The Ultimate Guide to Journaling: Change Your Life in 2026

About this video

In his annual journaling guide, Clark Kegley — who says he has journaled daily for over 10 years — presents his current method using a blank, unlined sketchbook swapped yearly. He argues journaling lets you consume your own ideas instead of only others’ content and counters shrinking attention by slowing down and focusing. The front cover holds 1% lessons for the year: short quotes, sayings and intentions, plus personal reference points including a mortality number calculated from 32,850 days to age 90 minus age times 365, a Myers-Briggs type, and strengths from Martin Seligman’s test. The back cover holds goals in three areas — work, rest and play — with Kegley recommending three big goals per area and arguing progress, driven by anticipation and dopamine, is what makes people happy. Inside, he now uses three sections instead of six: Student for learning and book notes, Creative for content and business brainstorming, and Freedom for brain dumps and prompted free writing.

Key takeaways

• Creator’s method: use a blank sketchbook, swap it yearly, and structure it with front cover, back cover and three internal sections
• Front cover is for 1% lessons and identity anchors, including quotes, a mortality days-remaining number, personality type and strengths
• Back cover holds work, rest and play goals to keep life balanced; imbalance, he says, leads to sloth, burnout or unsustainability
• Creator argues dopamine comes from anticipation and progress toward goals, not just attaining the end result
• His three sections are Student, Creative and Freedom, replacing an earlier six-section system he found unevenly used

Episode details: published December 22, 2025 · 15:28 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Clark Kegley’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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