How I am managing my life through writing

How I am managing my life through writing

                I am one of those people who has a hard time staying on track with myself.  I don’t know about you, but I have many aspirations in life.  I have a Lot of ambition and not enough motivation to follow through if I get bored with something or it gives me too much of a challenge.  So therefore I find that I do better if I write out what I am doing, want to do, and how I accomplished these goals on a daily basis.  With daily review I also find that I am more likely to stick with something.  My way of keeping all of this recorded is with my journal. 

                I find keeping a journal very therapeutic.  Usually, I prefer to physically write something rather than to type it because there is something different about how actually writing it affects me.  I am more likely to open up a journal and re-read it, than I am to open up a word document or a section of OneNote made for something like that (although OneNote is ideal for these things electronically, I am not able to be on a computer for long periods of time like some people are able to do.)  My point of this article though, is to try and help those of us that can’t keep track of anything in one’s life and often forget what our goals are and lose track of what one wants out of life, as well as what one has accomplished.  So here is my suggestion and how it is working for myself.

                I started out by getting a BRAND NEW journal.  It was unmarked, not full of my hiccups, or mess ups in life.  Just brand new.  It makes it easier to reintroduce yourself as a new person to ones-self.  It’s sort of symbolic in a way to turning a new leaf or page in the story of one’s life.  So far it is working well for me. 

                What I did though was I actually wrote an introduction of myself to my “Journal,” and explained who I am, what my family is like, just sort of what you would cover on a first date as a pitch to whoever you are with about yourself.  And then dig deeper than that and tell your “Journal,” what your dreams are for one’s life.  I – for example want to be a writer—I told this to my “Journal,” and told it why.  You can write this first journal entry telling you’re “Journal,” whatever you want anyone to know about you.  It’s pretty easy if you know who you are in the most basic of ways. 

                Next step, I just told myself in another entry -- where I addressed myself, what do I want this this journal to contain?  What will I say to myself every day I write in it about myself and my goals in life…just pretty much anything about life in general?  Deciding right then what I wanted to accomplish through my therapeutic writing, and my goals in life, it made everything very clear to me about how I should learn to better myself everyday as a person to become what I want to be in any way I want to change. 

                Personally my way of doing this is breaking it all down into one monthly goal, and one weekly goal, and seven daily goals.  For each one of these separate goals I write daily about how each of these goals was accomplished or not accomplished, and answer my own questions that I created as food for thought.  You don’t just want it to be something that you don’t connect to in anyway like o this sucks I won’t do this…no what I do honestly – and if you decided to follow me in any way on this -- is remember that writing is a spiritual thing, so is time management, your life force, anything about you, is a spiritual thing, in a way.  So express it to yourself in a way that makes you feel connected with yourself. 

This might not work for you – but if it doesn’t I understand…why you might ask?  Because each of us is different from everyone else and we all must find our own path for one’s self…but this is how I find deep connections with myself; by writing about it. 

Anyway, I then also review what I have done, and my entries for up to a week.  I keep a separate page at the first entry on the first day of each month, for my monthly goal, and then on that page my goal for that week as well as my questions I plan to ask myself each day about my success and or failures each day, but I should note that failures are what makes us all human just look at it in a positive way like maybe I wasn’t ready for that one or I need to cut back a bit and try that one again another time.  Anyway, each day review these things for a week and once a month review who you introduced yourself as once a month, and maybe every 3-6 months reintroduce yourself as whom you are again.  See what changes about one self have taken place in that time period.  Maybe it will be big, maybe it won’t.  Maybe one will find that one needs a different system; whatever it is do what one feel is right for yourself. 

I find that as I bipolar/A.D.D. person this helps me focus well, and it helps me to develop a plan each day and adds some regularity in my schedule.  Keeping focused is my biggest downfall in life, but getting connected with me keeps every aspect of my life together and keeps me going.  This is most important when I am depressed or feeling anxious.  Sitting down and writing calms me, and it is a place to vent.  Writing gets me in touch with myself within the pages of my journal.  Reviewing is key to seeing the patterns in my life.  Like I noticed the first time I experimented with this strategy, I was a pessimistic person.  Who wants to be pessimistic most of the time?  I honestly don’t. 

                So the choice is up to one self, I am just telling you about what I have success with for managing my life.  I write because it’s a spiritual experience, and a person’s life is a spiritual experience.  So goals and dreams come together in something that makes them take more precedence in my own life.  Focusing on these things and reviewing them helps me to realize I have time for these things if I give them a chance to mature in their own way.  Taking each day at a time and looking back helps me see what I am verses who I think I am.  Because each day defines us more and more as we go on, I want to make sure I am who I want to be and not something else.

 I just want to be defined in life as the person I want to be, not who I am unconsciously.