How to Use Your Journal to Help You Ease Your Desire to Be Perfect

Journaling is one of the most therapeutic ways to change your life. It relieves stress, it 
helps you gather your thoughts into one place, and it even helps you work through your 
issues as you simply write them down. Journaling is beneficial in so many ways, but did 
you know it can also help you with your perfectionist tendencies? Here’s how to use 
journaling to help you with your perfectionism. 

Spend a Few Minutes Each Day with Your Journal 

The most important thing to do here is to spend time each day with your journal. You 
can draw a picture, tell a story, write out your frustrations, or even focus on detailing 
your day. Whatever comes to your mind is what you can write down. Now you want to 
make it a point to go back and read your entries every few weeks to see what you said. 

You might begin to notice patterns. Perhaps you feel stressed so much it changes your 
handwriting. Does your writing clue you into what is stressing you out? Does your mood 
change and shift based on certain things you did, said, or bothered you on a specific 
day? Patterns are what help you learn more about yourself and how to change your life. 

No One Reads This

Here is where your journal is really going to help your perfectionist traits. No one else 
ever reads it. It’s all your private thoughts. You can write down about how much you 
hate when your mother-in-law visits because she is so critical of any imperfections. 
Over time, you will learn to recognize what sets you off and causes you to seek 
perfectionism. 

Keep A List 

Your journal is for whatever you want to use it for, but keeping a list in your journal is a 
nice way to learn more about yourself and help with your perfectionism. Keep a list of 
things you really want versus things you really need. Do you see a connection? 
Sometimes seeing what you need in life versus what you want in life helps you realize 
it’s all right to settle for your needs and work on your wants. This helps your goals, and 
it helps you overcome your perfectionism. 

The purpose of a journal is to help you get your thoughts out of your mind and onto 
paper. Sometimes that’s enough to calm you down and talk you off the ledge that’s 
bothering you. Other times it is not enough, and sometimes it takes more time. 
Perfectionism comes from a place of not feeling in control of certain aspects of your life 
so you look for other areas of your life in which you can control. Journaling can help you 
identify these problems and work on changing your life.

