What Shall I Write?

What shall I write? It’s the cry of writers everywhere.

Write whatever you want.

As I mentioned in a previous post, what to write can be a real struggle for journal writers. So this post is about the various types of journals and what you could include in them.

For many of us, the first type of journal is the” blurt it all out”, what I did today writing and how I felt about the day. And there is a definite value in this. Gets stuff off of your chest and gives you a record of your life. Always useful and a good place to go to when you are stuck and know you’ve been stuck like this before.

Some people equate this with young girls writing in their diaries about their crushes and all the minutiae of teenage life. Don’t let that image fool you, there is real value in recording your life. And of course learning from the decisions you’ve made in the past.

Art journals, don’t require you too be an artist.

They are a place to draw, sketch, paint, glue stuff into and have fun. There is no eighth grade art teacher hanging over your shoulder scolding you for your colour choices and placement. You can freely chose what to include and what to leave out. And in making those decisions you may be sending a message to yourself.

Travel journals – well this is pretty self evident. A place to record where you’ve been and what you’ve done. And in doing that you can make some interesting discoveries about yourself.

Recently my partner and I went on a trip to the west coast of Vancouver Island. We’d booked ourselves into a cabin which was clean and well equipped and did not work for us. We are not climbers, kayakers or anything of the sort. The cabin was set up for those people. We tend to  read, relax, stitch, write and take lazy walks with the dog. Now we know, no rustic cabins for us.

Gratitude journals have been quite popular for some time now. The intent is to take note of the good things in your life and express your gratitude. Recently I cam across a suggestion which has improved my gratitude journalling and it is a simple change.

Now instead of saying” I am grateful for my partner”, I add “because she is…..” I add the because to my gratitude since it forces me to of deeper into what I am grateful for. It can be easy to quickly jot down a list and not really be truly grateful – just getting one more task done.

What you are grateful forever over time, will tell you what is truly important in your life.

You can them make the decision to have more of the good things in your life and less of the  not as good.

Work journals in my mind come in three categories: manager, employee and self employed.

As a manager, a journal is a good place to record employee performance, goals to be achieved and accomplishments. The latter is particularly important  as it is all too easy to forget what’s been done and focus only on what needs to be done.

As a person who constantly moves my goal posts – because if I can do it, the goal must not have been difficult enough.  That never stopping to recognize achievements often makes me feel  like I’m failing. When I recognize what I have done, it gives me energy to keep going.

Additionally, this is a good place to record decisions and their outcome. A useful reference for the future.

As an employee this is a good place to keep track of the work you are doing, the environment you are working with in and the feelings you have about the job. It’s easy to say I hate my job.

You may recognize you are in conflict with your values and beliefs or the hours don’t work for you. All that will come out in the journal as you process the day.

If you actually know what it about the job that you dislike it is easier to make changes.

Valuable information to make decisions for your future employment.

If you are self employed, particularly if you are a solo entrepreneur keeping a journal will be invaluable. I use mine to record:   conversations with my coach, ideas for blogs, information I need from clients and business decisions. Having this record has helped me to stay on track especially when things are a bit scattered in my personal life.

OK, enough for this post – I realize there are several more types of journals I want to discuss and that would make this post way too long. So stay tuned for the next blog.

In the meantime, if you’d like more information on this or decision making in general, give me a call.