Use Your Journal to Find Clarity

If you have been struggling to find more clarity in your life, and find your direction, then 
journaling can be your new best friend. Writing in a journal on its own really helps you to 
learn more about yourself, but you can go one step further with these easy methods. 
This will allow you to really take full advantage of having a daily journal.


A List Journal 

There are lots of different types of list journals out there, but one place to start will be for 
you to take an accounting of things you want for your life. If you take the time to write 
down your goals and/r dreams, then it’ll be an easy task to follow up by learning what 
steps need to be taken to turn these dreams into a reality. These kinds of lists can be 
serious work-related topics or just fun things that you've been thinking about for a long 
time. 

That kind of a list is usually called a bucket list, and it can give you some really 
interesting things to look forward to trying out. Another thing you can do is to list the 
amount of accomplishments that you’ve achieved in the last year, quarter, or month. 
This can help you to gain a sense of how many things you’ve done. That’ll give you a 
clearer picture of how you’ve actually been spending your time, and show you that you 
have things that you can be happy about. 


The Gratitude Journal 

Do you ever find yourself becoming impatient, and unhappy about the things you wish 
you had? For some people, it can be hard to stay focused on the positive things that go 
on in your life. It’s becoming more and more common for people to focus on the things 
that they haven’t gotten instead of remembering what they do have. Taking some time 
out of your day to write down the things that you can feel grateful for can put a lot of 
minor annoyances into perspective. 

Sometimes it takes a good hard look to remind you that life hasn’t dealt you the worst 
hand, it just feels like that on some days. What kinds of things do you feel grateful for 
today? Try to record what you’re thankful for that month, season, and so forth. Ask 
yourself this question as often as you can, and you might be surprised that you learn 
something new about what captures your concern and gives you inspiration. 


Free Thought Journal 

Not every single aspect of a journal should be regimented. There are times when it’s a 
good idea to just let loose and say what’s on your mind. This kind of journal is usually 
called a free thought journal. It can help you get out all of the extra thought that gets 
trapped behind your eyes. You can use this to rattle off random ideas and musings. One 
of the biggest advantages of this kind of journal is that everything that comes out is 
probably going to be a little bit unfiltered if you can really open up and just let it all hit the 
page. 

Later on when you’ve had some time to think about things, you can go back and 
analyze the things that you wrote down. Some thoughts can get masked by the 
influence of the world around you, so taking a look at the writings later when you’ve 
been spending time trying to get in touch with yourself, might be a revealing process 
that can push you closer to clarity. 


Journals Help Chronical Your Emotions 

It’s pretty enlightening to look back into the past to see what kinds of emotions you were 
experiencing during life events. The written word on the page is impartial and honest 
because it comes from the moment when those things were being experienced instead 
of a foggy recall from memory. 

When people are young, lots of things that happen seem like massive events, but as 
people mature, they will often avoid assigning weight to things that they know to be 
frivolous, or fleeting. This increases the amount of perspective that you have from your 
day to day life as well. It shows you how quickly the people, places and things can seem 
like the most important thing in the world one day, and then a few years later seem to 
have passed like a snap of your fingers.  


Helps Create Intention

One of the biggest parts of clarity, is understanding purpose and intention. Writing down 
goals, dreams, and intentions can and usually will set you on a more structured path 
that will help you to achieve and attain. When you aren’t sure of what it is that you’re 
going for, it’s a lot harder to make sure that you’re doing all of the things that will make 
your dreams a solid possibility.   
