Journaling - Learning from life

For the Past five months I have been keeping a journal. I have been encouraged my whole life to keep a journal and I resisted because I did not think that I was a good writer and I feared that someone would look at it and they would get a glimpse inside my head, which could be a scary thing. Five months ago I was convinced (finally) that those who do not learn from their own past are destined or cursed to relive it.  So I have been writing a daily Journal, I have been including events, thoughts, experiences and I have also included at the end of the entry a category labeled Therefore What. I read back on what I wrote that day and determine what can I learn from what I wrote. Then I try to make that learned principle actionable by deciding what can I do about it and then schedule a time to do it. The motivation of learning from my experiences and striving to be a little better each day is the reason I have kept it up for the last five months.

Therefore What:
What questions can I ask myself to do a better job of journaling and learning from my experiences?

• Taking and including photos in my journal
• Including links 
• Include quotes and passages from people and printed material 

What is your Motivation?

In the last couple of years I have made it my personal quest to learn how to learn. There are so many factors that play into someone "learning". I am first going to explore motivation in the learning process. Why does someone want to learn? With extrinsic or outside motivation learning is mostly a temporary and painful process, for an example see my high school years.  With externally driven intrinsic motivation (I know an oxymoron) learning is an endeavor that needs to be done in order to accomplish something else, for an example see my college years. With internally driven intrinsic motivation learning is a thrilling adventure, see my hobbies and interests. There is a final motivation which is a life well lived. This learning is self-actuated motivation of progressing and being a little better today than you were yesterday and better tomorrow than you are today, hopefully see my life.

I dare say that most learning in our lives falls somewhere in that continuum of motivation. So the question that i am going to ask you is why are you learning?

Therefore What:
What is the highest purpose/motivation you can connect to your immediate need to learn?