Building upon the easy challenge, aim to write for the same amount of time, but do so repeatedly throughout your week—otherwise you’re going to end up like me at age sixteen with too many unfinished journals. Instead you’re trying to form a habit, which will take a little longer. This is when the writing part will start to feel boring and dull, like homework, and you’re likely to encounter some resistance in the form of “I don’t know what to say.” And that’s when most people quit.
I’ll share a secret with you: the vast majority of worthwhile choices in life are not incredibly sexy, particularly the ones where you have to put in repeated effort. I know—blah. That reality irritates those of us who live in this hyper-connected, always stimulated world…which is, um, all of us. Journaling is no different. You sit there for a couple of seconds or minutes, and you mostly think about the fact that you’re bored and you could be doing all these other things and writing is pointless anyway. Then you get tired of that line of thinking, and your mind starts to wander over to one thought that snakes its way to the front: a reflection from the day prior, a question you want the answer to, the realization that you’re quite tired or sad or grateful or content. Any one of those thoughts is worth exploring and will probably stoke your interest, but you can’t get to that point without slogging through the “I’m so bored” phase. You won’t notice how you feel, or what’s going on with your inner self, unless you consistently pause to make space for those observations.