Have you ever made the decision to start a diary but then given up after a few days. You may have given up so soon because you didn’t fully comprehend the benefits of maintaining it. Here are the top 5 motivating explanations for journaling for yourself.
1. Job interviews
You have been out of the workforce for a while. You left because you had to (perhaps because you lost your job, had a baby, or just couldn’t continue working there).
You’ve made the decision to re-enter the workforce after much courage and self-examination. It’s likely that the individual sitting across from you will ask you one of the following questions during the stressful job interview:
Inform us of yourself…
- Why are you here right now?
- Why are you a good fit for this job?
- If you’ve taken the time to think back on your life’s events…
- If you’ve put in the effort necessary to write a memoir project, it will be lot simpler for you to respond to these questions.
Because if you have completed this work, you will already have the pieces of these questions together. The solutions then become a part of your story. and stories aid in making sense of complex situations.
So get ready to impress your potential employer with a compelling story about you.
2. Your Brand Story
Are you an entrepreneur preparing to open a new company? Or perhaps you’re a seasoned businessperson who will soon introduce a new product.
When launching a new firm, there are countless jobs to accomplish, but I’ll wager $5 that the one that is frequently missed is the response to the following:
So who are you? Why are YOU acting in this manner?
Here is a tip: This brand is set to launch, and your history plays a major role in why. If I had to guess, I’d say that the reason you are undertaking this new endeavor has to do with something from the past.
The good news is that every event can be explained by a tale. The route forward is as follows:
What led YOU to THIS decision, that there was just one option left: to launch this business, endeavor, or product?
Your brand story will be improved if you can clearly express your background and describe how various life circumstances came together to bring you to where you are now.
Having all of these background details worked out is advantageous:
- Why you are an authority on it
- Why you started this business, brand, or project
- What the objective of your business is and why it matters
- Yes, you could sit down and make lists of things, and you could even build together a flowchart using those lists. But here’s the thing: It needs to be genuine, connect, and provide a way ahead. Once you’ve done that, the magic starts to show and you have a story arc.
Without spending the effort to carefully plan out these components, you and your product risk sounding hollow and unpleasant.
Because everything sells better with a story, to quote Don Draper, the time invested in producing this will be profitable.
3. Speaking Occasions
Have you been asked to participate in panels at conferences or seminars where you will be required to speak on behalf of your employer or yourself?
Some folks could find this to be absolutely disturbing (especially now that we have been hiding at home for years in our Covid bubble wrap).
Here’s a suggestion if you find yourself in this situation: Spend some time revising your memoir, but this time concentrate on the section about your employment. This is the improbable treatment to make you more at ease speaking in front of a crowd.
Why? Because it will help you overcome the imposter syndrome you suffer as a result of getting asked to speak at this event or conference and will give you the confidence you need to share your (hard-earned) experience. This will provide you a way to go back and look at the things you’ve done during your life, many of which you’ve probably forgotten.
Here are some suggestions about where to begin:
Describe how you obtained that position.
What happens if you combine these three things? You’ve already begun to tell a narrative! More people will sit up and pay close attention if this is mapped into an engaging structure, or a captivating story arc. People will be more able to appreciate you the more pride you feel in these successes. Honesty breeds inquiry, which breeds kinship.
People respond and listen to tales better than speeches that list accomplishments and plaudits, which is old woo-woo theory. Additionally, you risk sounding pompous and arrogant. Select genuine instead.
4. Networking
That dreaded shift after work, ugh. the task you feel obligated to complete after completing all the other difficult chores you must complete throughout a long day.
If you have the willpower, consider attending one of these events; you might not regret it. Because this is also where serendipitous encounters take place, or where you might find connections and shared interests that open up new opportunities and friendships.
You can rapidly discover things you have in common with others. Oh! We have that in common because you too performed X. However, you may now finish with a pithy comment on how that relates to the NEXT event in your life—the destination—and where that thing led you, which makes it possible to connect with more people.
A day or two before your next networking event, try writing in your journal about some of the incredible things you’ve accomplished.
Here are a few places to begin:
Remember the time you did something that makes you realize how foolish and young you once were, but you survived to tell the tale; If you have children, consider the funniest thing they have recently said to you and what caused it; The incident that was such an odd coincidence that it prompted you to buy a lottery ticket.
Imagine it as a game of leapfrog.
One connection ping-pongs to the next person as one tale leads to another. Enjoy it and use it!
5. Your biographical page
This may be a banner for your website, the 100-word summary that goes at the top of your CV, or even the limited space you have on your social network profiles. But don’t be fooled by the word count; this is where you need to use your narrative abilities.
Remember, this synopsis doesn’t have to follow a specific order…
It’s not necessary for the beginning to be the actual beginning. Try a couple alternative configurations or switch up the order of the events.
It becomes clearer what you want to be known for after you consider your entire life.
It’s common knowledge that this is the most challenging phase of any project.
Because we are our own harshest critics, it might be difficult to write about yourself.
When writing about yourself, there’s an old adage to follow: “Get out of the way, get out of your own story.”
When reduced to its bare essentials, this has the beginning, middle, and end of a conventional BME structure. Alternately, you may flip it such that the start is now the end, in which case you would walk back to your starting place. Understanding how your story’s various components relate to one another and how they do so is helpful.
Here are a few starter questions:
- How does your education relate to your present line of work?
- What significant occasion that shaped your life or career?
- How would you describe the direction your career is taking?
- and what was the early warning sign that it was heading in this direction before you even noticed it?
- If you run into trouble or feel silly when writing this, imagine it’s about someone else. Write the biography as your mentor or hero by picturing them in your mind. Respond to these queries before giving it a little flair.
Finally, let it sit for a day. Remove all references to the other person you were writing about when you return with your sharpest editing tool. After that, put your own name there.
I’m going to venture a guess that you won’t need to alter too many specifics if you give yourself some leeway and honesty. Because I’ll wager you’ve done a lot better than you give yourself credit for if you can let down, embrace your own story, and develop your own narrative arc.