Journaling not sticking? Here was my biggest mistake!

My Bullet Journal Over Time

Too often we are too hard on ourselves. We try something new, it doesn't work, so we stop doing it.

The secret they don't tell you about habits like bullet journaling or working out is that you have to make it work for you. You have to take what you see others doing and adjust it to meet your needs. You have to listen to yourself. You have to go with your gut. You have to celebrate your successes and accept your failures. You have to, ultimately, embrace the messiness that comes with starting something new.

I always wanted to journal. I would tell myself it was something I was going to keep up and then failed to keep it up. I would see all these beautiful bullet journals on Instagram and get inspired. So I would pick it up for a few days or even weeks and then forget about it for years. What I didn't realize was that I kept trying to journal the way others journaled and that was my biggest mistake - I set myself up for failure every time. I wasn't being true to myself and wasn't making the act of journaling something to fit my needs; I was trying to fit my needs into someone else's way of journaling. Read that again.

This was all good but not real. I needed to change the plan (the way I journaled) not the goal (journaling). I wasn't being true to myself and I definitely wasn't meeting my own needs.

After years of trial and error, I have been journaling for over 1 year straight. I have allowed bullet journaling to be what I need it to be in the moment. Sometimes it's a list. Sometimes it's a bunch of post-its. It is what it needs to be for me. So take it from experience, be kind to yourself...listen to your body, mind, heart, and soul. Give yourself what you need because that is what makes habits stick.