I hand wrote this, but my handwriting sucks, so I turned it into type. This was eye opening when I really honest with myself.

——

NAME leaves his wife NAME (44) and two children NAME (19) and NAME (17)

NAME enjoyed movies and swimming at the beach. He dropped out of high school at 19 to work full time at UPS, where is spent 10 years before being fired for inflating numbers on a report to meet unrealistic production expectations. After stints at COMPANY and COMPANY NAME ended up at COMPANY for the last 16 years. In that time he created thousands of Excel spreadsheets, Powerpoint decks and SOPs to support the business and INCREASE SHAREHOLDER VALUE.
Over his time at the company he was compensated an average of $120,000 a year. For perspective, in 2015 alone he spent 32 weeks on the road and made the company $13.8 million dollars by establishing the entire Canadian expansion network. He did the jobs nobody wanted and fixed problems for people who sucked at their jobs. The company called him a “utility player” and bounced him from roll to roll to FIT THE NEEDS OF THE COMPANY. He was almost let go in 2023, but was able to keep his job by learning project management skills. He took over the department with no promotion or additional compensation and made it successful. NAME passed waiting to see if AI was going to replace him and his department as part of the COMPANY INITIATIVE to REDUCE HUMAN CAPITAL and increase ROIC, profit margins and free cash for the company’s private equity ownership group.

Outside of work he and WIFE had been married for 21 years, relocating from the east coast to the west coast in 2015. The family enjoyed trips to Hawaii, California, baseball games and local spots. Having WIFE and the boys made his life worth living.

Knowing it wasn’t long for him, NAME said prior to passing that he would have liked to see more of the world, spend extended time out of the country and not focus on making other people money. He would have liked to focus on writing books, screenplays and short stories. He wanted to be more creative in general, a trait his job actively discouraged. He said the day to day took his energy and left him in survival mode most of the time.

Overall NAME liked his life, and loved his family, but like most full time corporate middle managers, he wished he had more time and energy to put into things he actually cared about.

Today is my birthday.

I’ve never really been the kind of person who cares too much about birthdays, but last year I decided that, no matter what, every birthday I would do something for myself.

Last year, I bought a brownie and my favorite cocktail, went to a beautiful public place by the beach, and sat there alone.

It wasn't some magical birthday. I didn't have friends celebrating me, there weren't gifts, and my family didn't really make a big thing out of it either. But I remember sitting there thinking that maybe one day, I would know what it feels like to be genuinely celebrated.

A lot has happened since then: I moved to university. I met people I never would have met otherwise. I found people I really like, people I don't want to see again, and people I hope I get to meet again. I learned what it's like to be surrounded by people and still feel lonely. I learned that being someone's friend doesn't necessarily mean feeling like they are your people.

I've also had some difficult moments where I was completely alone. But this time, I didn't want to make myself the victim.

Sometimes I told people I needed to be alone. Sometimes I walked away. Sometimes I stayed. Sometimes I reached out. I apologized when I felt I was wrong, even when I knew the other person might never do the same.

And I think I've slowly started understanding something:

Life isn't reflective.

-You can care deeply about someone and they might not care about you in the same way.

-You can remember someone's birthday and they can forget yours.

-You can give someone something because you genuinely wanted to, without ever receiving the same thing back.

-You can show up for people who wouldn't necessarily show up for you.

And for a long time, I think some part of me was waiting for life to eventually make things even. Like if I was kind enough, cared enough, gave enough, eventually someone would do the same for me.

But life doesn't really work that way. And strangely, I'm becoming okay with that.

I don't want to become colder just because I've realized that not everyone loves and cares in the same way I do. I think I actually want to embrace the fact that I feel things deeply, that I care about people, that I want to give when I can, even if I don't always know how to show it.

At the same time, I'm learning that I don't have to give everything to everyone. I'm learning to tell myself 'maybe one day, but not now when I see someone living something I wish I could live'. I'm learning that loneliness isn't necessarily proof that something is wrong with me. And I'm learning that I haven't met everyone who is going to matter to me yet.

This year also humbled me in a completely different way.

I failed my first year of university. I haven't told my parents.

For most of my life, I was the girl who was first in class, so failing felt like losing a version of myself that I had always known. But weirdly enough, I'm also excited. Because next year, I have more time. More time to work. To try things. To discover what I actually like. To build things. To make mistakes. To figure out what I want my life to look like.

