How to Change Your Life by Journaling in 2026

[00:01] you can use journaling to change your life. I have been journaling consistently since 2015, pretty much every day through a combination of that journaling has been the single habit that has most positively impacted

[00:15] things that I've done over the last 10 years that have led to my life being think that if you haven't started journaling yet, if you start doing it, life for the better. So, this video is going to be split up into three parts.

[00:28] journaling is a big deal and why it's important in the first place. Secondly, levels of journaling. And thirdly, I'm going to share some actionable tips that to your life today if you want your life to be changed. And if you're interested

[00:40] journaling prompts, they'll be linked in updated and have done for years with my favorite journaling prompts. So, you can just download that and go if that's [music] what you are into.

[00:57] I've done on the channel about the importance of journaling. But when I know that they kind of should probably maybe be doing some journaling, but they are not doing it consistently. Or if they are doing consistently, they're not

[01:11] really like to get from journaling. So, the key thing here is that it's pretty uncontroversial to say that the actions that you take dictate kind of your take positive actions that would lead you on a good trajectory or you could

[01:26] trajectory like you know probably scrolling Tik Tok for eight hours a day take you on a negative trajectory but learning some high income skills and example might take you on a more positive trajectory. All of this is the

[01:40] action that we take upstream of the action is a decision. So for example, the decision I made to start this YouTube channel in 2017 directly led to for the last like eight years and that has had a very positive impact on my

[01:53] financially free and I'm able to do all the fun things and you know this gets to you if you've been following the journey for any length of time. But that all stemmed from a decision to let's start a YouTube channel, right? And so then the

[02:05] decision form? And that decision forms as a result of thoughts and feelings and just the same thing as thoughts. They're just thoughts that we take more basically just comes down to thoughts and feelings. Some combination of

[02:20] particular decision. And then that decision leads to actions that change want to become financially free. That is a thought probably accompanied by some kind of feeling. It's like a desire for financial freedom. But loads of people

[02:32] Almost no one actually does anything about it and almost no one achieves the thought of I want financial freedom. And then you got to have a sort of feeling of confidence or a feeling of like want

[02:44] that it takes to become financially free. And then maybe you watch a video of mine or you come across some content that says starting a business is a good just trying to get ahead in your career or whatever the thing might be. So

[02:57] start a business. And then when you have the thought of I should start a business of I should start a business and yet when I pulled people in my audience like 78% of you want to start a business but you haven't yet started a business. So

[03:10] back and that would be another thought in terms of like what business idea along the thought of I want financial freedom I should start a business. the pursue or that question in your mind. This this is also accompanied by a lot

[03:24] also these other internal things that you know internal bodily sensations that we apply some kind of label to. So the feeling of anxiety, the feeling of fear, the feeling of like cringe at the thought of like outing yourself as a

[03:37] like oh but like am I going to have to show my face? Am I going to have to create content? Am I going to have to speak to people? and like what if I get all of these are feelings accompanied by thoughts like thought feeling

[03:49] thoughts like thought feeling combinations that block loads of people should start a business or I want financial freedom. The thoughts and the taking action on doing the thing. Now what the hell does all of this have to

[04:01] do with journaling is journaling is literally the process of writing down your thoughts and your feelings and to an extent your beliefs. And the thing particular thoughts like when they are in your mind and they are not on paper

[04:16] they have way more power over us. The the thought of if I start my business then my colleagues will laugh at me is a thought that I hear a lot from students is kind of like my online business school. It tends to be like

[04:29] their in their day jobs and in their lives who really want to start a they're really worried that their colleagues will laugh at them if they start posting on LinkedIn for example. Now, saying that out loud, it seems

[04:41] dumb, right? Like, why would you let the thought of what Jane from HR thinks with her 10 years ago, why would you let that stop you from achieving financial freedom? But when that thought is in the mind and it's just like in our heads and

[04:54] thought of like Jane from HR is going to laugh at me, therefore everyone else will laugh at me, therefore like I'm going to lose my professional reputation going to end up broke and homeless and alone. And these are not like conscious

[05:07] thought processes, but it tends to be what the mind does because the mind is a survival machine and it's geared towards protecting us from bad things. It is not at all geared towards helping us live the life life of our dreams. The mind is

[05:20] totally happy if we stay completely miserable but in our comfort zone. In our comfort zone of safety. The mind is optimizing for safety, not for growth. And in general, if you want to take actions that optimize your life and take

[05:32] life has changed for the better, we want to be optimizing for growth rather than the right tool to do this. One example that I quite like is like, you know, complicated like designing a bridge. Would you try and do that in your head?

