Ben Franklin knew that keep­ing a jour­nal can be quite electrifying.

Movies often start with a read­ing from a character’s diary. This nar­ra­tive device offers an inti­mate personal per­spec­tive on the times, locale, and feel­ings of the film’s set­ting, and grounds the audi­ence for the upcom­ing story. There is an easy way to gain the same per­spec­tive in your life. A diary (or jour­nal) that doc­u­ments pos­i­tiv­ity can give you a new appre­ci­a­tion for the world around you. Dairies can also help you explore what you aren’t happy with in your life, and help you make tan­gi­ble improve­ments. There are also many health ben­e­fits of jour­nal­ing. A diary can be a great tool for stress man­age­ment help release emo­tional neg­a­tiv­ity. Addi­tion­ally, jour­nal­ing can help explore the events in your life, and truly gain mean­ing from them.

While diaries such as Anne Frank’s are known through­out the world, count­less suc­cess­ful peo­ple have kept diaries, whether pub­li­cized or not. The best blog doc­u­ment­ing these is The Diary Junc­tion, where you can find excerpts and ded­i­ca­tions to hun­dreds of famous person’s diaries. Although not a direct con­clu­sion, many peo­ple who have found great pas­sion in their lives also keep a journal.

I have kept a diary for about two years now, and I can say the results have only been pos­i­tive. Whereas I used to keep neg­a­tive thoughts in my head, I now van­quish them through paper. From the out­set I wrote in stream of con­scious­ness, and the results of this have been astound­ing. When I first started, I had incom­plete thoughts, writ­ten in com­pli­cated nest­ings of paren­the­ses. After putting them on paper, I came to see what I was think­ing often didn’t make sense. I found myself think­ing in more com­plete thoughts through­out the day, and not just when I was writ­ing them down. My writ­ten and ver­bal com­mu­ni­ca­tions have improved since I started keep­ing a jour­nal. My thought process has become markedly clearer and more productive.

Although it can seem daunt­ing, tak­ing even five min­utes to doc­u­ment every day can be infi­nitely reward­ing. Not sure where to start? As with any habit, it is eas­i­est to smart in small, incre­men­tal steps. To warm up, try enu­mer­at­ing the pos­i­tive expe­ri­ences from the day:

• Five accom­plish­ments you made
• Five peo­ple you made smile
• Five good diet choices you made
• Five things that made you feel good (from a TV clip, to actions of a loved one)
• A friend you contacted

Keep­ing track of these can help you see each day is unique and spe­cial, rather than !!!. Once you see the advan­tages of keep­ing a jour­nal, there are many other things you can write about. From the start of col­lege to trav­el­ing for the first time over­seas, new expe­ri­ences are most chal­leng­ing to old thought pat­terns and lead to the great­est per­sonal growth. In addi­tion to a travel diary, you can keep the same pat­terns going in every­day life:

• One new expe­ri­ence you had
• One thing you learned
• One old (pre­vi­ously) held thought that was overturned

An impor­tant aspect of diary writ­ing is being hon­est with your­self. An accom­plish­ment is some­thing you felt was an accom­plish­ment. Get­ting out of bed with­out hit­ting the snooze but­ton, an extra com­pli­ment for your spouse, or a smile for a cashier are all great exam­ples. Just because an accom­plish­ment wouldn’t make the national news doesn’t mean its not note­wor­thy. But above all, remem­ber to be hon­est. Every­thing in your jour­nal is only meant for you, so if you feel good about some­thing in your life, write it down.

Real­ize Great­ness in Your Own Life

Far to often, peo­ple dwell on coun­ter­pro­duc­tive things; it only seems nat­ural that your brain skips over the pos­i­tives, and empha­sizes the neg­a­tives. By keep­ing a pos­i­tive blog, it forces you to rec­ol­lect all the good things in your day. It also clar­i­fies and strength­ens the rela­tion­ships you have in your life. By review­ing what you write about, you can focus on what is truly impor­tant to you, and help you see that there are many good things in your life, regard­less of your emo­tional state.

Although a pos­i­tiv­ity diary is a great place to start, I have found I have had the best results in tran­scrib­ing the neg­a­tives: blun­ders, faults and missed oppor­tu­ni­ties. Expos­ing the hard truth has lead to my great­est per­sonal growth. I will cover that type of writ­ing in Part II of this series.