Right now, I am sitting here at my desk trying to start on something that I know I should have started years ago. I wish I had started years ago… but late is still better than never. What I am trying to start doing is journaling. Not just in a notebook or privately on my computer, but publicly.

Why I wish I had started a long time ago

Writing things down was never one of my strong suits. I almost never took notes in school. I only increased the frequency of my note taking slightly in college. I tried to use a planner a couple times and gave it up within a week or two each time it tried. All throughout middle school, high school, and college, I kept almost everything in my head. Back then, I was actually kindof proud of the fact that I didn’t need to use a planner or notes to remember things. I was also lazy… so if I didn’t have to write something down, I wasn’t going to.

Of course now I realize that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Looking back, I actually wish I had written all that stuff down. Not because it would have helped me at the time, but because I think it would be cool to be able to look back and see what I was doing on a specific date or what I was thinking about at the time. I would have loved to be able to look back and see what I thought about Stephanie, now my wife, in 10th grade before we started dating, but I can’t. I would have loved to look back on what I was thinking when I started my first company… June 10th, 2011 I think it was… but I can’t do that either. I can hardly remember the exact date. WTF me.

So that is why I wish I had started years ago. The memories from those days are gone. I will never be able to recall what exactly happened the day I started my first business, or the day that Tabus Nine Computing released it’s first app to the Google Play store, or when it was that I thought I about marrying Steph for the first time, or even something as recent my thoughts about when my mom and I went to our first real estate seminar which got me to where I am now. Sure, I can still remember those things… but I want to be able to look at my journal and see exactly what happened. Memories change every time you recall them. The events are static, my memory of them is not. If I had just written about them as they occurred there would be an accurate record of what happened on that day. …from my perspective at least.

#Why I am finally getting around to it now It has only been over the past year or two that I have started to think about this. It has held a fairly high position on my priority list for maybe 6 to 8 months now, yet I am just starting to do it now. Over the past couple months, I have been avidly listening to Tim Ferriss’s pod casts (I urge anyone who hasn’t heard of them to go check them out immediately). It seems like almost everyone that he interviews, along with Tim Ferriss himself, is a big proponent of journaling or writing in some way. So, as you can imagine, writing has been moving up my priority list steadily since I started listening. One person in particular finally pushed me over the edge though, Derek Sivers. In his interview with Tim, he was talking about his directives project. One of them struck a chord in me.

Get famous: Do everything in public and for the public. The more people you reach the more useful you are. The opposite is hiding, which is of no use to anyone. (source)

Im not sure why this particular quote ended up being the final straw. Thank you Derek.

Future

As one could probably tell by reading the above sections, I plan on posting stuff fairly frequently. Hopefully, something I say will be useful to someone somewhere. If not, that’s ok too. The point of this really isn’t to try to push my thoughts on people, it’s so I can look back some day and read my account of what happened that day without the fog and degradation of memory. Also, when I eventually have kids, they might find it interesting as well.

I’m thinking what I’ll do is preserve this blog for longer and more meaningful posts. Along with this blog, I am going to have a tumblr for more day to day thoughts. That one will probably end up looking more like a journal. I am also going to try to be more active on social media… mostly just Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. I need to be doing more things in public and for the public. If I am not sharing something, I am hiding it. Hiding is of no use to anyone.