[05:45] very very complicated devices that require loads of like engineering and ma architectural stuff and material science and all that stuff goes together with don't do it in their heads. they put it down on paper, right? And so if you're

[06:00] mathematical equation, of course you would put it down on paper. And yet and feelings on paper. We have them in our heads at all times. And then what feelings run rampant and start running going down rabbit holes and stuff. We

[06:13] those, but because we're doing them subconsciously, we don't realize that like anxiety and fear and cringe and like the fear of rejection and like what kind of stuff. We just don't realize that that stuff is holding us back from

[06:27] start journaling, going back to journaling, when you start journaling, writing down your thoughts and your feelings when you write them down, I am not starting my business because I am worried that Sarah from accounting will

[06:41] laugh at me. You write that down and suddenly that particular thought loses Sarah, really? Am I am I really going to let what Sarah from accounting thinks freedom? That's just dumb. And then you can kind of see your thoughts

[06:54] have a journaling practice or a meditation practice, which is sort of somewhat similar in that it has somewhat similar effects to an extent. Unless you practice, you probably take your thoughts way too seriously. And so when

[07:07] rabbit holes, you are allowing those thoughts which are really just, you of like the cloud in the sky, right? Like I mean, yeah, there's a cloud thought of like, oh, lunchtime's in an hour. I was like, who cares? There's a

[07:20] cloud going there. there's a car going there. Like it's all just it's all just stuff, right? And unless you journal or meditate or both, ideally, you will take those very seriously. And you will allow your thoughts, which are simply patterns

[07:33] of energy in the neurons in your mind, you will allow those to dictate your actions and your decisions. And therefore, you end up on a trajectory you never pursued your dreams because you allowed fear to get in your way and

[07:46] roundabout way of saying that journaling, i.e. Writing down thoughts if you want to change your life. Now, in other exciting news, as you might have building an online business school called the Lifestyle Business Academy,

[07:59] pretty fast pace. Now, one of the big perks of having so many students going through our program is that we now have a ton of [music] data points and moving feedback and workflows and automations. And all of that gets way easier when you

[08:12] something that has really helped me and the team with this is Brilliant, who are have these fantastic interactive courses how the AI large language models works, how to think about algorithms, how to

[08:24] been very interesting to learn about, but has also had a tangible impact on more effectively. The thing I love about Brilliant is that they don't just teach approach to problem solving that genuinely changes how you approach your

[08:38] the content, like you're watching the stuff and the explanations and then practice. And that gives you these little aha moments which is great for research shows is way more effective than just traditional kind of

[08:50] also adapts to you at the right level. and it nudges you forward at exactly the pace you need. So if you would like to some serious learning goals along the way, head over to brilliant.org/aliadal

[09:03] the link in the description and that will also get you 20% off the annual much Brilliant for sponsoring the video and let's get back to it. Okay, so now we get to how do you actually do this? And I think of this as the three levels

[09:17] complete beginners to journaling and it's super super easy. You just write the morning you can write down what you did yesterday or in the evening you can is a fantastic book by a lovely chap called Matthew Dixs called Storyworthy.

[09:32] basically a book about like how to tell better stories. But it's more than about books of all time. Anyway, the idea behind Homework for Life is at the end of every day, you just ask yourself, what was the most storyw worthy moment

[09:45] sort of write down what it might be. And if you can't think of anything that was got to come up with something like what was just one thing that happened in your interesting or at least slightly more interesting than everything else. Even

[09:58] if you have a really boring life, you have to come up with something. And that it's amazing for being able to actually relive your own memories because our on. And so when you go back through your journals like I've got journals over

[10:12] journaling regularly since 2015. So now I have like 10 years worth of journal an app I can see sort of on this day in 2015 on this day in 2014 this is what I reliving those memories is generally quite nice because it's quite nostalgic

[10:28] nice because it lets you see how far you've come. So at the very basic level, about your feelings or about your childhood trauma or anything like that. did today. Then you have the next level of journaling, which is you write out

[10:43] technique from Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way, called morning pages, by it. And the idea behind morning pages is that every morning you just write out if three is too if three is too many. You're just literally writing down

[10:57] like to start out my morning pages when I do it with today is going to be a great day because and then I just keep writing. And then the idea is you just you're writing. No one else has to read what you're writing. You're not writing

[11:10] writing out stuff that comes to your mind. And you generally find that in the process of doing this as you build the connection between the thoughts that are pen is saying or if you're typing it out. Technically, she says you should

[11:23] write it out by by hand, but sometimes that's annoying. So, I do type it out. that connection between actually being able to type out or write out what you're thinking, you actually get a lot of insight into your thought processes,

