Moving beyond daily journals to find the professional context of your story.
Journaling. Even as adults, it remains a form of recording our lives that we often hold onto only in our hearts. While countless social media accounts capture our stories through photos and videos, they only grasp fragments of a moment. They rarely weave together the broader context or the deeper narrative of a life. At best, they serve as a digital scrapbook—helpful for reminiscing, much like flipping through an old photo album and thinking, “Ah, I remember that.”
For many, daily journaling feels like a chore. It is a mission to be accomplished, or a lingering mental debt. We sometimes wonder if a seemingly “ordinary” life even requires a journal. Up to this point, this is entirely about ‘my’ need—the perspective of the person living that life.
What about others?
If there is someone you want to know, or someone you wish to understand deeply, you need their story. People wonder how their mentors—be they entrepreneurs, influential politicians, or authoritative scholars—solved problems. They ask what environments and willpower drove those people. These lives are eventually organized into biographies through numerous records and proofs.
Let’s narrow the scope.
How much do I truly know about my own family? From my parents’ shy love stories before I was born to the lives my grandparents led—what were their journeys like? We wish we could ask, but in many cases, it’s not easy to create the space for such conversations, and sometimes, they are simply no longer with us.
There are moments when I’ve wanted to ask: Why were you in that place, in that form? What choices did you make at those critical crossroads? I often wonder if the parts of myself I don’t fully understand might actually stem from you.
The “Expert” of One’s Own Life
Each person is the expert of their own life. The context in which I lived, the decisions I made after careful consideration, and even my hesitations—they were the best possible choices at that moment. The difference between an expert and a non-expert often lies in the “external perspective.”
Think of a professional scholarly paper. It takes what might seem like a trivial discovery to an outsider and organizes it so professionally that it becomes a meaningful stepping stone in academia. While an outsider might not feel its full weight, the “structure” gives it value.
Finding a Facilitator for Your Story
If there is someone whose life you are curious about, talk to them often. Record those conversations in your own journal. However, even with the best intentions, it is often overwhelming to know how to begin those precious conversations.
Just as a scholar weaves a small observation into a formal paper, there are times when you clearly need a ‘facilitator’—someone who can weave a person’s life into an objective and professional context. Doing so provides an opportunity to organize your own life through the lens of another’s. After all, your story is a record that someone else, somewhere, is waiting to read.
Story Table 
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