Journal power

Recently I picked up a nice notebook for small money: quality paper, black leather cover, and a good size for carrying around. I've yet to write in the thing.

It's a little intimidating. Journals are powerful tools. At the end of the summer I'd discovered one of my old journals written years before. There were a lot of “pie in the sky” ideas written down in there. Most of those crazy ideas manifested themselves in my life.

Writing ideas down gives them power. It's not like some sort of magical wish granter. There are real practical reasons journals work. Once written down ideas and plans becomes a bit more real to me. It frees the mind to think of the next thing, or to expand on what was already written. The new ideas are also written down, and so on and so on.

Some call it thinking on paper. I like that. For me, the act of physically writing something down seems to have more power than typing on a computer. It's more real somehow. Journals are like blue prints for building one's life. It concentrates the mind. The Sufi mystics claim a focused mind is the most powerful force in the universe.

Do you know what weakens and disperses a person's energy? Continually talking about what they plan on doing. Ever notice that people who constantly talk about the great things they are going to do never get around to doing them? Scientific studies of the brain shows that talking about something satisfies the brain about as much as doing something. All talk, no action is real.

Journals, on the other hand, do the opposite. The start of a new year is as good a time as any for starting a new journal. It's a good way to reboot one's life. Now I like my life, but nothing dulls the mind like doing the same old thing all the time.

New year. New adventures.

-Sixbears