[11:36] thinking are actually kind of negative. Huh, it's interesting. Why am I talking have any kind of creative practice, any kind of like if you're creating content do any art or anything that involves creating and putting anything out there

[11:51] into the world, often the process of like getting your thoughts out on paper well. Then as a sort of addition to that, instead of just writing what you're thinking, you also write what you are feeling and trying to put your

[12:03] super super helpful. It gives us a lot of self-awareness about the feelings experiencing different feelings at different times of the day. It is remarkable just how much our feelings subconsciously dictate our decisions and

[12:16] able to write it out, huh, I'm currently feeling a little anxious. Why am I feeling a little anxious? I feel a sense of like franticness that's sort of just maybe running out of time and that's

[12:28] and franticness that if I don't do all the things then I don't know something bad will happen. Now that thought process or that feeling process in our brains and in our bodies will run rampant and we'll just be like a little

[12:42] burnout without realizing it. But as soon as you start journaling and you you can be like huh that's interesting. Why do I act as if I'm running out of no, not really. I wonder where that thought comes from. And then what

[12:55] approaching your thoughts and your feelings kind of like a detective or it's interesting that I have the thought, this video sucks right now in it. Hm, I wonder where that thought comes from. Maybe that comes from

[13:11] to add as a YouTuber is in like whether I add scientific data to my videos. Huh, like having the sort of conversation with yourself, but you're not having the where it's very easy for it to get to derail into like negativity and stuff.

[13:27] yourself on paper or copy paste into chat and then get an analysis from Chad gives you way more insight into your own thought patterns and your own feeling is that once you're able to do that kind of stuff, which is it's not that hard,

[13:40] goals and your plans. Now, this is where I really like journaling, right? Like just being able to write out what you're feeling. But for me as a productivity bro who cares about like goal achievement and like getting places like

[13:53] You then start writing about your goals and plans. You then start writing like whatever thing thinking and feeling. And then at some point you'll start writing journaling prompt that says something like you know what would you like people

[14:07] huh that's an interesting question. What would I like people to say at my people don't won't really care about like my sort of achievements. They're I have. But at my funeral, you know, people generally talk about service and

[14:19] they talk about character. So, hm, what's the kind of service that I would What's the kind of character I'd like to develop? And now you are in the mode of make sensible decisions about what you want to do with your life. You might

[14:34] does your ideal end state look like? Like imagine you've achieved everything like? You're like, "Huh, I've never thought about that." Okay, let's imagine imagine I have started that business or got that promotion or gotten them, you

[14:48] etc., etc. What then? What would I actually be spending my time doing? I'm like, well, maybe, you know, I I just I really like to do standup comedy. Oh, from? Like, yeah, I'd really like to do standup comedy. That would be really

[15:02] interesting. Or I'd really like to write songs or like release my own album or whatever that that thing might be. often like we don't give ourselves permission to think [music] in those sorts of ways because we are so fixated on what's the

[15:14] next thing that I have to do. A lot of us are running through life, ticking things off a to-do list, acting as if our time is running out and we're so focused on like just getting through the day and just getting the stuff ticked

[15:26] got to pay the electricity bill, got to pay the water bill, a like the radiator next door is broken so I got to call a plumber about that, etc., etc., minutes or 10 minutes and you do it consistently, you get distance [music]

[15:40] thinking about the future and you can start asking yourself what do I actually want? That is like one of the key things that I have personally gotten through journaling over the years [music] just a better sense of what do I

[15:55] actually want? Because if you really figure out what you want and you know, Lamborghini or I want a yacht or whatever, but like what you intrinsically want or value, you can then start to make decisions that take

[16:08] your life closer in alignment to what you want and what you value. And so you money, but in the process of journaling, you might realize that like, okay, well, it? You might realize that what you would do is that you just want freedom.

[16:20] your time however you want. And then you're like, all right, cool. So it's you're like, okay, but like why do I want the freedom, right? Like what would I do if assuming I had all the money and all the freedom? How would I spend my

[16:33] like I did that like, you know what, I would really just focus on teaching. I interesting. Teaching is the thing that I want to do. Like that kind of thought process was what helped me realize that, you know, my career as a doctor wasn't

[16:45] the most enjoyment I ever had in as a doctor was when either I was learning something. So I'm like, huh, that's interesting. like learning and teaching are the things that I seem to want. Is that true? And then do some journaling,

[16:58] actually a lot of the past experiences of fulfillment in my life have been something new or I've been teaching something. So, I don't really care about care about the money because the money gets me freedom and the freedom lets me

[17:10] teach. Oh, okay. So, maybe that's what I want. I want the freedom to learn and teach on my own terms. And so, that kind of insight can come through journaling. It can come through like having a life coach. It can come through talking about

