Self-Empowerment Through Journal Writing

 

Some people might think that the title of this blog entry has nothing to do with being a DJ.  On the contrary, it has everything to do with whatever it is you want to do or sort out in your life.  Some people run around in circles and can’t figure out why they keep ending up in the same places with the same people, miles away from their goals.

Journal writing seems like an overly simplistic solution to many of life’s problems, but it works…to an extent.

The human memory isn’t half as reliable as most people think it is.  How a person remembers something and how it actually happened is surprisingly different.  Keeping a journal can help you do many things from finding out if your spouse is cheating to figuring out why and how you are spending too much money. 

 It’s easy to forget things when you have a busy life filled with work, spouse, kids, friends, family, unexpected deaths and illnesses, accidents, and an assortment of other things.  With all of that going on who has time to write?  You should make a special amount of time in your day to write about it.  When you start to keep a journal, patterns in your life will emerge because you will have the effect of stepping out of the chaos and looking from the outside in.

Thinking that your spouse is cheating can easily be turned around in your face and called paranoia if all you have is a gut feeling.  If you have a gut feeling and a journal that shows that your spouse doesn’t speak much and runs straight to the shower after work every Tuesday and Wednesday, avoids having sex with you on those days, and has been doing so for two months then you sound a little less paranoid.  A pattern emerged and you noticed it.

If a friend happens to borrow money every time payday rolls around it just seems like a coincidence.  A journal will make it clear that your friend has memorized your pay schedule and knows exactly when you have money.  A journal will also explain why you don’t see said friend between paydays.

For artists and DJs a journal is a great way to sort out good gigs from bad gigs.  Dealing with various promoters, club owners and booking agents becomes a glob of memory mess in your brain after a while.  Writing down who paid well and who gave you a BS excuse for not paying after you played a packed room is important.  Did they identify as a promoter, but yet insisted that you promote your own show?  Did they insist you work for the door, have a good crowd and paid you nothing because they had “$300 in expenses and didn’t really make any money”?  As you work with different people, you’ll slowly forget these things and later down the road end up working with the same people again with the same result.  Same thing+ expecting different result =crazy.

I could go on and on with story after story and example after example, but I hope my point was made on the importance of keeping a journal to assist you in erasing the disarray from your life.  If it makes you frown…write it down.