Introduction: Journaling is a powerful thing; there are many different uses for a Journal, everything from personal thoughts to keeping an expedition written down for later resource. Many people don’t use Journals which is unfortunate, my focus in this paper is to show the different areas of Journaling and to possibly make it a part of your life.
Thesis: My thesis statement is to show the importance of journaling in leadership and other positions.
Getting started, it doesn’t take much to get started, all you need is a pen or pencil, preferably a pencil incase you need to change something, but a wise teacher once told me that his mom asked him a very interesting question, “ What do you use on crossword puzzles, a pen or a pencil,” she then later stated “ I always do mine in pen,” now the reason behind her always doing it in pen is so you know you did it write the first time, and you feel confident in that. The next thing you would or should need is something to write on, this can be anything from a purchased store journal to napkin from a restaurant, although having a booklet of napkins may seem absurd, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s something to take your thoughts down on. The other thing that you should have is a positive attitude, trust me it is helpful in all aspects of life, a great man once said, “ The greatest discovery of my generation is that human being can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind by William James.” (Pg.88 John Maxwell The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a leader). That’s about all it should take to start a effective journal, so stay focused as we will be going through the Purpose of Journaling.
The first area I would like to delve into is the thinking aspect of Journaling. I don’t know about you, but I like to think, it makes me feel like I’m the smartest man in the world. I took this class called Practicum Seminar Leadership and for the class we had to go on a solo trip for about 3 days, by ourselves, and I thought a lot while I was out there and I wish I had, had a journal to keep all my thoughts down in, because some of them were lost, but I came out of there with a deep understanding of what it means to be positive.
“Its like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.” This quote is said by Patrick Rothfuss. In the book, True Notebooks, by Mark Salzman his students tell you many stories that people get to become apart of. Reading stories by other people makes their life more interesting. The power of storytelling is really important, because they have to catch your attention to make you want to hear more. Three stories from the book, True Notebooks, that suck out to me were: “The G Ride”, “Another Screw Up”, and a story without a title by Dale.
Author, Joan Didion, in her essay, On Keeping a Notebook, expands the importance of keeping a notebook. Didion’s purpose is to elucidate why having and using a notebook is essential and give examples of how to keep one. She adopts a forthright and didactic tone in order to emphasize notebook keeping with her audience. Didion provides rhetorical question, flashbacks, and the use of pathos to support the purpose of writing her essay.
The author states, that by journaling an individual can begin to express the activities of the heart and start the process of becoming informed by what is known as the imaginal method in psychology circles. This method is a form of emotional exploration of interactions, relationships, and ideas. The ultimate goal of the imaginal method is to become aware of those inner suppressed emotions that affect relationships and perception. Utilizing this process, an individual would then reflect on ideas and thoughts that have been captured during the free-write period of journaling. Quite often what is revealed can be quite surprising and transforming at the same
Why cohabitation? One of the most popular reasons is cited as being that “couples can be sure they are compatible before marriage (Huang, et al, 2011).” Seemingly, many couples that cohabitate before marriage fear incompatibility with their current beaus and/or future spouses. Using cohabitation as a “trial period” before marriage can take away the fear of living together from both partners. It can assure both parties that they are companionable in living space, or affirm that they are not. Smock, Casper, and Wyse (2008) also point out several influences for cohabitation: there are cultural and economic influences. Young people see cohabitation as a part of life. “Two-thirds of both male and female 18-29 year olds who have never been married or cohabited explicitly disagree with the statement that ‘a young couple should not live together unless they...
When I was younger I did not have a journal. I was an only child, so I did not feel the need to hide my personal belongings. As I grew older I was diagnosed with a severe form of anxiety. I did not know how to cope with my feelings. When I was told to visit a therapist, I had mixed emotions on attending the sessions, because I did not like the idea of opening up to a stranger. My therapist thought writing down my daily emotions in a journal would help me to learn how to process my thoughts. Joan also stated in her piece of work that she felt expressing her feelings through a journal is healthy. As time went on, and I became older I started to learn more about myself. Keeping a journal has helped me tremendously in my daily life. It has taught me what triggers my anxiety, allowed me to figure how to prevent it, but also gave me a time that I can call "me time”. + Having read Joan Didion’s “On Keeping a Notebook,” I am going to discuss the importance of
Writing in a notebook can be important for reassurance or a reflection on one’s self. That can be hard for some people. Yet, putting the effort into writing in a notebook can be challenging. One author that represents this idea is Joan Didion. Didion wrote a book called “On Keeping a Notebook” which depicts what she does, sees, or thinks and she writes about it in her notebook. She also reflects on her past self, who she used to be, who she is now and how the things she writes in her notebook felt to her. In order to be true to ourselves, we must recognize who we used to be and how we reached who we are now.
Nevertheless, being aware that this wouldn’t be the best attitude to start this new activity, I decided to update my coaching schema and allow this experience reshape it and add new self fulfilling features to it. Therefore, I prepared my self mentally by thinking on the most behavioral skill I would like to be coached on-writing journals- and we started.
Sagan, Miriam. "Exercise your writing muscle; practice these journaling techniques and improve your skills." The Writer July 2002: 38+. General OneFile. Web. 10 Feb. 2011.
Using a reflective journal is a useful tool to implement into your life, whether it’s on paper or computer to write down any feelings, observations, visions and ideas can be a great way to focus your thoughts and develop new ideas. Reflecting upon past events and beginning to understand the processes behind them and the experience gained from it can be one of the most effective ways to evaluate yourself (Macbeth,
Lack of exercise is the cause of most health-related issues today. Americans are becoming ill every second from lack of exercise, yet nothing is being done to prevent these diseases. Diet plans and exercise programs are advertised in every corner, yet they are ignored. Many disorders and diseases are preventable, and even curable without the aid of modern technology. Regardless, the illnesses are at an all time high and show no sign of declining. What many individuals fail to realize is how essential fitness is to life. It is imperative in order to sustain a healthy lifestyle for many reasons.
Many studies have come to the conclusion that individuals who participate in health and wellness routines as well as a regular exercise program have a relatively increased degree of energy, lower healthcare bills, much better quality of life along with less stress, as well as improved health. Staying in good physical shape and healthy calls for everyone, to be conscious of their health, to be aware of the key fitness and health components and to follow them.
Writing has always been one of the things that I’m passionate about. Whenever I have something on my mind, I would jot it down or type it in my notes. No matter how small or pathetic it seems, I would always write it down, because you never know when you’re going to go back to it and create something grand, out of inspiration. People would think that a person like me would write down poems or novel ideas. That’s completely true, but I also write down recipes, grocery lists, hate lists and literally anything that comes to my mind. I’m the type of person that does not like to miss anything, forget anything and likes to include everything. People would say I’m a perfectionist or a control freak and as much as I would hate to admit that, it is true. While these traits of mine might hinder my writing process, during this school year I learned how to embrace them.
Murphy, S. (2011, January 6). Reflections of a leader: From developing the leader within you
According to the Healthy Lifestyle Index Report, I am lacking in getting the weekly recommended amount of physical activity. As listed in Figure 2 below, this increases the chances of weight gain, high blood sugar, and breast
Keeping a journal will also help you improve your memory, spelling and grammar. It will help you focus and in turn helps with critical thinking and problem solving skills. Which helps you become more open to insights you may have missed before. It gets the creative juices flowing. It a tool to see how you have grown and changed. Write down your beliefs, values, emotions and goals. This will help you to better understand your relationships to those things. In return you will see what is important to you and what is not so important.