How to Journal Your Way to Motivation

When I was 21, I was undergoing what would soon become the most challenging crisis I would ever have to overcome. That crisis was mental illness. Not only would it take me five long years to get through, but it would also take me five full years to finally regain the motivation and strength to be able to return to a university I had dropped out of due to this severe illness.

From first-hand experience, when you have poor mental health – and in my case extreme – you often feel as though nothing motivates you. In my personal experience, I was motivated for nothing. Even the simplest tasks – such as cleaning - seemed daunting. And because I lacked motivation, I felt as though I could not return to school or even make plans to return.

Lacking the motivation to even try made things worse because, being an inherently goal-oriented person, I couldn’t see anything good in my future. Being as unmotivated as I was, my life would have surely ended up being as bleak as my mental illness if I had not incorporated this one thing early on. And that was journaling.

Journaling as soon as the illness came upon me, I found that I could begin trying to document what was happening to me. And although it did not last through the dark years – as I would relapse and have even less motivation – but it gave me a sense of progression. And now those journal entries serve as a reminder of how far I have come, and how much I have grown.

Here are three ways you can use journaling to help motivate you and enhance your mental health:

Journal about your feelings

Seems like an easy one, but this is by far the most impactful way of getting to know yourself. What we feel is how we usually identify ourselves. Although our feelings are not our identities, understanding them can be useful tools for understanding ourselves, and why we do what we do – or not do.

Use your journal to write down your goals

When I wrote in my journal I talked about my dreams and hopes. Although there seemed to be no hope during my illness, I remember still seeing the light ahead. And when I wrote it down, somehow it gave me a concrete image of what could be. So, write down your hopes, dreams, and goals. Writing them down physically for some reason helps you to think about them differently. Almost as if it is being engrained in your mind. And when you set these goals in your mind – somehow the impossible becomes what can be possible.

Read your journals

Going back to read your journal entries can be invigorating. It can show you growth and get you motivated to reach new heights. However, if your journal entries are dark, don’t let them cause you to be depressed. Instead, use it. You can use that as a tool for gratitude. That way, if you are ever feeling low, you can read one of your entries and get inspired because of the change that has taken place in you – as it does in us all. Change is inevitable. And through your journal entries, you will see that change has indeed taken place. And your journal entries are a documentation of that change.

I hope this post helped you to see that you are not the only one with motivational struggles. Mental health can be a very hard thing to get through, but the help of pouring your thoughts and feelings into a journal will enable you to see and achieve what you think you cannot.

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