Why You Should Document Your Journey

Being a journalist by practice and education, keeping a journal simply comes natural. While some of you might immediately say, “oh, a diary, that’s dumb.” Please understand the purpose of my journal, not a diary.

Diaries are kept by adolescents and teenagers where they express their feelings in the strangest forms. That is not what I do, nor what you should be doing.

Rather, I journal to document my decisions, struggles and achievements. I haven’t kept a journal my entire life. Although I’ve tried, I don’t have the attention span or an interesting enough life to write daily.

However, after starting a business there are bits and pieces I don’t want to forget. The journal captures those little details that I might forget in a week, two weeks or a year. But, when if I journal well enough, it will provide me insights into a strategy for success in the future. Additionally, if I ever have my own kids it could be a guide book to them for how to operate a business.

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I tend to detail the good, the bad and the horrible. I’m not one to sit and write about great days — that’s what golf is for. Rather I use my journal to dictate what is occurring on the “OK” days. The things I don’t necessarily want to talk about with anyone go into the journal. It’s a place to vent, but also a place to analyze what went wrong and why you’re pissed off.

I don’t write a lot in my journal either, nor do I set parameters. There are no rules with my journal and some days it might have business-related parts, and sometimes it might highlight a brew day, what went good and what I would change; the ingredients I used and how long I’m going to let it ferment.

There’s no right or wrong way for you to start documenting your story. You don’t even have to call it a journal. If you want, just call it a “log”, but then you’ll just be stereotyped as a Star Trek fan.

If for no other reason it’s simply a great idea for you, your business partners and your family in the future. One day you’ll be old, your brew days far behind you, you’ll be sitting in a rocking chair and will start reading. You’ll read about your own life, your successes and the experiences you had along the way. Regardless if you’re a great writer, or simply take notes, you’ll appreciate the fact that you have a detailed memory of your business life.

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