Who told the Bros to start journaling?
The best-selling kids’ book “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” opens with the titular wimp Greg Heffley emphasizing that he’s writing a journal, not a diary. (Even though the notebook his mother bought him says “Diary” right on the front.)
You see, for fictional middle schoolers like Heffley, keeping a diary is considered the realm of teenage girls. (The series has some questionable notions about gender equity.)
But journaling has been going mainstream as part of a daily wellness routine that prioritizes mental health. And one surprising group in particular is taking it very seriously: the hustle bros on Instagram.
I suspect you already recognize the hustle bro genre, but I’ll attempt to describe it in case you’re not familiar: They’re male social media creators who post about workout routines and life hacks, and they’re often bodybuilders or extremely fit. They might be focused on financial goals, although the sources of their own flaunted wealth might be obscure (it seems in some cases that they got rich by selling online courses about how to get rich).
In “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” the protagonist is writing a journal — now it seems everyone is.
They exist somewhere within the broader world of the online manosphere but focus inward on the male self and “mindset” rather than the more explicitly toxic corners that focus outwardly on men’s place in society.
Don’t call it self-help, call it self-optimization
Journaling has become so mainstream that in 2022, Apple added a Journal app to its default suite of apps baked into the iPhone, prompting people to do a daily reflection as part of its ever-expanding health features.
The mainstream king of all this kind of stuff is Andrew Huberman, the musclebound neuroscientist with an incredibly popular podcast that has popularized all sorts of specific health advice on things like sleep and avoiding alcohol.
Huberman did an hourlong podcast about a “protocol” for journaling, which he said he based on academic research into the benefits of a specific journaling exercise where you write about your most traumatic moment for 15 to 30 minutes a week.
Most of the hustle bros I’ve seen talking about journaling don’t describe a specific journaling method. It’s not clear if they want men to reflect on their day, do something more like “The Artist’s Way” of “Morning Pages” (a stream-of-consciousness three pages first thing in the morning as a form of creativity), or something more like Huberman’s protocol.
Thomas Procopovich is a personal development and sales coach with almost 30,000 followers on Instagram. He’s affiliated with Andy Elliott, a sales coach with 2.5 million followers whose content urges men to be physically fit to improve their sales technique.
Procopovich told me that he’s been journaling for two years. He’s made content about the importance of journaling and mindset. “Men need to be able to write down their thoughts more and see how much they have grown,” he told me.
Vinny Brusco, a life coach and host of “The Council of Dudes Podcast,” talks often about mental wellness and masculinity. “I think we are seeing a major shift in what mental health looks like in general, especially for men,” he told B-17.
“It is becoming more and more acceptable for men to be vulnerable and expressive with their feelings. Guys are using different yet old modalities when it comes to mental health. It’s almost like we are going back to our roots in some way, with things like cold plunges, saunas, meditating, and even journaling.”
This is a group of men who are generally interested in improving themselves in very traditionally masculine ways (getting huge muscles, earning money).
And they’re increasingly seeing mental health as part of that improvement. Journaling seems like the perfect vehicle for that.
