I’ve been journaling for quite some time now. For a while, I was sputtering in the dark about how I should do it and what specific purpose it would serve other than a dumping ground.

I didn’t want to spend entire notebooks solely ranting, but actually find a way to serve some good in my life. I took it a different approach.

There’s just one question I ask myself before I write:

Am I better today than I was yesterday?

It doesn’t have to be by much, but I seriously examine this question. I look at my actions, my thoughts and my words for the day and see if there was something that is moving me towards being the best version of myself.

I’m not striving to be another person, or live their life. Yes, it’s good to have role models (and I stole this idea from the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius), but they serve as guides, not goalposts.

There are thousands of areas in my life to look at and if there’s a day where I can’t claim to have improved in any one of them (and there have been many), I ask why.

What happened?
What can I learn from it?

Every day, I want to end it knowing I was at my best and tomorrow is going to be even better.

After all, it’s hard to regret a life where you’ve consciously given it your all.