So, I’ve restarted the Strenuous Life agon list from agon number one. I won’t spoilt it, but it’s one of the easy ones. I’m also working on getting a few of the badges knocked out while I’m in the mood to do those too. I’m starting out with some of the low-hangers, journaling being among one of the easiest. For the journaling badge, you complete a 31 day journaling routine based on writing prompts supplied by the AoM website. You journal daily using the prompts, and weekly for 8 weeks thereafter. Journaling or keeping a diary is just one of the many Strenuous Life challenges that overlap with my own personal goals, so here goes.
Prompt #1: Why do you want to journal? What would you like to get out of it?
I haven’t thought really thought of the long-term benefits of keeping a journal much. My brain is constantly swirling around, and I’m an inveterate list maker/keeper, and journaling seems a more organized way to keep track of thoughts and my state of mind at a given point in my life. I’m not sure If I’ll be the type of person to go back to journal entries and “get” anything from them. I don’t know if reflecting on something I’ve written months or years ago will cause me to change a behavior or the course of my life. I’m a “stock taker”, meaning that I regularly look at my life and evaluate where I’ve been, where I am, and where I may be going.
Maybe journaling will help bring focus or poignancy to me approach to life in ways that my list taking and reflecting does not. Now that I think of it, that should be an appropriate goal: to compare the effect of keeping a journal to the way I’ve always done it, which is personal reflection from memory, memory of feelings and events I’ve lived through as well as looking at the items I’ve crossed off of various lists I maintain.
One difference to look for is the impact of the written word, my own in this case, vs. the minor kick I get from transposing something from the to do column to the complete column. I’ll be looking for a deeper sense of accomplishment and achievement from journaling than from the lists. A deeper sense of who I am and my place in the world. I think also that I’ll have a greater sense of where my life is as I approach middle age and move through that phase of my life. I’m deeply appreciative of the life I have led and the opportunities I’ve been afforded. I hope then that maintaining a journal will help me to deepen that sense of gratitude to the universe that I am who I am and have been able to live as I have seen fit.
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