One thing that has been my goal for many years is to start writing more. It is a skill I’ve always wanted to learn.

I’ve tried tweeting, and writing a blog post here and there but have never been able to do it consistently. I’ve also never felt comfortable sharing my thoughts and opinions.

So this year when I was setting my goals I decided to just start very small. This is how I have achieved so many things, like learning to play the guitar, starting a jogging habit, starting a business, etc…

My goal this year was to keep a journal and add an entry every day even if it’s something like “I don’t feel like writing today” to form the habit of writing. Then expand this to tweets and blog posts that you are reading now.

It’s been proven that journaling and reflecting in general has many benefits. Here are just a few:

• Reduce stress and anxiety. Journaling can help you process your thoughts and feelings, which can lead to a reduction in stress and anxiety.
• Improve mental clarity. Journaling can help you to clarify your thoughts and feelings, which can lead to a greater sense of mental clarity.
• Boost creativity. Journaling can help you to tap into your creativity and come up with new ideas.
• Improve self-awareness. Journaling can help you to become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which can lead to positive changes in your life.
• Improve relationships. Journaling can help you to understand yourself and your relationships better, which can lead to improved communication and conflict resolution.
• Set goals and track progress. Journaling can be a great way to set goals and track your progress towards them.
• Remember important events. Journaling can help you to remember important events in your life, both good and bad.
• Have a record of your thoughts and feelings. Journaling can be a great way to document your thoughts and feelings over time, which can be helpful for personal reflection or for sharing with others.

So on New Year’s Day, I signed up for the Day One app and set a reminder to journal every day before I went to bed.

And this is what I have done. Every night I would enter at least something. If I forgot or had something going on then I’d do it first thing in the morning (That’s only been the case a few times.)

At first, I would just record the day’s events, but then I started reflecting more and really trying to be honest with myself. Analyze the voice in my head and question it. It’s been a powerful tool to help me get clarity as to the direction I want to go and why I feel the way I do about certain things.

It’s almost as if you are your own therapist.

So I’m happy to say that I have not missed a day this year. After seeing the benefits I can definitely say this will be a habit I keep for the rest of my life.

So what’s next? Well, to keep journaling for sure but I want to start blogging more. I started out the year tweeting some lessons learned and general advice I felt was worth sharing, but without context, a lot of the tweets just don’t provide much value. So the goal for the second half of the year is to blog once a week on Sunday. Sunday is my tech-free day but writing is the exception.

There you have it, just start writing something daily even if you don’t have anything to say. It’s all about forming the habit at first. The rest will fall into place.