VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

Personal growth is the hot topic of the day. You'll notice that nearly every magazine you see, no matter whether it targets men or women, has one thing in common with all the rest: at least one article encouraging some kind of personal growth. These articles tell you about "empowerment," about growing as a person, about controlling your destiny, taking your life in both hands, and following your dreams. Do you need a magazine to tell you to take control of your life? Certainly not! You know deep in your heart whether your life is under control and moving in the direction you want for yourself, or whether you need to take measures to enable that self-control. Here is where you can use journaling to encourage personal growth. Journaling is a very old practice. Logs and field notebooks have been used by scientists, explorers, and travelers for centuries. During the Renaissance of the 14th through 17th centuries, journaling was extremely popular, as a focu...

You may have thought from time to time that you’d like to keep a diary or a journal. You may even have started one...or two...or who knows how many, over the years. Perhaps you are one of those people with enough self-discipline to write briefly in a diary every evening, year after year, and start a new volume each New Year’s Day! In that case, you have a pretty good record of your doings and maybe even your thoughts about them over time.   There are, however, many possibilities for journaling using various "guided" techniques. To get you started, you may want to give some thought to what you want to get out of journaling. Do you just want to record your memories, as days and months go by? Then a normal diary, or journal, is probably just what you need -- that, and a pen. But if you want to get to know yourself better, find the source of some ongoing problem in your life, or give yourself a nudge toward doing some creative writing, then you might consider one...