Nowadays with the Internet and email, writing, as with a pen or pencil in ones hand seems so archaic, so farfetched – “write it down?” you ask incredulously? Yes start a journal…start writing stuff down.

Richard Branson keeps notebooks upon notebooks of his ideas, thoughts and other observations daily. He is never without a notebook. Paul J. Meyer built an empire of leadership and learning combining listening, reading and writing.

There is something about writing – almost as if you’re doing so, not on paper but directly on the brain. When you write things down, you tend to remember them.

Many of us avoid writing in journals because writing produces a tangible result where we will be unable to conveniently forget what we’ve discovered as well as it  provides evidence that we cannot later change as our mood becomes less introspective or as fear creeps in to try to taint the results we’ve obtained.

When we have written down things we are less able to late user rationalization and self justification to soften the edges of our discoveries.

Don’t be so scared of failure and disappointment that you fail to dream and take note of the ideas that ‘appear’ in your head from time to time.

Be open and ready always to take note of thoughts as they show up. Write them down immediately, lest you forget them. Resist complacency and doing things as you’ve always done.

Think about these words by Gibran “The lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul.”

Critics will come and go but hold onto your God given dreams…write them down…give them life…give them the air of possibility…who knows what’s going to come out of all your jottings.

Start writing things down. You’ll be happy that you did!

Photo courtesy Simon Howden @ freedigitalphoto.net