[17:22] model and you know hopefully it's guiding you somewhat guiding you in the externalizing your own thoughts and your own feelings because when they are them and we end up going in all these sorts of different places but

[17:35] through journaling or through talking to an AI which is kind of basically which is basically just like journaling out loud and they're just asking you questions. All of that is getting at the question of what do I actually want? And

[17:47] then once you figure out what you want, then you turn it into a goal. You turn system to follow the plan. This is sort of like my GPS uh method for goal interested in learning more about it. And it's all based on what do you

[18:02] hey, how do I figure out what to do with first question is often, have you tried journaling about it? And often the yeah, I've been meaning meaning to, but I haven't really got around to it. It is

[18:15] remarkable how much clarity you can get by just setting a 10-minute timer and just asking yourself a question and then just typing out whatever comes to mind as a response. If you're interested in an app to help you with that, my team

[18:28] Pal, which is kind of like voice- based journaling or note-taking. You just go prompts within it as well, and you can just like pick a prompt and you can just the App Store. It's on Android. People are loving it. It's great. You should

[18:41] are loving it. It's great. You should check it out if you would like. now talk about the actionable tips. What are the things you can tangibly journaling into your life so that you can change your life. Number one, I

[18:54] would say get a physical journal. These are just some of the physical journals that I have had over the years. Um, I got a new one recently. Basically, I just love getting Harry Potter themed

[19:07] journals. So, this is like a Ravenclaw I got from South Africa. Um, oh, I got this one. This is one that Expectto Patronum. Another Harry Potter Moleskin like journal. It's just nice

[19:22] having a nice journal. I think a lot of people would do more journaling. Where's Where's the other one? Ah, here we go. We got some more here. More journals. Like, you know, when you've been journaling for a while, then

[19:34] journals and stuff and it's just super cool. Like, this was my experiment with like bullet journaling where I was like, w so much stuff in here. It's really cool. Basically, get a physical journal that you feel good about using. The

[19:48] Productivity, is that we are far more likely to do things and to do things better if we feel good about doing them. And so, when I bust out my cute bluepecto patronum type journal, then I feel good and I'm much more likely to

[20:01] actually journal as a result. So, I would say just go on Amazon, go to your local shop and get a nice cute physical journal that you feel good about writing in. Actionable tip number two is I would recommend also having a digital journal

[20:14] some kind of journaling app for that. Apple has a built-in free journaling app. The one I've been using for literally years is called Day One. I've been using that basically every week since like 2014ish. And so when you use

[20:28] photograph and scan in pictures of my physical journal. So I sort of do a it's really cool because then you can look back on stuff super easily rather than having to bust out the journals and then like find find stuff. So yeah,

[20:41] Action number tip number three is to get a list of prompts. If you're a beginner to journaling, actually just having some good prompts is a very good way of own favorite journaling prompts for free down below if you want to check them

[20:54] updated with my with my favorite journaling prompts. Actionable tip been number one, is that these days it's never been easier to start because you can always just talk to an AI. My favorite AI for this is Claude because I

[21:07] Claude, you can use ChachiPT, you can use Grock, you can use Deepsee, you can can use whatever you want. You can literally talk to any AI tool and you started with journaling. Can you give me some interesting prompts? And it will

[21:21] then you can just talk to the AI and you can do your journaling in that way if Final thing I want to talk about is journaling as a daily habit versus habit form of journaling when I personally do it is like you know

[21:36] day. I don't do it every day. I just do it most days where I'll get the I'll go down to the local coffee shop with my little Harry Potter journal thing and while drinking a coffee just do some journaling. That's like a nice

[21:50] daily type thing and I can kind of go as shallow or as deep on that as I would quite a nice way of building the habit and maintaining the habit. But what's really really want to make specific tangible changes to your life is setting

[22:05] out time like you know half a day like or even a couple of hours go to a new with you [music] and you know without getting distracted by your phone actually just taking 2 hours to almost do a mini retreat with yourself like a

[22:18] mini personal discovery or self-discovery type retreat where in the outside of like your normal experience and taking some journaling prompts with distracted with your phone, you're able to genuinely have insights into your

[22:32] help you set goals. And those goals ultimately lead to plans and systems and you're interested in the specific approach of how to do journaling and over here that talks about the think day approach to journaling. And it's a video

[22:47] where I take you through my own process for journaling across a period of like 4 hours long, but I take you through my own process of journaling as I go to like a new place here in Hong Kong where I live and I share with you my top 10

[22:59] particular love for like the think day approach to journaling. So, that'll be much for watching and I'll see you in the next video. Come back.