What I have learned from writing
And why you should think about writing or documenting your thoughts as well.
If you want to measure your physique after starting a workout regimen or diet, you can take a picture each day or week to observe how your body transforms with these habits.
If you want to measure how much time it will take to earn X amount, you can use apps like Clarity Money, Personal Capital, or Mint to see trends on how much you net each month (income minus expenses) and use that to calculate how long it will take to reach your desired amount.
Like the two examples aforementioned, there are many ways to measure your goals and successes over time.
But how do you measure how much you have grown mentally? Have your ideas improved? Are you becoming wiser?
It is one thing to think about great ideas and thoughts, but it is another to put it onto paper and see if it all makes sense.
I started my writing journey so that I can make sense of everything in my mind and find commonalities in my thought process. Whether they are questions I have yet to find answers for or beliefs that I feel strongly about, everything that comes to mind is worth noting.
Not only does documenting your thoughts benefit you by helping you deconstruct who you are to paper, it also allows you to find the underlying meanings of them and will enable you to take the first step to make changes if they seem necessary. You can use your writing as a journey to see yourself grow and compare your thoughts today to what they were yesterday.
What is your idea of being healthy? How do you measure success? How important is it for you to to have X right now? These are questions that will evolve over time as you grow, but you will not know your answers to these questions will change unless you continuously ask them.
Thanks to technology, you do not have to document this information the old fashioned way. You can now record videos of yourself answering these questions, or voice notes. Heck, there are so many creative ways you can document who you are.
You do not have to share this with the world. You can keep it personal. At the end of every year or birth year, reflect on what you have thought about this past year and think about whether whatever your documentation helped you in some way or fashion. Then, take the parts you did not like out and look for those answers again from scratch. The ones you still liked and believe, keep them.
This is how you can measure your mind and thoughts and track whether your goals match your mindset.
Try it for yourself for the rest of 2020 and then let me know what you think in the comment section below!
