in the fictional world of video games rather than face the work required to succeed in school. I realized that it was my coping mechanism.

As I journaled more and asked myself harder questions, I dug deeper into these memories which I realized were the foundation of some of my childhood traumas. Little did I realize that journaling was a form of therapy which has allowed me to see things more clearly and resolve some of the issues I had been bottling up for so many years. Journaling isn’t a replacement for therapy with a professional, but I believe it’s a complement. 

For the Memories

An underrated benefit of journaling is it’s a great way to capture experiences of our day to day lives. Just the other day I was reading some of my journal entries from 5 years ago and they brought back such beautiful feelings of nostalgia and happiness. I sat and read travel stories, birthday posts, and unfiltered feelings ranging from how I felt about an Olympics Opening Ceremony to deep conversations I had with friends – I couldn’t help but smile at both my naivety and boldness, many stories that I had completely forgotten.

Having tons of old hard copy journals and now my new digital journal provides an odd sense of comfort, knowing that I have a repository of my thoughts for when I grow older. Much has changed over the years, from the way I think, feel, and love to how I approach work and life, pleasure and pain, and ignorance and knowledge. I think anyone that journals over a long enough period of time will feel immense satisfaction from their growth over the years. Recounting the progress I’ve made over the years fills me with gratitude, because of the opportunities, family and friends, and support I have received at each step of the way.

Sometimes we feel stuck when we don’t get what we want, especially when we’ve worked so hard for it. When we journal we capture what happens in the day to day, and when we take a look one, two, five years down the road we realize how much we were able to accomplish. Sometimes all it takes is the ability to zoom out. Journaling has given me a newfound perspective, one of patience, focusing on what I can accomplish today, not next year. 

Conclusion

I am excited to one day read my journal entries that I wrote many years ago. I believe that with each decade of one’s life our journal entries will read differently. As we grow older, experience more, and grow more wise, each previous stage in life will appear foolish, but that’s the beauty. Journaling for the last decade has given me an invaluable source of comfort and richness that I hope can do the same for you. I look forward to what the next 10 years of journaling will reveal.