The Life-Changing Habit of Journaling (What Fueled Einstein & da Vinci)
Here is an excerpt from Medium to help you get started today.
Ever wondered why history’s great minds including Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Andy Warhol, Leonardo Da Vinci, Marcus Aurelius, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw and Maya Angelou would spend so much of their precious time writing things that will never be seen by another soul?
Jim Rohn says, “If you’re serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured, and unique individual, keep a journal.”
Many famous creatives, writers, innovators and original thinkers of our generation keep journals— for many, it is a creative necessity, for others, a place for exploration, and for some an art form in and of itself.
But you don’t have to be creative, scientist or an innovator for this practice to be worthwhile.
Journaling helps you prioritize, clarify thinking, and accomplish your most important tasks, over urgent busy work.
Thinking in writing has this magical quality of clarifying your thoughts.
Tim Ferriss calls journaling the deloading phase in life. He explains, “I use it as a tool to clarify my thinking and goals, much as Kevin Kelly (one of my favorite humans) does. The paper is like a photography darkroom for my mind.”
Get used to the pen again!
Reflective writing has also been shown to improve decision-making and critical thinking in a number of medical professions.
Michael Hyatt says “What happens to us is not as important as the meaning we assign to it. Journaling helps sort this out.”
Journals give you a record of the progress you’ve made toward your goals to keep you motivated in the long slog of actually reaching them.
“As part of your morning creative burst, use your journal to review and hone your daily to-do list. Review and hone your life vision and big picture goals” says Benjamin Hardy.
Numerous studies (of the scientifically rigorous variety) have shown that personal writing can help people better cope with stressful events, relieve anxiety, boost immune cell activity
Judy Willis MD, a neurologist, and former classroom teacher explains, “The practice of writing can enhance the brain’s intake, processing, retaining, and retrieving of information… it promotes the brain’s attentive focus … boosts long-term memory, illuminates patterns, gives the brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, is a source of conceptual development and stimulus of the brain’s highest cognition.”
What you write, you control. You don’t have to spend your whole morning writing, but the only rule is to write continuously. Be consistent to make the most of it.
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