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You think hitting the gym, meditating, and reading is self-improvement.
But it's not.
To be honest, that's what I thought.
I was exercising, meditating, and reading every day and thought I was on "self-improvement".
But I was not.
Because I was doing all that just for the sake of doing them.
I didn't have a goal.
I didn't have a purpose.
I didn't have a reason behind why I'm doing them.
I started doing them after watching a few videos and shorts on YouTube.
A YouTuber told me to read. So, I'm reading.
A YouTuber told me to meditate. So, I'm meditating.
A YouTuber told me to work out, So, I'm working out.
I was just following instructions.
I lacked the ability to think for myself.
People get into self-improvement to improve themselves.
Why do they want to improve themselves?
Because they have goals.
To achieve those goals they need to become a person who is capable of achieving those goals.
To become that person, they need to become strong (mentally), knowledgeable, and focused.
To become strong mentally you first need to become strong physically.
A strong body is a strong mind.
So, they hit the gym every day.
To become knowledgeable they need to read books.
To become calm and focused they need to meditate.
Finally, I understood what self-improvement actually is…
And realized I didn't have a goal.
Self-improvement is for people who have goals.
Which means me doing all these is pointless.
I decided to set goals but I don't know what goals to set.
I didn't know what I wanted to achieve, how I wanted to live my life, or what I liked doing.
I was totally confused.
So, finally decided to include the missing piece which I have been avoiding for so long into my self-improvement routine.
Which is…
Journaling.
Everything started to change after this.
Every day before going to sleep.
- I write down all my thoughts (even the dark, dirty ones).
- I write down all the problems I'm facing in my life.
- I write down the emotions I went through throughout the day.
- I write down the interesting incidents that happened that day.
- I write down the mistakes I made throughout the day.
- I write down what I want to do tomorrow.
- I write down some affirmations.
- I write down my goals.
I was journaling every day.
In fact, I fell in love with it.
After a few weeks of consistent journaling a pattern started to emerge.
From that pattern, everything started to make sense.
I started to understand…
- What I truly want in life.
- What I truly want to achieve.
- What I truly want to do every day.
- What I truly want to do in this world.
In short, I finally found my goal that I can work towards.
If I had never started to journal.
I would have done all the "self-improvement" stuff just to feel like I was making progress but I was not.
Journaling is what led me to write online.
If I never started to journal.
You wouldn't be reading this article now.
Here is what happens:
I don't anything about writing.
I never wrote anything on my own in my entire life.
I always thought about writing online but I don't know how to write and I was not confident enough to do it.
But I started to journal because it's personal, no one can see what I wrote.
This means I made grammatical mistakes, and spelling mistakes, and I can write all the weird stuff without worrying about anything — I can be myself when journaling.
As I journal every day, I can see myself getting better at writing day after day.
After journaling for a few months.
I gained SO much confidence in my writing.
So, I started to write online.
I picked Medium as my writing platform.
Now I even started to write on X → TheAbbasAli_
Writing every day is one of the best habits I ever built in my life.
I recommend you make writing a daily habit like brushing your teeth, eating breakfast, or taking a shower (do you shower every day?)
Why?
Because writing is the root of everything.
If you want to make money…start writing.
If you want to understand yourself…start writing.
If you want to build a personal brand…start writing.
If you want to become a good communicator…start writing.
If you are like me who is not confident enough to start writing online.
Do what I did. Start journaling.
Journaling is the best form of writing.
I discussed this in deep in one of my previous articles.
Read this to know how journaling before bed can make you a better writer👇
Also, don't forget to grab the free Notion Journal Template "Daily Mistakes Journal".
Grab your journal and stop repeating the mistakes👇
P.S. If you become extremely good at writing you'll never have to worry about money again.