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Michelle Obama’s Becoming was the best-selling book of 2018! If you enjoyed it, you’re in luck, because Michelle is going to release a companion journal next month! It will be out on November 19th and is called Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice. People has more:
The companion journal is intended to help readers capture their own journeys through life.
It “includes more than 150 inspiring questions and quotes that resonate with key themes in Mrs. Obama’s memoir and that are designed to help readers reflect on their personal and family history, their goals, challenges, and dreams, what moves them and brings them hope, and what future they imagine for themselves and their community,” according to publisher Penguin Random House.
Here’s an excerpt from the introduction by Michelle:
“I’d only kept a journal for a short period of my life, for a couple of years during my late twenties as I was getting more serious with Barack and contemplating a new career. It was a tumultuous time filled with change, and I found that dedicating time to writing my thoughts down helped me navigate all the transitions. Then I put it away and didn’t pick it up again until I began writing my memoir. Instantly, I was transported back to that earlier version of myself, with all the warmth, heartbreak, and frustration flooding in.
“The experience left me asking myself, ‘Why didn’t I journal more?’ The answer, like for so many of you, I’m sure, was that I simply got busy. I switched careers. I got married. I had children. Somewhere along the line, I ended up in ball gowns at the White House, however that happened.
“Looking back, I wish I’d taken more time to write down what I was thinking and feeling. I didn’t journal much because I talked myself out of it—journaling can feel a little intimidating and layered with implication, the idea being that once you put pen to paper, your thoughts have extra weight and meaning.
“What I recognize now, though, is far more simple: We don’t have to remember everything. But everything we remember has value.'”
I have 2749506 journals lying around. Some are completely empty. Most include entries for January 1 (when I have a flash of inspiration: “Now is a good time to start habitually journaling!). If I make it to January 15, that’s an accomplishment. For people who journal regularly (and who like Michelle Obama and writing prompts), this will be a great gift. It’s also a genius way to capitalize on the success of her memoir and it allows her to continue to help other people, even though her husband is no longer in the White House. I hope that Michelle ends up with another record-breaking publication.
I still haven’t read Becoming though. (I have a very tall TBR pile.) If I read it, will the past nearly 3 years be wiped out?
I have a “few feet tall pile” worth of empty journals and A “few feet tall pile” worth of completed journals…. I REALLY need this one!
I’m nearing the end of a very intense work project. At the beginning of the project we were given a notebook to use as we wished during the project. 4 months later the project is almost complete and reviewing the earlier notes are hilarious! And occasionally insightful. I wish I’d noted down even more though…I could write a book from it.
I am intrigued by this!
I have these phases where I journal and then I stop. Looking back I really wish I did it more though, not only to remember but also because it can be very healing. I should probably start again
I recently started writing in journals again after a 15 year break, it really does feel amazing. It helps me control my thoughts and keeps my anxiety down. I love reading my journals from middle school to just beyond college, I never would’ve remembered a lot of that stuff! I took a long break because someone read my journals and tried to use it against me, and it was the second time, I felt so violated and embarrassed that I stopped writing. So, please don’t ever read anyone’s private thoughts, I know it’s tempting but don’t do it:)
I started writing a journal when I was 10 and I still have those first pages with me. I feel like writing one keeps you connected to your true self. I’ll take a look at Obama’s version, but to me, the way the journal feels in my hands is important and I don’t like hard, bookish ones. My favorite are those soft, bendy ones, with a string around them.
I’ve been keeping journals for all my life: it has become a habit when i was twelve or thirteen and I’ve never really questioned it – it’s like brushing my teeth. I seldom re-read them, but when I do I am always surprised by how vivid i can remember this or that particular day – down to the weather and the clothes I wore on that day, even though i almost never wrote down these details. That being said, there is nothing I hate more that guided journals – there is something almost condescending about all these little questions and motivational quotes, and “how is your mood today on the scale from…” or “describe your life goals in five words”. So, as much as I adore Michelle Obama, it’s a hard pass from me.
I have been thinking I should start journaling. I used to keep a diary in middle school/early high school and I wish I had kept going with it.
I did keep a journal for the semester I studied abroad and I’m so glad I did. Its fun to look back at it and read what we did on certain days, towns we visited, what I liked and didn’t like, etc. I didn’t record any deep thoughts or anything, its much more of “tonight for dinner we had fish. I think Un Paso Adelante is on tv tonight and we are going to watch that.” stuff like that. But its still fun to look back on it.
Duchess Meg is sorry she didn’t think of this first!
And Duchess Kate is sorry she can’t claim credit for it.
Lol! Good one!
Lol so this is a blank journal with some inspirational quotes in it? Are the proceeds going to charity? Gotta hand it to her, she’s developing a brand. (A positive, aspirational brand, but one nonetheless).
I dont understand why this would be in a book. Buy your own journal and write your own inspired thoughts. Then again maybe she needs the money, not.
There is an awesome podcast called Grown-Ups Read Things They Wrote as Kids and it’s hilarious.
Made me wish I had kept a journal on the regular when I was a kid.
Have you listened to Mortified? Same concept and some cringe-worthy stories!
My father was a busy body, and would sneak around and read my brother’s journal, and then punished him for the contents in it! So no I kept photos instead. Or drew. I tried a bullet journal for a few months last year when I was changing countries and it helped to get me organised, and it led me to a hobonichi weeks (which I bought in Berlin), where I’ve found my journal OTP. I don’t need much, just the left side for big tasks in the day, a gridded page to the right to fill in stuff. If I want to GO ALL IN, there are 60 pages at the back to add to the day.
I’m looking to do a language journal in my target language and am thinking of getting a traveller’s journal, but that won’t be for a while, yet.
I have started and abandoned so many journals. That’s not going to stop me from buying this one.
I just pre-ordered mine!! As I’m currently going through a lot of transitions in my life I’m excited to have a way to put my thoughts in order, clarify my goals and keep myself on track.
I begun journaling 3 weeks ago at my therapist’s recommendation to check and identify all of my negative thoughts. I now write every day and it has helped me a lot. I plan on making it a habit and I’ll look into Michelle’s guided journal! Seems like a good idea.
I have an entire storage tub filled with the journals I’ve kept since I was 5 (my earliest was written in a tiny Cabbage Patch journal; it’s only a few pages long where I complaining about my sister in terrible spelling) and another bin filled with the blank notebooks and guided journals I can’t stop buying. It’s not good.
I’ve kept various journals over the years, but nothing ever really stuck UNTIL!!! I saw the One Line A Day: A Five-Year Memory Book on someone’s instagram or something and I bought myself one. I finished up my first five year journal about 2 weeks ago and just started on the second!
It’s like a TimeHop that you write yourself – just a little blurb about each day. It has been great since having my two girls and being able to capture snippets of the day.
I’ve journaled for a long time. One time I caught myself thinking, “I can’t wait to get to my notebook and tell myself all about this.”
Im here for it. Im so lazy at journaling even though once i start on it i tend to enjoy it. I tend to debate with myself on whether to go the hardcopy route (and risk someone reading it) or go the app route (and risk losing it all once i change or lose phones).
I enjoyed Becoming and im really looking forward to Barack’s book too.
I’ve never kept a journal, but lately I feel like it would be therapeutic. So many transitions. I just feel like it would read like a very depressing book and would feel weird about having that lay around, haha. I dunnooo.
I finished her book just before seeing her at the Moda Center in Portland. The book is fantastic, but it was sad to read in light of how awesome she and Barack are and how horrible the current administration is. I still enjoyed it though, so definitely give it a try.