從今天開始寫日記的五個理由
1. Track Your Progress
If you're heading towards any sort of long-term goal, a simple journal can be a very powerful tool. In it, you can track your progress day by day and week by week. It might not seem like much at first – but pretty quickly, you'll find that you can flip back to previous weeks and see how you've improved.
The very act of recording something often helps you to be motivated to do it, too! This works really well for exercise programs, diets, reading plans, studying...
追蹤計劃的進展情況
如果你正朝向一個長期目標前進，那麼簡單的寫寫日記就是一個非常有效的工具。在日記中，你可以日復一日或者周復一週的追蹤計劃的進展情況。可能最初效果並不明顯---但是很快，你就會發現和幾周之前相比，自己已經取得了明顯進步。
記錄事件的行爲還能經常幫助你堅持做下去！這對於鍛鍊、控制食慾、閱讀計劃和學習等等非常有效。
2. Explore Your Thoughts
When I'm feeling upset or anxious, journaling almost always helps. It gives me a space to spill out what I really think, and often seeing it in black and white gives me a sense of perspective!
Many people find that writing about problems is actually more helpful than speaking about them.
開拓你的思想
當我感到低落或者緊張時，寫日記總是會幫我平靜下來。它讓我表達出內心的真實想法，並且讓我能客觀的看待問題！
許多人都注意到把問題寫出來其實比述說出來更有幫助。
3. Record Your Life
One day, your journal could be a very interesting historical document – for you, for your family, and potentially for a wider audience. Obviously, you might not want anyone to ever read the journal itself, but by recording details of your life, you'll have them for future reference.
Your memory will fade over time, and things which seem perfectly normal and commonplace now might be fascinating to your grandchildren. With technology changing especially rapidly, the world of the early 21st century might seem almost unrecognizable in a few decades. A journal can keep these memories alive.
記錄你的生活
有一天，你會發現你的日記變成了一本非常有趣的歷史記錄--對於你自己，你的家人，甚至一些潛在的更多的讀者。很明顯你可能不希望有人讀到自己的日記，但是通過記錄生活中的點點滴滴，你已經在爲將來的生活提供了參考。
你的記憶會隨着時間的流逝而褪色，現在看起來平淡無奇的事物，在若干年後或許就會讓你的子孫們爲之着迷。隨着人類技術的飛速發展，21世紀早期的樣子或許在幾十年之後就讓人無法辨認。一本日記可以讓這些記憶依舊鮮活。
4. Become More Self-Aware
If you keep a journal regularly over a period of time, you're going to become more aware of your own thoughts and feelings – and perhaps your failings. You'll spot patterns, both positive and negative ones.
Few of us take time on a daily or weekly basis to step out of the busy moment-by-moment flow of our lives. But this higher-level reflection can be incredibly important, even life-changing. A few sessions writing in your journal could lead to a breakthrough that gets you to change careers, get fit, or turn your life around.
變得更加敏銳
如果堅持寫一段時間的日記，你將對自己的思想和感覺更加敏銳--可能也包括你的弱點。你會發現積極和消極的模式。
很少有人能留意每天或者每週的忙碌生活中時刻發生的事情。但是這種更敏銳的反應非常重要，甚至能改變你的生活。在日記裏寫下幾段話能給你帶來事業上的改進，讓你變得更健康或者改變你的生活。
5. Improve Your Writing
Finally, keeping a journal will almost certainly help you to become a better writer. This might not be a benefit that you're necessarily looking for – but almost all of us have to write in some context (perhaps emails or reports at work).
Regularly journaling helps you get into the habit of writing, so that it seems like less of a chore. It can also help you to express yourself in different ways through words – perhaps you might write a poem in your journal, or deliberately try to expand your vocabulary.
提高你的寫作能力
最後，堅持寫日記肯定會幫助你成爲一個更好的作者。或許這不是你所渴求的---但你畢竟要用到寫作（或許是寫信，也可能是工作報告）。
堅持寫日記能幫助你養成寫作的習慣，讓寫作並不像是一件苦差事。它還能幫助你通過語言以多種途徑來表達思想---你可以在日記中寫一首詩，或者有意嘗試擴大你的詞彙量。
