How to Journal for Self-Improvement

Today I want to talk about journaling for self-improvement. I approach it from a philosophical point of view, too, thinking about the ancient concept of making sense of one's life as a whole, the narrative view of the self, and the cardinal virtues emphasized by ancient philosophers like Aristotle and Marcus Aurelius.

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00:00 - Start
00:24 - Becoming a Better Person
01:55 - Day One
03:02 - What are you actually like?
05:10 - A typical journal entry
05:59 - Narratives
06:55 - Making sense of your life

[WildXstElementZ]

I’m going through a stage of melancholy and nostalgic. I feel so lonely. I find it hard to journal because I’m just never in the right mindset

[thomascarey]

idk where i learned this but one exercise i do is imagine god (or any all-powerful hypothetical deity) shows up in front of you and says "you can no longer do x for the rest of your existence" (x stands for anything - using social media, reading fantasy books, swimming, eating candy - anything you spend time doing). how do you feel? are you distraught, or relieved? i think for me this is the best way to see if im spending my time valuably, see if my habits or whatever are a product of reacting to my internal pain and seeing if something truly brings me joy or not. every weekend i choose an aspect of my life and journal with this prompt.

[Gabor-dfov]

Silly little me watching a video on self-improvement while putting off uni work

[HerPeacefulPlaceWithin]

“You are essentially getting to know yourself. You are telling the story of yourself to yourself … crucially when you think of it as a story you stop just being a character in the story and you become its author.” 😊

[trent.langley]

Thanks for this. I have been journaling for two years consistently and at times I find myself just ‘wallowing’. On these days I find myself hurrying along to get to the end… my handwriting even suffers lol

This approach provides a nice template that allows for some grace and deeper reflection- no matter how you may feel depending on the day. ✌️

[RyanCaesar]

excellent disclaimer! so refreshing to hear you make the distinction between self improvement and "productivity", as so few out there do that. the latter can be rather toxic and antithetical to self improvement!

[sophiaisabelle]

We appreciate how well you articulate your insights. You'll always have our support no matter what.

[shafeequllahsatari]

A compellingly crafted video designed to facilitate our way of living. Thank you.

[brettcody]

I see that excellent fountain pen, Jared! I too use a nice paper journal and a fountain pen. It makes the journaling a super enjoyable activity.

[LucidProgramming]

I've been meaning to make journaling a more regular part of my routine. I'm more inclined to use Vim + markdown over pen/paper because I have awful handwriting, and it's easier to search/reference/etc over a bunch of notebooks. I'm also interested in doing this not just for self-reflection but also for clearly articulating research ideas in a way that is a bit more free-form and exploratory than the papers I write (primarily) on quantum information. This is usually helpful in planning and organizing the structure of the talk for exhibiting my research. Thanks for the tips; enjoy your content, as always. I'll try and put some "self-reflection" into my process as well for good measure.

[avuant]

I wanted to mention one thing regarding being honest with yourself while journaling. Yes, change will only come if you are truthful, but don't worry about having perfect honesty from the start. Journaling can help you learn to be honest with yourself over time. It is a very worthwhile practice even when you have subjects you don't like to look at too closely. A great way to learn self-honesty is to learn to journal in the first place without pressure. It doesn't need to be perfect, just get going. Once you have a few entries, read over them and ask yourself if there's more to the story. Ask about how you felt, what you think should have happened, or tie up any loose ends you think your notes left unanswered. Push yourself to be honest here. Doing this again and again, you'll likely unearth some hidden truths you hadn't brought up before, and the more you're aware of the faster the process will go in the future.

[davidrussell]

This helps. I have been journaling more but I still feel like I’m not getting what I want out of it. Thank you!

[propoop]

i discovered this channel a few days ago and I've already watched like 3 hours worth of content I just love the topics and the vibe you give off!!

[swarupkumar]

I did check dayone. I think I will explore it a bit more.

[Purplegirl-oe]

This video is so helpful. I’m obsessed 🤩 with journaling and I think it’s a great practice to help you destress

[azizkakar]

I have no words to appreciate you, explaining topic through philosophical point of view embrace me more to really focus on my self improvement
Thanks Sir🙏

[CONFIDENTMINDS]

Sir u are the best philosopher of this time. Grateful for ur advices

[VeraGolosovaArt]

Thank you for this very timely video, always a treat!

[guguification]

That’s awesome. Because theses three questions to give a direction for the future.
Congratulations by the theme

[etiennemusic]

Find it interesting you base your sense of improvement and value in Aristotle's prudence, justice, courage and temperance. Seems like an interesting and maybe more steadying set of values than just having goals. I have always wanted some basic structure or some simple, not necessarily easy, but simple values or virtues to underpin and ground why I'm doing what I'm doing. I find when I have goals that often the reason for doing them is too fluid and if I don't examine them they can easily be fuelled by different, maybe unhelpful values. For example I want to get in better shape. One reason is that I'm getting a bit older and I have a responsibility to take care of myself so I'm around for those I love. Another is that exercise tends to make me feel more alive and switched on and that's something I value for itself, another is that I do feel happier in my body when it feels stronger and lighter. However easily, without me really realising it, this can easily slip into wanting a body that is more attractive to others, or to live up to the unrealistic body image i've seen on instagram and it comes from a place of feeling inferior.

I guess that's a long way of saying I feel the need to ground goals in values so that the drives that they rely upon are ones I want to grow and not ones I'd rather were dead/dying. The idea of those 4 virtues you mention are interesting though I think I'd need to read a lot more Aristotle for them to mean very much to me. In every day life (with my superficial understanding) living with prudence or justice means nothing to me really, or at least in most situations.

Anyway, I'd love, if you're interested, your thoughts on applying virtues and values to life in a way that honours them truly while finding the line between it feeling high-falutin, abstract, unactionable and overly superficial and sort of vague. Especially how ancient ideas of virtue can be applied in today's world. Regardless, love your content, one of few that actually has something interesting to say I find and doesn't feel like I'm subtly or unsubtly being sold something, very valuable in and of itself. Thank you