the ultimate guide to keeping a journal

About this video

Kegley presents what he calls his six-in-one journaling method, which he says he has kept for eight years and calls the number one thing he has done to transform his life. The premise, in his telling, is that you already know the answers deep down and the journal is the place to listen for them, and he notes famous journal-keepers he lists as Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Oprah, Einstein and Da Vinci, claiming Bill Gates bought eight pages of Da Vinci’s codex in 1994 for over 30 million dollars. The front cover holds your name and year, plus a mortality calculation: 32,850 is, he says, the number of days from birth to age 90, and you subtract your age times 365 to see days used — an idea he links to Steve Jobs facing his mortality daily and to Stoic memento mori. The front cover also holds a one-page personal constitution or mission statement, top lessons from the year, and optionally a Myers-Briggs type — his is ENFJ. The back cover holds goals divided into work, rest and play, which he compares to an equilateral triangle that fails if one side is neglected, with two or three goals per area. The middle is divided into six sections meaningful to you, about 20 pages each; his examples include book notes, gratitude, a free-form freedom section, and business notes, plus a manifesto section for defining a 2.0 identity or dream character. He advises journaling from inspiration, not obligation, with no requirement to write daily, and argues handwriting carries an emotional energy digital typing does not.

Key takeaways

• Kegley’s six-in-one method consolidates separate fitness, business, self-development and other journals into one sketchbook divided into six personal sections.
• He puts a days-lived calculation on the front cover — 32,850 days to age 90 minus age times 365 — as a daily mortality motivator drawn from Jobs and Stoicism.
• The front cover acts as a constitution with a mission statement and the year’s top lessons, which he says get ingrained through repeated viewing every time the journal opens.
• Back-cover goals are split into work, rest and play, and he argues all three must stay balanced like an equilateral triangle or burnout or drift follows.
• He recommends journaling from inspiration rather than obligation, with no daily quota, and choosing handwritten entries because he believes handwriting carries energy digital text lacks.

Episode details: published January 3, 2022 · 13:07 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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