It’s me! Your local person who loves to do new things and then struggles to stick to them. Keep reading through a rollercoaster of emotions and eventually get to some bullet journaling content!
A few years back I bought a habit tracker that I found satisfying. It had a spot where you could list six different habits and there were little rectangle-ish spots to mark off if you completed each habit. I have an astronomically large collection of different colored pens. I chose the colors that sparked something in my heart and absolutely killed all my habits for the month of June 2021. Filling in the color wheel inspired me to try and continue. Something about a beautiful display of colors is motivating.
Unfortunately, the next month my heart experienced a bit of crushing due to a family visit that did not go how I expected but also exactly how I expected. The coloring off of each habit decreased significantly and ceased about two months after I started.
A little over a year later I found myself deep into my still present TikTok obsession. (I swear if the government gets rid of TikTok, I will lose it). I started following people who did bullet journaling and began a subsequent obsession. As I wrote in my past bullet journaling blogs, I found a motivation to start bullet journaling out of a desire to help one of my youth clients while working at Child Protective Services. I liked how the bullet journaling concept combined nicely with the habit tracker that I used a year before. My kiddo needed inspiration during a hard time, and I did as well. I figured it would be something we could work through together.
Unfortunately, again, crisis after crisis impacted my kiddo’s ability to keep working on her journal and my life fell apart around me as well. I won’t speak to my kiddo’s personal life, but I can speak to mine. 2022 led to huge changes at work and I lost people that were very important to me. I started to gain weight. I couldn’t control my eating. I threw myself into online dating to try and feel something and that crashed and burned with the complete disasters of people that I met.
Nothing seemed to help. Therapy. Medication. Writing. Reading. A Cruise. I felt empty.
I drafted pages and pages of different bullet journaling concepts. I tried to get back on track with this concept that had inspired me in the past. My therapist constantly encouraged me to bring back color in my life. I could see it in his eyes that he knew my eyes were missing their light, their color. He knew how much I loved to design the pages and do something semi artistic. I knew it as well, but nothing in me could get back to that colorful place.
In February of 2024, my life took a turn that I never expected. I made the decision to move from the place I’d been living for about eight or nine years and head back to my home state of Kentucky. I won’t go into the reason behind the decision in this blog as it’s not fully relevant to accomplish what I would like with my words. Anyways, in May of 2024, we were back in my hometown.
About four days before writing up this blog post, I felt inspired. I wanted color back in my life. Being home with my mom and realizing I hadn’t felt dread in months brought me a wave of joy. The inspiration may have also had a little to do with a Hallmark movie I watched with my mom the night before. The movie is called My Dreams of You. I won’t go into the whole concept but basically it followed a woman who dreamt of being a published author.
My mom hinted at the movie being a sign for me to start writing again. It had been months since I wrote anything with substance. Complaining in a journal, every once in a while, doesn’t give me the same energy as writing a blog, writing towards my novel, or writing something more creative. Something about the movie and my mom’s consistent encouragement of my dreams kicked me into gear. I grabbed a bullet journal and created a “writing” page within minutes.
I also picked out a book that happened to be in the same tote as the bullet journal. A “reading” page popped up just as quickly as its companion. The next day I started reading my book choice, wrote numerous journal pages, and created three additional bullet journal pages.
Now, here I sit, writing this blog, and guess what. My mom and another Hallmark movie inspire me. This movie is called Junebug. Guess what, again. The movie is also about an inspiring author. I’m starting to be a little creeped out by all the signs…
I told my mom I couldn’t go to bed without writing, because I wanted to color something besides red on my “writing” bullet journal page. I watched Junebug while starting to work on this blog and I’m still here long after it’s over.
There is no doubt in my mind that had I stayed in Texas, I would have stayed in the depths of my dread. I can’t picture when my life would have produced the joy I feel now. I don’t know that any color would have come back to my life. I know I have many things that I still need to work on, and it has only been a couple of days, but I’m hopeful. I still have a dream to be a published author, and I hope these small changes will be impactful in this journey.
This may not be what you thought you would read when seeing a title about bullet journaling. I dived straight into a deep pool of emotions. I appreciate y’all hanging in with me. I will now add comments about my experiences with bullet journaling compared to when I started in 2022 to add a less serious tone to this blog.
If you go to my blog post “Bullet Journaling – Post Two,” you will find a list of what pages I created in the past. I genuinely liked the concepts of the pages, but now I feel like it became too much for me and overwhelmed me. I do like the creativity in designing the pages but a few of them I had to do every month, and past Ariel could not find the energy to create new pages that often. Now, just because I couldn’t find the energy, doesn’t mean you can’t! I encourage anyone interested in bullet journaling to consider designing new pages as often as your heart desires.
I also decided instead of creating a page to write about my days in the bullet journaling, I would save that for my regular writing journals. My past water page also didn’t feel necessary because being home with my mom has made it easier to stay hydrated. I don’t feel like I need to track it because I’m not finding myself questioning the last time I drank water very often.
For all you lovely humans who struggle being kind to yourselves, I would recommend adding a bullet journal page, like I had previously, where you list something nice about yourself each day. While I loved doing this, eventually, it became repetitive, and I couldn’t come up with things that fit nicely in the little boxes I designated for this task. You may find yourself in this boat eventually as well, but I think it’s good to get yourself in a “kind to yourself” mindset for at least a month or two.
Currently, I am sticking to yearly pages. I want to be able to color in little boxes with the colors I’ve chosen and feel joy again. It’s also easier to stay motivated as I don’t have to create new pages very often. I think the five pages I have, at the moment, make the most sense for me. The pages are:
1. Writing
2. Reading
3. Emotions
4. Wake Up
5. Steps
I think the first two pages and the steps page are self-explanatory. The fourth page is helping me with waking up on time. I tend to hit snooze a million times and then end up cutting it close getting to work.
The third page is my favorite and I did it like this in the past as well. I created an emotions page to track how I feel about each day. In the past I used the colors and names of the five emotions from the movie Inside Out. Since I created this page, Inside Out 2 has released. In my current emotions page, I used the colors and names of all nine emotions from the new movie.
I would recommend heading over to my Instagram page to see all the pages! While you’re there, comment any suggestions for things I could possibly track with another yearly page!
Present Ariel is hopeful that no gut-wrenching event will happen to kick me out of my current state of happiness. I hope to complete these yearly pages in their entirety. I’m thinking I might post an end of month update each month on my Instagram to keep me accountable with y’all!
Thank you for reading to the end! Thank you for supporting my dreams when they’re actively being pursued and when they’re not. Life is hard. Being alive takes a lot some days, but I’m happy you’re here!
Here is a link to the habit tracker I used back in 2021. I bought it from Amazon. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it if you’re not up for creating your own bullet journal pages and are trying to habit track.
I will also add a link to the bullet journals that I purchased that I like the most. The ones with rings make more sense to me when I’m trying to design the pages. I don’t have to worry about holding the cover or previous pages down. The price is also fairly reasonable for a three pack! I also bought these from Amazon.
Happy Bullet Journaling, everyone!
Ariel Pierce 