Is your Bullet Journal Holding You Back?

Now before you send hate mail telling me how amazing bullet journals are, hear me out. A bullet journal can be absolutely beautiful, well organized, and artistic. Which is amazing if you’re someone who has beautiful handwriting, who can draw, who is super organized, and who has the time to devote to it. Unfortunately, the majority of us don’t fall into those categories.

Looking at beautify examples of bullet journals on Pinterest or Instagram can be inspiring. But have you ever found yourself feeling overwhelmed when you try to actually create your own? Disappointed that your handwriting isn’t perfect? Or feeling bad about yourself because you don’t have the artistic ability to recreate what you see on social media?

Bullet Journals can be beautiful and super instagramable, but could this trendy style of journaling be doing you more harm than good. Spending hours looking at bullet journal ideas and inspiration could be keeping you from actually getting the benefits that come from traditional style journaling. | How to start a bullet journal | bullet journal for beginners | simple bullet journal | BUJO | bullet journal layout

While the intentions behind a bullet journal is great, it has the potential to become another trap of perfectionism. That causes those of us who really want to start journaling to not even start because we feel like our journals just can’t measure up.

Journals are about self-discovery, gratitude, and growth. Which is deeply personal and inherently messy in nature. Journaling allows you to work out your thoughts and feelings in the short time you have to yourself at the end of a long hard day. You shouldn’t be focusing on how nice your writing looks, or using 5 different color gel pens to make it look pretty and Instagramable.

There’s a reason you’ll never see a picture of any of my journals on social media. Because they’re messy and my handwriting is sloppy. Because perfectionism isn’t the point! The point is to write, to get my feelings out, and to work through things that have been on my mind.

So if you’ve been wanting to journal but have been putting it off, just grab yourself a basic note book and a pen and just start writing! Don’t get hung up on looks, colorful graphics, and pretty designs. JUST START WRITING!!!! Your journal is for you, not for your instagram feed. So go ahead and be messy, have bad handwriting, and use a cheap notebook.

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