How to Overcome the Fear Holding You Back From Keeping a Journal
Why you should make a mess of your journal
That first page is always the hardest to write, isn’t it?
Don’t let the fear of ruining your journal, of somehow messing up the crisp clean first page, hold you back from taking the plunge and writing the story that is uniquely yours and yours alone to write.
This has been one of my biggest hindrances in writing and keeping a journal until just lately. What if I start and run out of words? What if I mess it up? What if I make a mistake and have to scribble through something?
Guess what, life isn’t perfect and you shouldn’t pursue perfection anyway. Progress is always better than perfection because one is real and the other is a fantasy that’ll just get in your way.
This story is all about making a mess of your journal and how to keep writing despite the fact.
Let’s dive in.
Benefits of keeping a journal
- The power of reflection
- holding onto ideas
- sharpening your power of observation
- sharpening your power of description
- capturing moments
- learning and holding onto the lessons
- self-reflection and self-awareness
- capturing quotes
- figuring out the meaning, the why behind things
Journal journey
I keep the journal I started a year ago in easy reach. This is the one that began my journal writing habit and snowballed into a collection of a year’s worth of scribbles and ink stains. This is the one that has very special meaning to me. It is the genesis of this journey.
I still remember the day I found it. I was in a flea market, going down one aisle, back up another. Halfway through one of these zig-zags, a little collection of what looked like books caught my eye. One had orange edges to its pages, a black cover for contrast and a bright orange strap to keep it all shut. It was a journal.
