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ANSWERING YOUR JOURNALING OBJECTIONS

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Published: 28Sep2005
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Everyone experiences objections while keeping their personal journals. Objections make journaling exciting as well as frustrating. You may not know when an objection will show up. Objections will show up as you journal, because you have decided to gently examine your life or work. I’ve listed some common objections. Do any of these comments sound familiar?

I CAN’T WRITE: It is one of the most common objections I hear. Does this mean you can’t write like you were taught in public school? Well, neither can I. Writing in your journal requires that you gently question and ultimately keep only those rules that serve your purposes. It doesn’t mean that you won’t experience some ambivalence, while selecting your rules. It means that you will learn to write more from your heart, which is the ultimate goal of keeping a journal.

MY WRITING ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH: The basis of this objection is perfectionism. Have you heard yourself say, “My cooking isn’t good enough.” Or my hair doesn’t look good enough.” There are many more examples like these. Remember that journaling is an exploration, not only of ideas, but of the act of writing. As you write each journal entry, you are practicing how to write, as well as what to write. The only expectations that you should meet are that you show up to journal and fill as much of each page as you can.

I’M NOT CREATIVE ENOUGH: I believe that everyone is creative. Creative skills differ from person to person. Whenever you write a journal entry, you are creating something new. Writing a journal entry is creative, because you are sharing something new with yourself, with God or others. For example, I’ve wanted to create images from doodles in my journal for a long time. The closest that I came was to fill up a page with lines and draw a faint image over the background. I couldn’t make a distinct image. This morning I finally created a completed one image from a doodle. Is the image creative? Yes. Would it win a prize? No. Was I happy about completing it? Absolutely yes. Now, I’m no longer limited to just creating doodles in my journal.

I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY: This statement is not true. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has some topic that they can discuss with other people. What really can stop you from speaking out, is worrying about what others will think of you, worrying about sounding foolish, and worrying about others ignoring you. Unfortunately, some people might be unkind to you, social situations are sometimes unpredictable. However, in your journal you can write as many opinions as you want. As you become more confident in writing your journal entries, you will begin to explore many other subjects and ideas.

PERMISSION: It’s very important that you say yes to yourself, as you begin to journal. Some people have experienced resistance from family, friends or themselves about what, when or if they should journal. For example, I needed permission internally and from God, so I could restart my journaling practice. Several years before, a relative, had read my journal without asking permission. I stopped journaling for quite awhile. In 1990, my pastor encouraged our church to start writing our prayers to God in a prayer journal. I asked God for the ability to trust and courage to start writing again. He helped me start journaling again. A secondary result was that I started laughing more and worrying less. I wrote more prayers to God and experienced more answers to those prayers. I felt relieved that I had a safe place to write again.

You have learned about some of the most common objections. You’ve also learned that these objections can prevent you from journaling regularly.

Choose one objection that resonates with you. Keep the objection in mind, as you journal for the next week or so. See if this objection or others appears to interrupt your journaling. Make sure to write a few notes about your experience. If you don’t sense any objections when you start to journal. Then that’s wonderful, too. If you do, repeat some of the exercises, again and see what happens.

No matter what happens when you journal, keep on journaling,. it’s the best remedy for your own personal objections to writing in your journal and a great way to explore them.

Lael Johnson, owner of Writer’s Eye Advisory Service, offers creativity coaching services and additional writing resources at http://www.writerseye.com

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