Why you should keep a personal journal

7 good reasons to keep a personal diary of your thoughts and experiences every day.

"Writing a diary is a journey into ourselves."

Christina Baldwin.

If I had to mention some of my favorite "life changing Beghelli" habits, keep a personal diary would certainly be among them.

Establishing and maintaining the habit of writing and describing at the end of the day one's experiences, lessons learned, thoughts and results obtained is a key activity for those who pursue their own personal growth. In fact, from writing comes awareness, from awareness comes change and from change comes growth.

Still not convinced? Here are 7 good reasons why you should keep a personal diary:

1. To become an observer. Keeping a diary pushes you to observe your experiences more carefully, but above all pushes you to observe the positive aspects, or those elements from which to draw lessons. Not only that: the habit of writing a personal diary teaches you not to take anything for granted, observing your days in a new light.
2. In order not to lose any idea. Have you ever had a great idea and then forget about it a few hours later. Thanks to your personal diary you will be able to keep track of anything you can think of: your diary is there to collect your ideas silently and without judgment (however strange they may be).
3. To memorize your ideas. The simple act of writing is in itself one of the most effective memorization techniques available to us. Use your diary to record and store your notes.
4. To give substance to your thoughts. Sometimes putting our thoughts into words may not be immediate. We need to rework our initial idea, giving it coherence. This simple exercise can be the tip of the balance that separates a passing idea from a dream come true.
5. To develop your ideas. When you collect an idea in your personal diary, you go back to actively thinking about this idea. Magically, dozens of other ideas spring from the initial idea, until a simple intuition turns into a project.
6. To learn the lesson. In a previous article I told you about 5 lessons that life has taught me. Without a journal I could never have written that post, but more importantly, I would never have internalized those lessons. Life loves to face the same situations over and over again: why repeat the same mistakes?
7. To track your progress. We've seen how personal analytics sites are tracking the new trend in personal growth, but the reality is you don't need Nike's latest game to track your progress - your personal diary is enough. Furthermore, re-reading which goals you have managed to achieve in the past allows you to face the new challenges with a different perspective.

Reader: ok, you convinced me: I'll start writing my personal diary! But, tell me: do you know any nice little programs to do it ?!

You don't need NASA's latest to keep track of your daily thoughts, but there are undoubtedly some interesting programs to do it best: I chose Evernote for its convenience and for the ability to take notes on my iPhone too, but even a simple text editor or an elegant Moleskine can do for you!