Who Are You When Nobody's Watching? How Journaling Helps You Get to Know Yourself
This is episode 2 of Season 5 of The Journaling Guy Podcast, and today, I'm asking what sounds like a really simple question...
How well do you actually know yourself?
Last week, I spoke to former NFL player Jed Collins, who has been Journaling for more than 20 years. Jed talked about the incredible ability his journals give him to effectively travel through time. This enables him to go back and meet the earlier versions of himself, seeing what he was thinking and feeling, what he understood about himself and, perhaps even more importantly, what he didn't understand yet.
That got me thinking...
We spend an enormous amount of our lives trying to understand other people, our partners, children, friends, colleagues and bosses but how often do we turn that same curiosity back on ourselves?
Your Journal gives you somewhere to do exactly that. Somewhere you don't need to perform, impress anyone or even have all the answers.
This week, we're exploring Curiosity Journaling and why changing one simple question from "Why am I like this?" to "I wonder why I do that?" can completely change the conversation you have with yourself.
Because we're not looking for answers - We're looking for clues!
THIS WEEK’S MISSION IS:
This week, choose one of these sentences and use it as the starting point for your Journal:
I feel most like myself when...
I lose track of time when...
The people who bring out the best in me are...
Something about myself I'm beginning to understand is...
If nobody else's opinion mattered, I would...
Don't try to answer all five at once. Pick one and see where your writing takes you. Most importantly, don't judge what comes out.
Be curious.
If you'd like more detail around this week's method, and some extra prompts to help you explore who you are when nobody's watching, pop over to The Journaling Guy Substack. There you'll find...
- Bonus audio that never made it into today's podcast 🎧
- The full mission, written down
- Bonus reflections too
This is all over on the Substack channel which you can find HERE.
The full link is available on The Journaling Guy Substack.
Do get in touch with any questions you have and of course your feedback is really important too. Email me — hello@thejournalingguy.com
Remember, there are loads more extras over on Substack for you, so you can really get into Journaling and begin to realise what a difference it can make to your life.
Please share this episode with someone who might need a bit of space to think. Plus, if you get a moment, please leave me a review, they matter so much for getting the podcast heard and seen.
As Always...
"Keep writing, keep noticing, and keep showing up for yourself."
Matt.
