I jumped right in, faithfully listing the things I was grateful for in a tidy notebook. I really, really committed. For about two weeks. I'd been writing so fast and furiously and faithfully that I got completely burned out. Quickly. I closed the already-full gratitude journal and never wrote another thing in it.
At other times in my life, I've written myself letters, documented events, sorted through stressful moments, and attempted to keep a diary during significant life transitions like getting married and being pregnant. This writing has certainly served a purpose. Sadly, it hasn't ever stuck for too long.
Maybe I am just not a journaling type of person. Or maybe being a writer makes me exempt from having to meticulously catalog my thoughts before bed, too. Hell, maybe I am just lazy or noncommittal or too tired.
And maybe I am not alone. Perhaps blogging and microblogging and texting and all the other 2.0 that fills our screens and our lives has replaced putting pen to paper for ourselves, as well as in letters and thank you notes and other ways we practice our penmanship. Or possibly, many of us are getting too stressed, too overworked, and too tired to spend a little time with a journal. Are there still people out there privately scribbling or has technology and impatience made diary-ing disappear?
Surely, Oprah is not the only one keeping a journal these days. So, who is? And how do you keep going? I would love to know. It doesn't mean I am joining your club or cracking the gratitude journal back open all these years later, but I would like to hear your secrets (of how and why you do it, not the ones you're putting in your own books).
For me, for now, I appreciate the efforts other people (perhaps you?) are making in their diaries and journals. Very appreciative and very fine with the fact that a stack of pretty little notebooks is gathering dust on my nightstand.
Are you the kind of person who keeps a diary or journal? Or are you a personal writing wannabe, like me?
Want to know the difference between a diary and a journal? I loved this concise answer.
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