I’ve started and abandoned journaling countless times. Every start seems to be triggered by another article on the subject that I come across. I imagine myself waking in the quiet hours of the morning with a brand new journal, a cup of coffee, and my glasses on the side–not unlike the picture above that I stole from the internet.

The article the prompted me to write today is from my medical insurance provided, Kaiser Permanente. It lists the following ways in which journaling can help you:

1. Achieve goals
2. Track progress and growth
3. Gain self-confidence
4. Improve writing and communication skills
5. Reduce stress and anxiety
6. Find inspiration
7. Strengthen memory

With this in mind, the things I would like to work on are achieving goals and tracking my progress towards those and to find inspiration. I’m not all that working about my self-confidence and I my personality has always had me stressing very little. A boost in memory and writing skills would be a bonus. So let’s set put my goals and call for inspiration out there to the world.

Goals

Personal Finance

I want to be completely debt free. The elephant in the room here are my student loans I took out to pay for grad school and this is going to take me a few years to pay down.

Career Development

I want to continue to grow within the construction management field and my goals for the next 12 months are to obtain a promotion at work and obtain my project management professional (PMP) certification. I’m hoping my certification coupled with hard work will get me there. Earlier this year I submitted my application for the PMP program and got approval from my company to pay for the certification. I have to study the course materials and later take the exam.

Health Development

There are several things I want to address here: weight, nutrition, physical activity, and mental health. I have been blessed with great mental health, but since everything of our being is dependent upon our mind, it is paramount to keep it healthy and stress free. So I want this to at times also be a gratitude journal. Weight is something I’ve struggled with most of my life and presents the greatest risk to my health at the moment. So I need to address my nutrition and physical activity. I’ve been eating much healthier than I have in years, but my physical activity level is quite low as compared to before.

Anyway, I will now call it a night and most likely expand on the above points as I go along.