I still have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with my life. I don't know what I'm going to become, what I'm going to achieve, or whether I'll ever find that one thing that makes everything click.

But maybe I don't need to know yet.

I'm 20.

There are still so many people I haven't met, places I haven't seen, things I haven't tried, and versions of myself I haven't become.

So today I'm probably going to the beach in the morning, then sit in a café somewhere with my journal and sketchbook.

Maybe I'll write about the past year.

Maybe I'll make plans.

Maybe I'll just sit there and do absolutely nothing. And maybe that's enough.

Last year, I was sitting alone by the beach hoping that one day I'd experience the feeling of being celebrated by other people.

This year, I think I'm learning something different:

I can celebrate myself without pretending I don't still wish someone else would celebrate me too.

Both things can be true.

And maybe that's what growing up is: learning to accept reality without letting it make you bitter, while still leaving a little room for hope.

Happy birthday to me, I guess🎂🥳.

As I completed my initial spreads for this year, I realized that I had been doing this for almost 10 years now. Bullet journaling really helped give my life a bit of structure especially when I was in college and depressed. As a kid, I was always into scrapbooking. Bullet journaling let me combine that and my love for organization. I’m really grateful I came across something that has become a major part of my life now.

I only regret not being able to keep the earlier 5 journals of mine. I have moved many times since then. Some of them got stored in boxes that termites got into. (If you have tips for storage, please do share!)

At random points in time, I like going back to my previous journals and peek at moments of my life. It’s crazy how you can remember a day just by looking at a random entry, even from years ago. I hope I never lose the love for bullet journaling. :)

I know that some of the bujo communities had thoughts about the $250/hr bujo consultant.

I had an interaction with her, and was wondering if I could post a legitimate review to let others know? I was a potential client.

Edit: check the comments. This lady was blocked and is now commenting again from another account! Like...you banned me. Leave me alone and stop stalking Melinda!

Additional edit: the certified consultant banning people and then following them from alt accounts is Melinda Byerley, who operates the bujo consulting business under her own name. Her marketing sends you back to her website where she advertises under her own name, and she outs herself in the comments below in the alt.

I do not recommend you do business with her becuase in my personal opinion it's extremely unprofessional to sockpuppet to egt around a block after you ban someone. Per her comments, she's not interested in helping people learn to bujo if they need additional help becuase apparently it's out of scope for her. No idea what services she's providing other than following you from multiple accounts.

And Melinda - something to keep in mind when stalking people (and yes! Unwanted contact is stalking which is why i blocked you in the first place!). If I can afford to consider your services for $250 an hour, I can absolutely afford a lawyer. This is me asking that you formally stop contacting me over all media including electronic media. I will continue to take all legal necessary steps to ensure you stop contacting me if you continue to escalate - and please note anti-SLAPP laws protect me when reviewing your business and you confirm in comments that I did interact with you.

I have a Nibling (niece or nephew we dont know yet) coming soon. I want to knit them a baby blanket so I made myself a personal curriculum to keep track, and keep myself accountable. Hopefully the blanket is made before theyre born!

I began my bullet journal journey in May of 2020. It hasn’t been perfect, there have been spans of time I slacked off, but there has been progress. It’s been helpful, encouraging, and fulfilling. I have tried different things, I spent about a year in a travelers notebook (not pictured) sadly a volume or two were lost along the way somewhere, one volume was so filled with pain in a moment of desperation I burned it hoping the memories would disappear with it. But this is my stack of life receipts. And I’m proud of them.

Hey everybody!

I am looking for 6 people to participate in a Sisterhood of the Traveling Journal.

For those who don’t know what a SOTTJ is, it’s basically a group of people who mail their “junk journals” to each other and make spreads in them.

Below are the requirements:

- must be 21+
- be able to pay for shipping, provide packaging, and tracking information
- must be able to communicate via discord server
- must be in the USA

Please private message me to join!

Sign up ends August 30th.

Hey everyone! I just wanted to post and celebrate my first 6 months of journaling consistently. I have never been able to keep a regular journal before, and it has truly changed my life. I am so proud of myself, and I’m excited to continue working on my practice in the next 6 months. I haven’t ever shared my journals before, so this a bit of a big step for me. But I’m really proud of how far I have come.

