Sometimes We Just Need A Brain Dump

Journaling. It’s being touted as the next best thing in personal development and all the cool kids are doing it. Are you doing it right? Should you be doing it if you’re not? Here’s why we’re tripping over our pens and making a mess of it…

JOURNALING. Honestly, if I hear one more ‘coach’ harping on about the power of scribing our innermost thoughts and feelings, I’ll stab someone with a biro.

You’d think someone had just come up with the cure for all ills. Journaling is NOT a new concept, people. It’s as old as the hills (well, as old as notebooks and pens, at least). The only thing new here is that a few savvy marketers have injected a bit of spin and rebranded their boring old notebooks by embossing the word ‘journal’ on the covers — plus a selection of positive quotes and zen sayings, just to capture the market.

I’m not anti journalling. In fact, I’m quite an advocate. What’s yanking my chain is that the personal development brigade are creating a scenario where we’re talking it up so much that people are missing out because they’re scared of getting it wrong.

Let’s Not Stuff It Up

It’s a bit like the way in which we stuffed up the whole ‘why’ concept by turning it into a status symbol. Those who wanted to be seen as one of the in kids, or a luminary in their own lunchtime, were banding ‘why’ around in much the same way that yuppies posed with their Filofaxes in the 80s.

“What’s your why? You do know your why, right? Of course you do — anyone worth knowing does. My why is soooo amazing, darling. Let me tell you about it…”

Honestly, the amount of people who’ve come to me for coaching, having lied about having a ‘why’ for years and ending up feeling totally stuck, is mindblowing. Nobody was feeling ‘less than’ for not knowing their ultimate purpose before Simon Sinek wrote that book, were they?

It’s the same with journaling.

In the past week alone, I’ve had two people come to me, heads down, virtual tails between their legs, saying they know they ‘should’ be journaling, but they don’t know…