3 Common Myths About Journaling (DEBUNKED)

Over the last few days and weeks I’ve had readers who’ve reached out to me and they’ve talked about how they’ve applied what I’ve said about journaling and expressed how they now see the benefits.

I was curious about the rest of my followers and so when I posted a poll on my social media,many expressed how they didn’t see it as a benefit and some still had many misconceptions around the idea. I found this quite surprising, and I decided to debunk 3 of the most common myths about journaling.

Myth #1: It’s “just” a diary”

A journal is not a diary. A diary is used to record your events and memories. It’s a place for you to take note of anything that you have to do on a particular day. It’s not used to explore or better understand your ideas. Think of it as more of a way to track your information or to record your secrets.

FACT: Journaling can be used to further explore any ideas or emotions that you have. However, just writing them down won’t benefit you. As you write down your thoughts around various areas in your life, have a look at what you've written a few days or weeks later with a fresh pair of eyes. If you find something that intrigues you or a common theme that comes up, that’s a clue that you’re ignoring that is basically telling you that this could be an area in your life that needs to be improved

Myth #2 “I don’t have time”

Really? We all have 24 hours in a day. Ask yourself, better yet, write this down: Is it my time or is it my priorities? Pay attention to what you do with your time on an average day. Most of us take the time to scroll through our phones, we’ve made sure to have that first coffee or cigarette of the day, or we’ve made sure that we’re free on a specific day of the week to watch an episode from our favorite TV series.

FACT: You do have time, you just have other priorities. If your priority is to play video games over working on yourself, then that’s okay. What’s not okay is if you go on with your life complaining about everything and putting yourself in a victim mindset, instead of a victor’s mindset.

TIP: Do you want to make writing or working on your personal development a priority? Why not schedule it in ?

Myth #3: “I’m not good at writing” You don’t have to be good at writing. You don’t have to write a whole essay either. Let go of the idea that you have that you’re writing has to be perfect.

FACT: Think of journaling in the same way that you would vent to a friend. While turning to a loved one can be helpful, and can help in giving you an outsider's perspective, only you know yourself best Sometimes when we ask for another person’s perspective, they give you advice based on their experience and what they usually know best, sometimes that advice will not always help you break the barriers that you need to have your breakthrough. Learning to write things down, can help you to slow down and become aware of that inner voice that can guide you to new places.

TIP: Instead of stressing yourself out by trying to fill up a whole notebook. Why not start off with just one question? Don’t know what questions to ask yourself ? Have a look at my previous post to help you get started!

Have I debunked your thoughts about journaling? If there are other questions or myths that you have, let me know!