How journaling can teach lessons and help make sense of the ups and downs of life

My first journaling experience came on advice from the Des Moines Register.

After mustering the courage to propose writing an article about playing on the University of Iowa basketball team in 1981, the Register suggested – with no guarantee they’d publish it – that I keep a diary over the final month of the season detailing our pursuit of a Big Ten championship.

When the season ended, I mailed my journal to Des Moines. The eventual article was my first, and it took up a full page in the Sunday Register Peach sports section.

I didn’t realize then that writing every day for a month straight would sow seeds of a lifelong habit.