Living with Purpose: The Power of Journaling
Leonarda da Vinci was born in 1452 and was destined to become one of the most prolific inventors, scientists and artists. His immense curiosity characterised his life and is displayed in the more than 20,000 pages of sketches and notes he left behind. His notebooks included drawings, observations and detailed to-do lists. But, lest we think of him as an intellectual and bland persona, his notebooks also contained jokes and even a pornographic doodle.
Leonardo understood that making copious notes and observations will support learning about many different subjects. Thus, his notebooks served as a record of discoveries and, in many instances, described the foundations of learning from which more advanced observations and insights flowed. In addition, his notes allowed him to connect many ideas from separate disciplines in his inventions and art.
His curiosity had no bounds, and it is said that once something attracted his interest, he would pursue it relentlessly. His investigations often went into such detail that it became difficult to understand how it was related to his original avenue of pursuit and the rest of his work.
“Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.”
― Leonardo da Vinci
A more contemporary author, the Nobel laureate John Steinbeck, also kept detailed journals while writing his books. His notebooks contained many notes around ideas for the book, the process of writing it, and recorded his inner struggles and emotions while writing.
In his journals, he described his working methods and the tangled circumstances from which his writing emerged. For example, in a published journal titled “Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath”, he recorded how the work was “done in each day and the successes (as far as I can know it).”
One of the more thoughtful habits to acquire as a practice in choosing to live a life of purpose is journaling and idea capturing. Journalling is an excellent addition to the morning meditation and evening reflection practices, while idea capturing provides for recording ideas, insights and observations as and when they occur.
Living a life of purpose is about continuously moving closer to consistently living your defined purpose through everything you do. And journaling is a helpful tool to enable such a pursuit.
There are several compelling reasons to journal about your journey to purpose, of which I want to highlight three:
Firstly, journaling will create a record of what you are doing. For example, in the morning meditations, we set up a purposeful day by setting an intention, an accomplishment for that day and how it will support us in moving closer to our purpose. By recording these ambitions and writing about any insights and ideas they bring, we create a record of our thinking and planned action.
Likewise, the evening reflection provides a source of learnings and reviews of the lived day and its connection to purpose. Writing as a part of these practices creates a record that may become a fertile foundation of thought, planning and insights that may fuel future growth and ideation for a compound effect and accelerate personal growth.
Secondly, writing by hand with a pen in a journal becomes a different way of thinking. Writing slows you down and creates the space for considered thought, and it allows the openings for creative ideas, which will enhance the thinking process. Research has shown that handwriting, specifically cursive, increases neural activity in specific brain sections, increasing focus, mindfulness, and recall.
Lastly, having access to a journal that records your thoughts, ideas, and progress through accomplishments serves as a powerful motivation tool when energy and commitment start to fail. In times of mental difficulty and energy lows, a journal will remind you how far you have come and how much you have accomplished.
Practising and creating opportunities for journalling will differ from person to person, and its value will depend on the time we are willing to make available. First, however, I will share my thoughts on what works for me and hope that there are clues for you to use for your own practice.
How to Journal for Purposeful Living:
- Buy a good notebook. I like to buy the more expensive unlined Moleskine notebooks. I love not being constrained by lines. It allows me to draw, write, change the layout, and have unconstrained space to add little notes and annotations. I buy more expensive notebooks to maintain for myself the commitment that my thoughts are valuable. However, it is also true that a cheap notebook will do as well.
- Buy a pen that makes writing comfortable and easy. I personally like the 1mm gel pens, which feel comfortable and provides excellent tactile feedback.
- When preparing for journalling, I will often spend a few moments freewriting and dumping whatever comes to mind on paper. It is a great way to warm up for more intentional journaling and helps me to settle down and become present to the moment.
- Morning meditation journaling. I always start the morning meditation by finding a space where I will not be disturbed. Then I do a grounding exercise to connect with the present moment. This is followed by setting an intention for the day. I then engage in thinking about and defining an accomplishment that will be pursued and completed in the day, followed by reflection on how this accomplishment supports my purpose. This meditative exercise then opens up the space for journaling. I like to record my intention for the day and some thoughts of what becomes possible for me if I focus on experiencing my day through this intention. My planned accomplishment and how it supports my purpose are written down, followed by ideas, insights, and observations from my reflective thinking. I will also record the possibilities and new learnings that may open up if I follow through. This journaling exercise generally takes me between 10–20 minutes after the 5–10 minute morning meditation exercise.
