From Stress to Clarity: How Journaling Helps Me Process Challenges
Journaling as a tool not just for positivity, but for problem-solving.
I’m an optimistic guy. Anyone who knows me would say I try to find the best in people and situations. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t faced my share of challenges. In fact, the life I’ve pursued is full of them! I’ve lived in several countries (some where I didn’t speak the language), I run my own company (two of them, actually!) and I’m an avid stock market investor, which is inherently an “up and down” pursuit.
So yes, I have a close relationship with challenges. And I think my journaling habit helps me stay grounded and humble when things are going well, and stay optimistic and hopeful when they aren't.
I’d say there are three main ways journaling helps me process and overcome challenges.
1. Goal Setting: Turning Challenges into Purpose
The first, and most important, comes from my daily Surefooted Journal practice, which is centered on goal setting. Every 90 days, I set three big goals for myself. Over the next three months, I work toward achieving them - or at least getting a few steps closer.
At the heart of goal setting lies one’s relationship with challenge. Most of my goals revolve around overcoming something difficult, so when things don’t go as planned, it’s part of the process. By checking in daily with my goals, I’m also checking in with the challenges they represent. Each small step chips away at the obstacle, and over time, that familiarity builds a kind of comfort within the discomfort.
A personal example: our recent move to Italy. The visa process was arduous, costly, and took much longer than we anticipated. But it was a big goal, and we kept chipping away at it until things finally came together - literally the day before my wife started her new teaching position! Looking back, I’m convinced that if we hadn’t written down that goal and revisited why it mattered to us, it would’ve been easy to give up somewhere along the way.
2. Tracking Progress: Seeing What’s Really True
The second way journaling helps me is by tracking progress. Our brains play funny tricks on us - our perception of how things are going can shift from hour to hour depending on stress, sleep, or how our day unfolds. Journaling gives me a more objective view of where I actually stand in relation to my goals.
Swimming is a great example. If I skip a few days, I can feel frustrated and tell myself, “You’ve hardly trained at all, why even bother tomorrow?” But then I look back at my journal entries where I've logged my workouts and realize I’ve actually been more consistent than it feels at that moment. That small reminder helps reset my mindset and gets me back in the water.
3. Reflection: Learning from the Past
Finally, journaling helps me overcome challenges by allowing me to reflect on previous ones. Sometimes obstacles feel so big that giving up seems easier. But journaling creates a kind of “time travel” where I can flip back through old entries and revisit the doubt, frustration, and slow progress of past challenges.
Almost every time, I’m reminded that persistence and stubbornness eventually won out. Reading those reflections gives me perspective, and hope, that whatever challenge I’m facing now will also give way in time.
If any of this resonates, I encourage you to give it a try. You don’t have to overhaul your habits, just find five minutes during your day to open your Surefooted Journal, check in, reframe, and keep moving forward to what matters the most for you.
Happy journaling, and stay Surefooted
Mike