Most people start a journal and give up on it after a short period. However, if you start a journal this year and stick with it long enough for it to become a habit, you’ll be able to benefit from the daily practice of writing down your thoughts. Here are a few ways it can benefit your personal and professional lives.

Boost Your Sense of Self-Worth

A journal is a great place to record your innermost thoughts, including the doubts and negative thoughts you have about yourself. As you put these thoughts down in written form, you’ll give yourself an opportunity to reassess them. You’ll likely find out that these are unfounded feelings that don’t apply to you. By writing down negative thoughts and dismissing them as untrue, you’ll clear up the headspace for more positive thoughts.

Express Feelings That You’d Rather Not Share

We all have those thoughts that we feel strongly about, yet we know that sharing them would start a fight or hurt a loved one’s feelings. By writing those thoughts down in your journal, you can express them without bringing them to others’ attention. As you write out an emotional rant in your journal, you can isolate thoughts you actually do want to express to another. This can help you communicate your feelings and ideas more clearly without being hurtful.

Keep Your Goals on Track

Your journal can also help you keep track of your goals throughout the new year. For instance, if your goal is to lose 20 pounds, you can use your journal to track your diet and exercise routines. This will help you see where you’re failing, so you can adjust your strategy for achieving your goal. No matter what the objective, recording progress in your journal can help you look back to evaluate how well you’re doing. In turn, this can help you predict how well you’ll do in the future in achieving your goal.

In the beginning, it will take a conscious effort to remember to write in your journal each day. Even if you don’t think you have much to say, taking the time to write down a few sentences can help you enjoy the benefits listed here and more. Before long, you’ll wonder how you managed your life without the insight and stability that keeping a journal provides.