- Evening reflection journaling. In the evening, I will find a space where I can practice undisturbed, do my grounding exercise, and set the intention to learn from my day. I will reflect on various questions, but the minimum ones are 1. Did I do my best today? 2. Did I treat people well? and 3. Did what I accomplished today support my purpose? The answers to 1 and 2 are simple yes/no answers. If the answers are yes, it was a good day and should be celebrated as such. If the answers were no, I would reflect on missing resources that caused me to not be at my best or treat people well. The purpose is to find those needed resources to bring them to similar situations in the future when they occur. Question 3 is about finding an answer on whether I accomplished what I planned for the day. If I did — another cause for celebration. If not, I would focus on what I had accomplished that was different from what I planned and how that supported my purpose, or not. Then I will journal for around 10–20 minutes to record my ideas, insights and learnings from the day. I will take specific care to note down any resource, skills and capabilities I have to refine or develop for the future.
- I often brainstorm ideas around my purpose in my journal. I revisit and create new explorations on the questions of the world I want to be a part of, the gifts I want to bring to that world, the things I love to do, what I am good at, what rewards me and how I can get more of what rewards me into my life.
- Random ideas, observations and insights. Though not technically journaling, I like to carry my notebook with me to record any ideas, observations, insights and thoughts whenever they occur. We often lose ideas and wisdom because we don’t record them when they occur. A mentor suggested that if I recorded only three ideas, five insights and seven observations every single day, that alone has the power to significantly change my view of the world and what I can accomplish in it.
So what will journaling give you?
It is a practice to expand our thinking and record the journey to purpose with all the associated ideas and learnings. It becomes a record of accomplishments and our progress to becoming who we want to be and how we want to share our gifts with the world.
Capturing our ideas and thoughts often become springboards for new thinking, innovation and unexpected connections.
As a daily discipline, our journals become a legacy of our journey and our lives. It is the narrative of our becoming.
Your journals may also become a different kind of legacy when shared and bequeathed to the generations that follow you.
Much like we can read about the struggles of John Steinbeck on his journey through writing his books in his published journals, the next generation can follow your journey and learn from it.
See how his journey progressed in the following excerpts from his journal and how we may all learn from his thoughts, feelings and insights:
July 5, 1938
…this diary is a good idea for it gives me the opening use of words every day.
July 12, 1938
the more I think of it, the better I like this work diary idea. Always I’ve set things down to loosen up a creaking mind but never have I done so consecutively. This sort of keeps it corralled in one place.
Aug. 2, 1938
Now at least I am growing calm. This diary is a marvelous method of calming me down every day.
And a few other entries shows how even the most famous of writers suffered from self-doubt.
Aug. 9, 1938
Must remember the trouble I had in Mice and Men. Thought I’d never get it done or make it work. I don’t know. Every book seems the struggle of a whole life. And then, when it is done–pouf. Never happened.
Aug. 10, 1938
I’m getting worried about this book. I wish it were done. I’m afraid I’m botching it. I think it would be a good thing to stop and think about it but I hate to lose the time. But I want it to be good and I’m afraid it is slipping. But I must remember that it always seems that way when it is well along.
Aug. 16, 1938
My many weaknesses are beginning to show their heads. I simply must get this thing out of my system. I’m not a writer. I’ve been fooling myself and other people. I wish I were.
Oct. 19, 1938
I’m on my very last chapter now…I am sure of one thing–it isn’t the great book I had hoped it would be. It’s just a run-of-the-mill book. And the awful thing is that it is absolutely the best I can do.
— Journal entries from Working Days, John Steinbeck, source
And let’s not forget the massive legacy that Leonardo da Vinci left us. His notebooks with observations and explorations on anatomy, engineering, philosophy, painting, botany, physiology, landscapes, proportion, perspective, architecture, warfare, geography, zoology, light and shade, theories and inventions. A mammoth treasure chest of ideas resulted from his starting writing at the age of 26 and keeping at it until he died. And even a joke he must have found funny enough to want to remember survived for our pleasure too:
A painter was asked why he produced such beautiful figures on canvas, though they were dead things, and yet had such ugly children in life. To which he replied that he made his paintings by day and his children by night.
— from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
In Conclusion
“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”
— William James
The legacy of your life is in the remembering. Journaling is a powerful way of recording your journey to becoming the best version of yourself in a world of your own creation. And it leaves a legacy behind, not only for you but for the generations that follow you.
Are you ready to start a new chapter in your legacy? A new chapter of becoming who you want to be?
