I want you to start a journal. Maybe you have one already that you can use. If not either buy a physical journal, or set up one in whatever software you want. Documenting the process of building the bridge will do a few things:
- Journaling helps your mind associate the things you are doing throughout the day with your long-term vision. This keeps you on track.
- Once you get a week or two into the process, you can start looking back on your journal entries and you can see the progress you are making very clearly.
- You will have plenty of writing samples to use for whatever you want in the future. Maybe you’ll want to make a public blog about this experience. Or maybe you want to create a case study. Writing a little bit each day will provide you with a lot of content to build on top of down the road.
- It’s a way to clear the mind, and provides a sense of achievement even on the days you didn’t feel like you made any progress.
Why I journal
The goal is to embrace your thoughts and feelings wholeheartedly. Write them down. Reflect on them. You will start to have a deeper understanding of yourself. You start to notice patterns.
Your life is made up of all the little things you do throughout the day. When you don't know what to do, write. When you are feeling frozen and can't make a decision, start writing. By writing, you are creating something. You are channeling your energy into your fingers and hands and turning that energy into something. By staying stuck in your head, especially when you are having negative thought patterns, you are using that energy to harm yourself.
Writing is the foundation of everything we create. Ideas in your head come and go, and nobody will ever know about them, and you will not remember them. By writing you are able to share an idea, expand on it, merge it with ideas from other humans, and ultimately turn the idea into reality.
Our ideas guide us to build the life we want. If we never take action on our ideas, we won't live a life we want. Doesn't mean to take action on every idea, but at least when you write them down you can start to figure out which ideas are worth implementing.
Once you know what you want in life, you can make minor adjustments to your daily habits and routines to work toward it. What once seemed like an impossible goal now feels attainable because you can directly link your daily actions to that goal.
the format doesn’t matter too much. It’s the words that matter. They are just thoughts transposed to a format through which we can communicate with others. What if we could share exact thoughts? That’s the power of building connection.
thoughts just pop out and by writing them down i am catching them as if i were catching fireflies
Journaling
This is a common sentiment I've seen from employees at Amazon.
with everything going on there lately. I've been there myself. I'd like to just share a few thoughts on how I overcame these feelings.
January 2023 was one of the hardest months of my life. Trying to navigate a stressful project at Amazon while also dealing with stressful issues in my personal life. Journaling got me through it.
Burnout. Impostor syndrome. Overwhelm. Stress. Anxiety. Panic. Self doubt. Despair. Frustration. Rage. Hopelessness. We all experience these feelings. But how do you cope with them when you have a job that requires you to be mentally engaged and clear minded?
Our sense of reality is a story we are constantly creating in our minds. “I'm not good enough”, “I should be doing more right now”. When we think these things, that becomes our reality. “I can do anything I put my mind do”, “I deserve to rest and relax right now” - Which reality do you want to live in?
Ok, now you may be asking "well how am I supposed to just change what I think and feel?"
The goal isn't to change how you think or feel. The goal is to embrace your thoughts and feelings wholeheartedly. Write them down. Reflect on them. You will start to have a deeper understanding of yourself. You start to notice patterns.
Your life is made up of all the little things you do throughout the day. When you don't know what to do, write. When you are feeling frozen and can't make a decision, start writing. By writing, you are creating something. You are channeling your energy into your fingers and hands and turning that energy into something. By staying stuck in your head, especially when you are having negative thought patterns, you are using that energy to harm yourself.
Writing is the foundation of everything we create. Ideas in your head come and go, and nobody will ever know about them, and you will not remember them. By writing you are able to share an idea, expand on it, merge it with ideas from other humans, and ultimately turn the idea into reality.
Our ideas guide us to build the life we want. If we never take action on our ideas, we won't live a life we want. Doesn't mean to take action on every idea, but at least when you write them down you can start to figure out which ideas are worth implementing.
Once you know what you want in life, you can make minor adjustments to your daily habits and routines to work toward it. What once seemed like an impossible goal now feels attainable because you can directly link your daily actions to that goal.