I have kept journals my entire life. The oldest journal I have is 12 years old. While I was reading through all of my old journals recently (a once-every-two-years-ish event), I reflected on some of the things I wish I had done differently. It’s fascinating to be able to read about how you saw your life from a variety of ages. I just wish I had been more intentional sometimes… because in a lot of pages, I felt like I wasn’t always getting the full story. Moving forward in my journaling practice, I’m going to try to implement these 5 things as much as possible. I’m sharing this list so you can hopefully learn from my mistakes, and see what resonates with you! Without further ado, here are 5 things I wish I’d done after 10 years of journaling.
1 Write About the Happy Times
If you’re a journaler, there’s a good chance that you tend to do the most writing during the harder times in life. Journaling is a great tool for self-reflection, and it certainly is great for working through tough emotions. It’s helped me more times than I can even say. BUT!! It can make for a very sad sounding life story.
In my most recent read-through, I wished I had written more about the opportunities I had for travel, my friend groups at the time, and even just my boring day-to-day life. Moving forward, I am going to try and focus on the whole picture of my life, rather than small snippets of the worst times.
2 Leave More Notes on Your Read-Through
This is one of my favorite features of my old journals – the commentary! I would leave little notes on old passages when I was 14, reflecting on my 12-year-old self. The notes are hilarious, and mainly consist of me calling myself cringe.
I really appreciated my 14 year old self’s thoughts on my old journal entries, even if they were extremely mean. Moving forward, I’m planning to implement this by using a different colored pen to leave dated notes in the margins.
If you’d rather use cute sticky notes than colored pens in the margins, check out these cute ones I found on Amazon.
3 Reflect More Often, and Write About it When You Do
In the same vein, I wish I would dedicate an entire journal entry to reflecting on my read-throughs. I think after taking in everything I read and really processing it, I can learn a lot. For example, I in my most recent read through, I finally noticed a huge limiting pattern I’d been holding onto since childhood. By recognizing it and exploring it further, I feel ready to finally break free of some of the cyclical issues I’ve had that have been holding me back.
In a way, this blog post is as much of a reflection of my read-through as anything else. But I’ll write out my thoughts in my actual journal, too. Maybe I’ll even call it cringe in a few years!
4 Be More Flexible (aka don’t be scared to do it ‘wrong’)
There are so many different ways to approach journaling. Shadow work, junk journaling, art journals, bullet journals, gratitude journaling … the list goes on.
While it is FANTASTIC that there are so many creative ways we can express ourselves while journaling, sometimes it can feel limiting (at least for me!). I get so caught up in trying to do things the ‘right’ way, or the most visually pleasing way. But truly, none of that matters. What matters is that you’re being authentic, and using your journal to serve YOU, rather than the other way around.
I found a couple of random to-do lists and grocery lists that I put in my journals over the years, and honestly, I wish I had done more of that! So interesting to see what my daily tasks entailed in middle school vs college. So, moving forward, I might try to use my journal more for things like lists, quotes, and anything else I can think of.
5 Be More Consistent, and Explain Absences
One of my biggest disappointments while reading through my old journal? The months and years of radio silence.
I’m not upset with my old self for not being consistent. Life happens! I am upset, however, that I didn’t take any time to explain what had happened in the absence. The journal just picked right back up like I had never left.
I have a pretty bad memory, so a lot of those missing entries are just pieces of my life that are lost to time. Moving forward, I’m going to be diligent about explaining long absences. My future self will thank me!
There you have it! Ultimately, you should write in your journal whenever you want, whether that’s every day or every 10 months. But, if you enjoy looking back on your old journals… do future you a favor! Fill in the gaps, be positive when you can, and make your journal into whatever you want it to be.
