Journalling - your rite of passage to start thinking

It’s not often that I find myself in a position where I want to give advice, or at least portray that my views are worthwhile to pursue. I’m usually the first to argue, provide counter-examples, and nitpick at universal gospels which uncritically are accepted as the status quo. You know, somebody has to be that guy.

I can’t recall when it started or how I got to this point, but it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s all in the past (I hope), and I want to encourage you to do the same, to think, especially in an age where we’re driven by an abundance of data and have the world at our fingertips – literally.

You see, the reality is we all listen to podcasts, read the saturated market of self-help books, and innocently stumble onto Mark Wahlberg’s bloody unrealistic program of waking up at 02:30 in the morning, finding his knees on the ground, hitting the gym, and topping it off with a round of golf at 07:30. We’re invited to view carefully constructed pictures of people on Instagram, living the dream, persistent sharing of achievements and promotions on LinkedIn, the illustrious corporate ladder, and rather than being the gluttonous filter who willingly consumes as I used to be, you need to ask yourself what that exposure to different levels of ideals does to your state of mind. Like what impact it has on how you have decided to go about your days and live your life, and whether the desired effect is a positive one.

I know I’m a bit late to venting my frustration towards Mark’s superhuman routine, yet it’s still worthwhile revisiting it. Because good golly miss molly it has bothered me for the last two months, especially since I felt I was close to getting a grip on this thing called life after flushing my dreams of retiring early and closing my positions on the devil’s currency known as crypto.

So here I am, writing about it, as it’s the only way I know how to deal.

And what I want to suggest is that instead of cutting the umbilical cord to your endless absorption of information, you try to get into the habit of also writing down what you read and hear daily. Let me tell you, it works wonders! You write to yourself, and for yourself; not for publication or some imaginary audience who don't give a rat's ass about what you have to say (I’m probably a hypocrite for announcing that). But it's your little black book, it's your personal space, where you document your experiential world without fears of judgement or punishment from others.

It might not be the answer to all of society’s problems, or even yours, however, it is a step in the right direction, to prioritize your life, structure your thoughts, and get to know yourself. It’s a springboard to help you think critically, which in my view is probably the most important skill to have and can translate to every other aspect of your being.

And the best place to start this journey is to tackle your immediate environment through your journal, with all its assertions, instead of just adopting self-help gimmicks without proper investigation, as I used to do.

When you’re a teenager, it’s called a diary, and when you’re an adult, it’s called a journal. In its simplest form journaling merely represents the act of writing down your thoughts and feelings to understand them more clearly.

Jordan Peterson says the best way for people to develop critical reasoning is to tell them to write. That it’s not just an assignment or an essay you need to deliver for your English school teacher, but that you need to learn how to think, to start making use of that big walnut in your head better known as your brain! Because thinking makes you act effectively in the world, it helps you win the battles you undertake, and when you can think, read, and write, there’s absolutely nothing that can get in your way.

Now if you’re anything like me, who woke up at 08:00 on a Saturday morning, stuffing my face with an Egg McMuffin, let me tell you, the last thing you want to read is how Marky Mark beat me to it and started the day at 02:30 already! Trust me, it’s pandemonium.

Chuck the side of chips patiently waiting for me, out the bed, quick visit to the bathroom, track shoes on, down the stairs like a bat out of hell, and on my way for a 5km jog!

I’m definitely no professional, but behaviour like that certainly spells trouble. Because here I am, measuring myself against the standards of a well-groomed, perfectly rounded two-time nominee for the Academy Awards actor, and immediately trying to implement the formulas I’m presented with. Can you imagine? Subconsciously associating his achievements with his regimen and thinking, in order for me to be successful, that’s all I need to do – wake up at the crack of dawn, work out, and polish my driving irons. It’s absolutely mental.

In fact, what I should have done is peacefully enjoy my medium French fries whilst catching up on the latest Fortnite videos (what I was planning on doing), and thereafter calmly sit and write down my thoughts on the matter and view it objectively. That’s when you actually start engaging with the content and immediately notice you’re a bit more selective of the information. Instead of being reactive and just soaking up the details, you start relaying a sense of control over your thinking. Because in reality, I ain’t no celebrity, I have a normal 8 to 5, which already puts me at a disadvantage, plus there’s no Cryo recovery chamber in my small apartment. And secondly, despite what Mark might think, I sure as hell deserved the carb-overload, it was a long week at work!

And this is exactly what Jordan Peterson was referring to when you write, you learn to think. You take a step back from engaging with reality, start thinking critically about the content, and your thoughts on the matter, and attempt to acknowledge the validity of it, and the impact it should have on you.

By keeping a journal and documenting the narratives you engage with you put yourself in a position to no longer succumb to the highs and lows of your emotions.

That’s ideally what I should have done, write, and thereafter think.

As I now contemplate the former rapper’s routine, it baffles me how anyone can get up that early in the first place and why on earth it’s even worthwhile to share it. Yet after engaging with the content in my own space (my journal), that's when I realized it was a "me-problem", and Ted's best friend wasn’t really out to harm me.

