Why rereading old journal entries taught me more than writing them did

The New Year is just around the corner, and while everyone will encourage you to set new goals and create vision boards, I want to encourage you to reread your old journal entries.

Why?

Because when setting new, meaningful goals, you're much better off building on the foundation you've already laid rather than starting from an absolute zero.

Let me explain.

I'm pretty sure the goals you're about to set for this year aren't exactly goals you have never attempted to achieve before.

They probably involve improving your health, maybe starting a side gig, getting better at your job, figuring out your finances, or learning to get along with your parents.

Given that these areas are ones you have likely approached in some form before, your old journal entries hide a mountain of useful insights and information on what worked and what hasn't, and what were the challenges or maybe even dead ends you faced when attempting these goals.

Going through those entries and extracting these valuable insights can help you inform your future goals and make plans tailored to you—accounting for weaknesses you know you have, appreciating how far you've already come and building on what has come before rather than starting from scratch.

But instead of making this just another to-do item in your already hectic Christmas schedule, let's turn it into a cosy moment of reflection with a cup of hot ginger tea, setting your sights on the year ahead while grounding yourself in the knowledge of past experiences.

If I haven’t sold you on the idea just yet, I hope the following article will.

If it does, part 2, which includes a step-by-step guide on how to approach this process, will be released next week.

Let's begin: here are five reasons why rereading old journal entries taught me more than writing them ever did.

1) Identifying patterns and drawing conclusions

Rereading old journal entries isn’t just about nostalgia.

When you revisit these entries, you’re in a completely different mindset than when you first wrote them.

With the benefit of perspective, you might look at past situations more objectively; be able to spot recurring themes, which you otherwise wouldn't notice because you'd be too close to any given situation at hand; and draw conclusions that can inform your future decisions or goals.

For example, you might notice that in one kind of situation, you tend to respond in specific ways. Noticing this pattern allows you to reflect if this response is actually one you want to keep or if it's something you would prefer to intentionally modify in the future.

Or, you might notice that on good days, there are certain things you always do that put you in a good mood. Once you identify them, you can try to include them in your routine more often. On the flip side, if you identify common factors contributing to a bad day, you can try to intentionally avoid or eliminate them as much as possible.

Or, you might also come across a conclusion you came up with a while back when reflecting on a particular situation and realise the same insight could be just as helpful in other similar situations.

The point is that looking back at past journal entries isn't just about reminiscing or reliving old moments.

It can be a practical tool for moving forward, backed by the knowledge you've accumulated from past experiences.

2) Noticing your progress

If you often feel like you're falling behind in life, irrespective of what you do and how much you accomplish, reflecting on past journal entries can be seriously eye-opening.

It’s easy to feel like we're not doing enough when we’re constantly bombarded with stories of people who are younger but are 100s of steps ahead of us.

Even when we set goals and achieve them, we rarely stop to think about the progress we’ve made, and instead, we’re always focused on what’s next.

Keeping your eyes on the future can be a good thing, but if you constantly feel like you're spinning your wheels, revisiting old journal entries can help you see just how much you’ve actually accomplished and appreciate the things you might otherwise take for granted.

For example, I've realised that as a teenager, I used to dream of living in different regions of the world, and a decade later, I have lived in five countries. Even though I wouldn't think of it as a big deal, it did take a lot of energy, adaptability and resilience.

Realising that I have achieved something I once considered a dream helps me collect real-world evidence that I can make things happen when I want to, which is quite empowering.

Chances are, you'd uncover similar truths about yourself if you gave yourself some time to review your old journal entries.

3) Adapting your strategy if the current one isn't working

I'm pretty sure you know the feeling.

You're trying something new, are super committed to making it work, and actually do the things you think will lead to your dream outcome.

But somehow, they never do.

The reason could be that you're either not doing it for long enough to see the result or your strategy isn't working.

I know I too often assume it's the first one, so I keep doing the same thing over and over.

Or worse, I give up entirely instead of adjusting my approach to change the outcome.

That’s where revisiting your old journal entries can be super helpful for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, it can help you become more aware of what you're actually doing and how closely it aligns with your original plan. Often, our perception of what we think we’re doing is different from what we’re actually doing.

Secondly, if you’re struggling to stick to the plan, looking back can help you figure out why that's the case and give you the chance to come up with solutions to the issues you face.

Finally, it can show you which parts of your plan are working and which ones might need tweaking.

Take my gym routine, for example.

One pattern I noticed was that when life gets busy, I’ll skip a workout and then convince myself that skipping another one won’t matter.

Before I knew it, weeks would go by without showing up, and my progress would completely stall.

A few weeks later, I would start going to the gym again, and the cycle would repeat when things got busy (or lazy).

Realising this helped me come up with strategies to break the cycle and avoid falling into this all-or-nothing mindset.

One thing I’m trying is going to the gym to do at least one compound exercise, even if it's a really busy day. That way, I keep the habit going, even if I can’t do a full workout.

The point is that reflecting on your journal entries (or even just recalling your behaviour) can really help you build on your mistakes and failures instead of repeating them with no end.

4) Gathering real-world evidence

Maybe you can relate, but sometimes I come across something that intellectually makes sense—like an inspirational quote—and I really want to start living it, but somehow, I don't feel it in my bones.

I know it’s true, but it doesn’t really sink in until I experience something that reinforces this truth and changes my perspective.

That's how the saying this too shall pass felt to me.

It made perfect sense: getting caught up in emotions when something happens doesn’t actually change the situation, so why not adopt this calm, stoic perspective that everything will eventually pass?

Yeah, well, it's difficult, right.

Amidst a hard situation and feeling overwhelmed, keeping that perspective is difficult.

But when I went back through my old journal entries and reread all the ups and downs, I realised that, hey, all this had passed, and things had gotten much better.

It helped me realise that something that seemed like the end of the world a few months or years ago wasn't nearly as bad as it seemed, and it didn't leave a lasting mark on my life.

Getting a bird's eye view of past situations that felt overwhelming at the time and seeing how they turned out helped me move beyond just intellectually knowing and gave me tangible proof that things do indeed pass.

...but whether I remember I have this proof when I need it most is another story lol.

5) Rediscovering creative ideas

I've made it a habit to capture creative ideas the moment they pop into my mind.

I don't let them linger too long because I know they'll slip away. I need to capture them immediately.

There’s a book by Elizabeth Gilbert called Big Magic where she talks about how creative ideas almost seem to have a life of their own.

According to her, when a new idea is born, it searches for someone to bring it to life—someone who will take action and execute it.

If someone doesn't act on an idea, it may move on to another person.

While I don't think she means it in a literal sense, I’ve learned not to take inspiration for granted.

That's why, no matter what I’m doing, I always write it down, which frequently happens while journaling.

Rereading these entries allows me to rediscover old creative ideas, find only partially developed ones, or maybe even come up with completely new ones.

For example, many of my articles and YouTube videos are actually compilations of thoughts, reflections, or solutions to past problems I came up with while journaling.

Revisiting those entries later helps me identify problem-solution pairs and turn them into something (hopefully) useful for others.

So yes, rereading past journal entries isn't just an exercise of passively reconstructing past events, but can help bring back some old creativity to life.

Wrapping up

Hope I have convinced you to spend some time reviewing your past journal entries. If so, there's a step-by-step guide on how to reflect on these entries coming out next week.

In the meantime, if you found this article interesting, you might also enjoy this one, where I talk about a journaling system I use to process how I feel: https://www.karogsr.com/my-thought-and-emotion-management-system/

Take care xx