Brilliant Journaling Step 3: Using your Journal to Reflect for Discovery
In order to achieve journaling synergy, preparation and capturing the moment play a vital role, but there is third step needed. Once you've readied your journal, and written down your great ideas, you next need to reflect to discover. Without reflection, journaling becomes very limited. It's like planting crops without harvesting them. Sure, the work leading up to it is difficult, but the very last step is where the payoff lies. Don't let your ideas rot on the vine!
Practical Ways to Discover Wisdom
Like the idea of "reflecting to discover" but not entirely sure how to get started? One way to make space for introspection and growth as you create is to write on the right side of the page, then leave the left side available for later thoughts, ideas, doodles, and lists. That way, one side is dedicated toward capturing the moment, and the other is a more freeform way to express your thoughts, feelings, and to-do lists toward your latest inspiration. (psst, our lay-flat design allows for the lefties of the world to enjoy the same system, just mirrored!)
As an engineer, Bill’s journal reflection provides him the opportunity to revisit previous results in search of data trends, improvements, and progression. By making time to go back to previous entries, he is able to reveal connections between projects and predict outcomes he would have otherwise missed. The same is also true for Jackie. As an interior designer, she spends her time meditating on her journal's contents which allows her to easily recall the spark that ignited her newest big idea. It also opens up new paths to take in revolutionizing the interior design world. Her journal allows her to combine and remix influences, trends, and textures.
No matter your exact system, regular contemplation will aid you in your personal and professional growth; you'll be able to observe patterns, recognize progress, and simply be with your mind.
Reflection is Where the Magic Happens
Revisiting the ideas you captured unleashes the power behind what you wrote. Going back and ruminating over your journal will allow you to bring order to your day to day life. You decide what to carry with you into the future, what to save for later, and what to let go of as you continue to hone your path forward.
Pouring over your journal allows you to discover habits and patterns over time. Thinking about changing your routine? Now, you have your baseline productivity and can see how impactful the new schedule is. A journal is an essential tool to track important decisions in your life. It’s an organic, chronological record of your progress and can allow you to literally revisit the reasons, logic, and care that went into your decision-making process for those all-important life events.
Why You Should Start Journaling- Analog and Digital Fusion
Journaling allows us to be both participants and witnesses to our own progress. By writing out ideas, we are able to ensure we don't unintentionally replace a good, albeit roughly formed idea, with a fleshed out yet, impractical idea. When we write out our ideas onto paper, we are ensuring that our thoughts aren't edited or even deleted as they flow out.
We challenge you to give Brilliant Journaling a go, weave it into your life and reap the benefits. Technology is the companion to pen and paper, and our journals help bring the analog and the digital into harmony. Leverage the utility of the digital while embracing the freedom of the blank page. Journaling provides a narrative and structure, providing meaning in the day-to-day. We cannot wait to see how Brilliant Journaling blends and works its way into your life, welcome to the Pad & Quill family!