A crucial part of critical reasoning is called critical self-reflection, which is reflective and informed thinking that involves the ability to deliberately and skillfully question, analyze, interpret, and evaluate ideas and beliefs in the light of reason, or evidence that supports them. (Van den Berg, 2010, pp. 3)

When keeping a journal, it obviously doesn’t help you just write down everything that comes to mind or document ideas and statements from others but never get to the point of asking yourself why you recorded what you did? You get what I’m saying? Without understanding and interpreting the information and your ‘self’ through the pages of your journal, you might as well be outside folding paper planes, acting like a space cadet on a mission to Mars, there’s just no point to it.

I can now tell you without a shadow of a doubt it would have been impossible for me to be lining up Callaways at the driving range whilst Sol pierces the morning sky. There’s just no way it was going to materialize, ever. The truth is that every morning I find myself chewing my nails off in bumper-to-bumper traffic with the unforgiving African sun doing the rounds on my trucker’s tan, on my way to work, compounded by the banana republic’s inability to keep the power on. That's where I am. You see what I’m getting at? It was just a complete waste of precious time and energy to even for a second think I’m a failure due to not waking up at ungodly hours of the morning to start my day.

That’s the drawback of not thinking, and not reflecting, you erroneously attempt to assimilate to a state not suited for your own context.

And this is where things really start to take off; when you gain control by reflecting on your own thoughts, feelings, experiences, and those of others. Journaling does not get lost between the pages of a book that resides under your bedtime light, reserved for winding down after you’ve put the kids to bed. No, it becomes a part of you, it becomes your mantra. And the more you write, think, and critically reflect upon yourself, the more it will also help you unearth false assumptions, uncover hypocrisy, expose stereotypes, and even lay bare wrong-headed beliefs and fundamentalist thinking in both yourself and the world around you.

As any character in a major film faces challenges and through that process is able to change, so too our thought patterns and thinking change when we face challenges, within ourselves, and document and reflect upon them in our journal. We naturally gravitate towards blockbuster franchises because we can see the development in a character and we’re able to follow them through all the decision-making processes they encounter – that’s why we love the cinema. We reason with ourselves as to why the protagonist made the decisions they did, and what the defining moment was to set everything in motion. Yet without documenting that of ourselves, or at least the information that constantly enters our peripherals from every angle imaginable, we are unable to see the progress we make, and we’re unable to change systemic thinking that’s detrimental to our way of being.

When you reflect on your own thoughts and those of others, what Mark acknowledges as good habits, and evaluate them critically; through that process you'll be able to cherry-pick all the details available to you and fashion a new attitude for yourself. Because let’s be honest, we seek guidance, lend an ear for counsel, and read all the garbage from knowledgeable gypsies because we view it as an action that will allow us to improve – that’s it. And there’s really nothing wrong with that. I firmly believe it’s better to equip yourself with available knowledge out there and to learn from other's mistakes rather than your own, but it must be conditional. You can’t just accept without questioning it first. And through the process of writing and reflecting you'll create order to a world that feels like complete chaos, avoid distressing thoughts from intrusively invading your thinking, and constructively cultivate a better system to improve your quality of life.

Effectively what I’m trying to draw your attention to is that after going for a great jog (which could have been left for the afternoon), writing down my thoughts and viewing them objectively, I was able to proactively select the aspects of his routine I enjoy, such as the discipline of waking up early, and the practices he sticks to religiously. Instead of unrealistically trying to fashion my day in the same manner I could consciously and critically decide to rather develop something similar thereafter. Then, within my own environment, under my own conditions, I have critically decided to be better, to change, and it’s a good fit for me because it’s within my context, the average Joe space.

And that’s what you want to do, you want to write, be able to reflect, and through that process actualize to becoming a better thinker, which translates to becoming a better person.

All you need to do is just keep a journal.

Ultimately a journal has far more benefits than I can even begin to elaborate on. It allows you to put thoughts and feelings on paper, which permits those words to exist outside of ourselves. Organizing our experiences into a sequence of events provides us with a chance to examine cause and effect and form a more coherent story for our life. For me, personally, it has helped me find a sense of gratitude. In contrast to complaining and bickering like an emotional buffoon, which I probably still do from time to time, I can confidently say I now have passages of what I’m thankful for, where I want to improve, and how I want to implement ways to achieve that desired state.

Journaling has helped me build my sense of self-worth and hopefully allowed me to contribute towards the voice of society, the ongoing dialogue we have with one another (yes, I’m a millennial, there's a desire for me to be influential, go figure right).

And to be honest, I don’t have any major achievements which could be used as a premise to substantiate my argument, but perhaps that’s why it’s also so significant. I’m just Joe Soap who works normal business hours, has the same common challenges most people face, struggles at times to motivate myself, occasionally complains about the rising cost of living, you know, the stuff that should be more relatable. Which theoretically means you can also tell me to take my views and shove them where the sun doesn't shine. It’s harsh, but it’s the truth, we’re all adults here.

I’m not here to convince you or tell you that you’re doing anything wrong, heck, for all I know I’m speaking out of turn and will be ridiculed for my biased opinion. Who knows, anything is possible.

Nevertheless, you're more than welcome to listen to more extraordinary people like Marcus Aurelius, the emperor, Seneca, the power broker, and Epictetus, the slave, all of whom had one habit in common, they also kept a journal.

And as we’re nearing the end of the year, that time when we again take stock of what’s transpired and what we want to be better at going forward, perhaps you could just put down journaling as one of them and see where it takes you.

If anything, just give it a shot, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

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References

Van den Berg, MES. 2010. Critical reasoning and the art of argumentation. Pretoria: Unisa Press