At the beginning of this year, I made a few challenges to myself. One of those challenges was to journal every single day, whether it was about what I did or just random thoughts I had. Writing is one way that I allow myself to destress and refocus, so I thought that journaling every day might be really beneficial for me.

I'll admit, there were a lot of days that I missed. I didn't even come close to journaling every single day, but despite that, I learned a lot about myself this year because of that challenge, and I think that everyone should try it, too.

A lot of the time, journaling did become a way for me to escape my busy life and focus on something else. It allowed me to reflect on my day, including both the parts that made me happy and the parts that failed to do so, and collect all my thoughts in one place before returning to normal life. But over time, it also became so much more than that.

As I look back on all of my entries now, I can see so much growth in myself. I have been through so much over the past year, and it's crazy to see how much I've developed from all of it. I'm surrounded by new people and have experienced so many things that have changed me into a totally different person than I was a year ago. Everything in my life isn't perfect by any means, but it's so much better than it was at the start of the year.

This challenge to myself was one of the best decisions that I ever made, and I'm going to try to do it every year. It's important to be able to look back and see how far you've come, especially when things seem to be complete chaos. It's made me feel so much better about where I'm at because I know that I have already come so far.

So, I challenge everyone else to try and journal every day, too. Even if writing isn't really your thing, you might be surprised once you try it. And trust me, it can be hard. I know for a fact that there were days — and sometimes weeks — where I didn't even want to think about adding another activity to my to-do list. But it's SO worth it, and the truth is, it doesn't even have to be every day. I promise, you'll see more growth in yourself than you probably think.