This is the essay for lessons 86-90 in the Autobiographies course from the Ronpaul curriculum. In this blog post, I will be covering the question:   What benefits can you get from writing an autobiography?

The benefits of writing an autobiography for others is quite obvious. Other people can learn about your entire life, long after everybody you met with is dead. Autobiographies can also give people a better insight into your personality and the era you lived in. But even if you don’t publish your autobiography, you can still benefit from writing an autobiography.

Most of the benefits from an autobiography come from starting making notes early and doing it consistently. You should write down anything that seems important, your current feelings and thoughts on something or even small things that happened that day. If you write these things for several years you will be able to get some of the benefits I will tell you about.

The biggest benefit is that you can see yourself develop over time. You can get an insight on your past personality or your way of thinking. You could also see changes in more mundane things, like your daily routine. These things would benefit you a lot because it is the only way to see these things change. Normally you don’t notice these changes or you forget them later. If you write an autobiography you have a clear view of these changes. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal if people didn’t reminisce about their past. When people reminisce about their past they often remember only small fractions of it and it is mostly always positive. With an autobiography, you can not only reminisce on a whole other level but also you will be able to see your past without being blinded by what your current brain thinks of it. Other people can also help you see your past clearer, but those people’s views on it will change as well, while your autobiographies never will. It also helps you remember small things that you would’ve otherwise forgotten.

Even if you start and finish your autobiography during a short period of time without using notes, then you can still get benefits from writing an autobiography. This kind of autobiography will be in some ways, harder to make since you don’t have first-hand details of the events from yourself. But instead you have to ask friends and family. An autobiography like this has different benefits than from the previous kind. For example, with this kind of autobiography, you will get a detailed view of yourself looking back at distant and current events and it makes it easier to have a theme in your autobiography because you’re writing it all at the same time. The biggest benefit you get from being able to create a theme easier is that you can foreshadow later events using earlier events.

There are all of the benefits of writing an autobiography for yourself. I would recommend writing the first type of autobiography since it gives you a more detailed view of your life.