Every year I get super excited about my new journal or planner. In the summer of 2017, I was introduced to bullet journaling from a Pinterest post my bestie shared. Totally pumped, I took to it. I was already a list person- grocery lists, to-do lists, health food lists, list of where I want to travel – you get the point. I had a list for EVERYTHING. Of course it was all on single sheets of paper, on the back of receipts, and (dare I say) on the back of a check my hubby hadn’t cashed (oops poopsy!). As you can see, my VERY IMPORTANT LISTS were constantly being lost, and the idea of a bullet journal (a book of lists), where I could be HELLA creative with writing in cool fonts - I was all in. PINTEREST, watch yourself ‘cause I was coming for YOU!!!
REALITY SETS IN:
There I sat, with a completely blank slate thinking… “WTF, now what?”
So, I did what anyone would do…. I consulted PINTEREST for creative ideas.
Side Note: I was not ‘stealing’ ideas. I was getting the creative energy following. More importantly, it was better than me sitting in-front of my kids screaming profanities and eventually quitting because “It was TO MUCH! ” Remember that as a mom, I was leading through example, I was copying someone else’s ideas….
What I saw: Beautiful layouts, amazing designs, and so many different ways to Bullet Journal. For three weeks, I kept up with the BUJO (Bullshit Journal -I now call it), attempting to create beautiful fonts and cute little hand drawn emojis. But then I stopped. I stopped writing in it for fear of making a mistake! Can you believe that? I didn’t want to mess it up.
But then a divine intervention occurred. My two-year-old found my beautiful, rarely used bullet journal, and with a Sharpy Marker, drew on the first three pages of my beautiful, hand-written fonts and emoji masterpiece. At first, I felt confused and in disbelief, as though I was in the movie Titanic when the ship just hit the iceberg. But those feelings quickly faded to thankfulness. My little boy just destroyed all that pressure I was putting on myself to make this journal ‘perfect’. It was like he killed Darth Vadar and everything was right in the world again. And guess what happened? I started “bullet journaling” again, proud of my chicken scratch, kid’s scribbles, coffee stains and all!
I learned SO MUCH about myself, like:
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My life is not neat and perfect, so my journal won’t be either.
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When I have so many choices, I freeze. Think spaghetti sauce aisle (aren’t they the worst?)
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Someone will always be better, just do you or you’ll never do it.
THE MAIN TAKE AWAY: KEEP YOUR EYES ON YOUR OWN PAPER (just like you were taught in elementary school), YOU'LL BE FINE!