#1 Reason People Don't Journal

There are many reasons to write in a journal or diary, but only one reason most people don't, even when they say they want to: "I don't have time."

What a crock.

I know you're busy. I know you don't know what to write. There's so much going on, you don't know where to start. You started a journal once, but then stopped, and you don't want to continue in that journal because so much time has passed, so you need to buy a new one.

I've heard it all.

Fact is, if you have time to go to Starbucks for a coffee, or watch a TV movie, or read Facebook every hour, then you have a few minutes to write in a journal.

I've kept a journal since 1983. I write whatever the hell I want to write about. I write about my day. I write about the news. I write about funny things I heard and saw. I write about my son, things I know I (and he) will forget before long.

I cross out mistakes. I draw pictures and doodles. I write about TV shows I watched, and movies, and music I enjoy. I tape concert tickets into it. I vent.

Why? Who cares?

Well, I do.

I consider journaling my own special history project. Can you imagine reading your great, great, great grandfather's journal? Learning what life was like back then. What things cost. What he did on a normal, average day. What he thought about life?

How cool would that be?

It's easy to ignore daily life. Work, breakfast, whatever. Been there, done that. Until those things change. You leave your job, you move to a new home. Then you start trying to remember what those times were like.

I write about stuff like that, in my own handwriting. I like recalling snippets of conversations that made me smile, or shake my head in amazement or disgust. And I'm betting that my son, and his children, and his children's children (if I'm so lucky) might find it interesting, too.

Sometimes you find yourself in a spot where there are so many incredible things going on that you can barely keep up with them in your journal, and think, "I've gotta write a book about this!"

That's why I'm writing a book about Dove Books.