by Stacey Lane, Career Coach and Consultant
Coaching is all about getting down to the essence. By asking the right questions, coaching helps you get to what’s important. Career journaling is similar. By regularly writing about your thoughts and emotions about your career, you’ll dig deeper and discover what’s really going on. When you empty your most honest and truthful thoughts onto paper, the essence will eventually appear. The options that are unclear today, will become apparent. Your random and unconnected thoughts will show patterns. Insights will emerge in your words.
Researchers have discovered that the unemployed who write about their experience, their circumstances and emotions, are more likely to get rehired. And they get hired more quickly. The researchers conclude that people who use writing to help deal with job loss can reduce stress and purge negative emotions that sabotage reemployment efforts. Journaling about your career situation doesn’t just help those that are unemployed. It’s a powerful way to get clarity about your direction and to help you sort though confusion, anxiety and roadblocks.
Journaling can help you access your inner, "gut" feelings and emotions. It provides a safe place to explore your fears and sort through feelings in a private way. When you’re more in touch with what’s going on with the "inner you" there’s a fresh clarity to your choices and options. And, the most brilliant decisions we make come from our gut. Researchers who study how managers think, confirm this. Tap into your intuitive wisdom, through journaling, and you’re likely to make better decisions.
Journaling helps move you towards your career goals faster. Recording your thoughts, emotions and ideas helps you make sense of your experience. Transferring your experiences to paper empties your cloudy thoughts and you become more clear-headed. You can keep track of your progress and gain new perspectives about your experiences, insights and feelings. Career struggles are an emotional process, and journaling is an inexpensive and creative way to guide you through the ups and downs.
The psychological and physical benefits of journaling have long been documented. People who regularly journal are healthier both emotionally and physically. In a 1986 article in Management Quarterly, it is suggested that journaling helps with two important parts of psychological well-being - knowing oneself intimately and keeping tabs on personal development.
Tips for career journaling:
Stacey Lane is a certified career coach who loves the challenge of working with professionals in their 20s-40s who are struggling with fulfilling their potential and answering the question "What should I do with my life?" Using an innovative and intuitive four step process, Stacey specializes in helping others make changes and develop their careers to the fullest.
1 Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 37, No. 3 (June 1994), pp. 722-734.
2 Business 2.0, Vol. 3, No. 11, (Nov. 2002), pg. 98
3 Psychology Today, Vol. 24, No. 6 (Nov/Dec. 2001), pp 66-70
© 2005 Stacey Lane