Releasing Limitations on Creativity

I used to have this mentality that a bullet journal was only a bullet journal if you drew everything from scratch. Lately, I’ve been allowing myself more freedom. I’ve let go of the idea that (not only does nothing have to be perfect), but it doesn’t have to be hand-drawn or take five hours to do, either.

I had this moment of clarity when I was creating my July monthly bullet journal spread. I decided to use a piece of art from Etsy (yes, gasp! Someone else’s art!) I printed it on a piece of paper and glued it into my bullet journal, like a big sticker! To top it off, I added stickers to the other page, and the only thing I actually did by hand was hand-letter the word July.

Now while I do film my videos for the purpose of content creation, this entire video took me a total of 50 minutes compared to my usually four to six hours. (I’m not even talking about how long it takes to edit the video, and all the other work that goes into content creation). After editing, the video ended up being about 15 minutes. This is peanuts to my one to two hour videos about 3 years ago.

I know that other people may have a very different view of “journaling” than I have. I think journaling means writing down words on a page, talking about your day and your feelings, etc…etc… Today, journaling could be memory planning, planning, planning in a Hobonichi, bullet journaling, etc… The meaning has taken on a whole new “meaning” than from what it used to be. I’ve finally come around to the idea that this is ok!

I’m very Type A personality, and I like to take control, especially of my projects, and the things that directly affect me. I don’t mind change (generally), but some things should just be. (Do you know what I mean? It’s like Christmas isn’t the same without the tree!)

The fact that I could create a monthly bullet journal spread that is far different than I’m used to, make it look cute and pretty and then be ok with it, is actually kind of cool. Not only am I not overly obsessed with it, I’m happy to just let it be. I use it every day to track my health information, and I actually enjoy looking at it, because I was able to make it look visually appealing.

I wanted to let you know (from personal experience) that it’s ok to let go sometimes. Change things up and then let it be. Move on with your life, your creativity and your art. In my case, saving the time alone helped me progress through all my other 1000 tasks that needed to be done. (That alone made me very happy).

Learn from my experience and change it up. Don’t be afraid to not have to do things the way you’ve always done them sometimes. Don’t be afraid if sometimes, your project isn’t completely perfect, because art is meant to have character. Without character and feeling, art doesn’t let us feel the emotion behind it.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra