TCKs face many potential challenges from finding themselves to choosing careers to battling depression. What if there was one simple way that could help you successfully navigate all of these? There is. Keeping a journal could change your life.

Keeping a journal could be indispensable to finding yourself. Regularly writing down your thoughts and feelings can help you see certain patterns that will help you better understand your traits (both good and bad). Many people are willing to help you, but at the end of the day, you are the only person with the power to change your life. In order to do that, you must have an honest assessment of yourself.

Keeping a journal can be extremely beneficial to TCKs in other ways as well, especially in choosing careers and recovering from depression.

Many TCKs may have difficulty choosing careers and setting goals because they have seen the world, and consequently, their perception of what is possible is often greater than that of their non-TCK peers. But too many choices can be daunting. Keeping a journal may help identify the most important goal or career to you: the one you write about most often.

Some TCKs suffer from depression, a deep rut that feels inescapable. Keeping a journal can help you get out by giving you a sense of measurable progress. Maybe you recorded 20 consecutive bad days, but you also had one good day. What made it good? If you can figure that out and duplicate it, you’ll eventually have two good days. And someday you’ll have more good days than bad.

Keeping a journal is easy, and it has some distinct advantages over other traditional methods of expression. You don’t have to do it every day, and it needn’t adhere to any particular format. It costs little (a pen and paper will suffice), has no stigma associated with it, and you needn’t worry about burdening your friends and family. Keeping a journal is not a substitute for therapy, friends, and family; however, the ability to write whatever, whenever, and wherever you want may be the most effective way of getting in touch with your thoughts and true feelings.

People’s major concern about keeping a journal seems to be that someone might read it, but honestly, access to your journal is likely easier to control than the confidentiality of your medical history and your friends and family.

The potential benefits of keeping a journal are immense, and the costs are negligible. Give it a shot; it might change your life. It has changed mine in every way imaginable.