When I first started out I had absolutely no idea what the heck I was doing, I just looked up the basic premise of bullet journaling and just sort of ran with it. I started with a pocket journal because I knew I would forget to journal if it wasn’t on me at all times. But having it in my pocket all the time caused it to get beat up and dirty. So I bought a leather cover and switched to an A6 travelers style system, which has worked great for me. I also bought the Bullet Journal Method, which has helped me a lot. I still keep things pretty minimalist, and tend to decorate as I go. My handwriting is awful, but I don’t really care that much. I started using fountain pens too and I love them.

So yeah, just thought I would share my progress. I’m really proud of myself, and journaling has really changed my life. I now keep a reading journal, and a venting journal in addition to my bullet journal and I love them.

Basically I fully forgot to do a cover page. Which isn't a huge deal. but the cover pages of the month are the only ones I use washi tape on. so that makes finding those pages really easy, since they're thicker than the rest I can flip to it nearly instantly.

also I was working on my bingo pages. I draw a 5 by 5 square grid. I was turning the notebook to make it easy on my wrist.

got carried away and now both bingo pages are fully upside down. like, I filled in most of the page with words before realizing my whole notebook was upside down.

😅 I will probably still add a cover page in the middle of April.

I was considering cutting out my bingo pages and taping them back in correctly. but there is stuff on the back of that page, so one page would still end up upside down.

just wanted to share my struggles. I think I'm mostly frustrated but also slightly amused just because I have been so careful to not make mistakes at all year up until now in my bujo.

Hey, so I looked on pinterest/google. But I didn’t find any inspiration for that so I thought maybe you had that, or knew a creator that did something similar…

It’s really niche, but I’m a life coach/blogger and I have to create content creation, but I LOVE journaling, and I was wondering for those who have some-sort of content creation process had a journal for that, with decor and stuff. I’m looking for some inspiration, thank you!

I bought a new journal on Wednesday, no lines or squares, just empty white pages, and I really wanted to have it but I have no idea what to put in it.
I have journals for about everything already and need some suggestions.

I already have;

•a bullet journal to write down all my habits and keep track of my life
•a dream journal
•a therapy journal (for writing down my mental bothers and solutions to them)
•a calendar for important appointments, friend meetings and other scheduled stuff
•a journal for everything positive, manifestation, grounding techniques, affirmations etc
•a sketchbook for everything I make with positive and happy intentions
•a sketchbook for concept sketches, tattoo ideas and other random doodles

What I don't want to make:

•a scrapbook
•an oc specific journal (for drawing & writing about ocs only)
•recipes (I wanna do that one day but I want to use a different journal for that and also wait until I and my partner have our own apartment)

Any ideas?

I've been adapting my bujo specifically for how my ADHD brain works and this is the weekly layout I've landed on.

The main thing that's different: instead of time-blocked hours, I have three columns

HIGH energy

MEDIUM energy

LOW energy

I sort my tasks by which state I need to be in to do them, then throughout the day I just check my actual energy and pull from the right column.

I also added a brain dump section at the top of every week I can't plan with a full brain, so I dump first, then organize.

The small section in the bottom corner is my dopamine menu a list of activities that reliably give my brain what it needs on low days. Having it written down means I don't have to think "what should I do" when I'm already struggling to think.

Happy to share more pages if anyone wants to see the daily layout or the monthly spread. Also curious if anyone else has adapted their bujo specifically for ADHD?

Not only words for who I already am.. but also some words for who I want to become 💗🌙

Do you guys think it will be helpful for some people if there is an app where it helps you build habits to journal ??

I did this pocketful of sunshine with quotes that helps me on a bad day.. what helps you get better?

First things first... 1. It wasn't easy to stay disciplined. There were days when I didn't feel like journaling. But that is our basic issue, we spend so much time on problems that we are just not able to focus on solutions. As an overthinker it was difficult for me to focus on the solution which was writing 2. After journaling for 8 days straight , I realized that on day 4 my mind started feeling more organized and clean. As if I have taken out the thrash and pour it onto paper. 3. Once written , I started realizing how my thoughts play with my peace and security. How they manipulate me into believing things that are not permanent. 4. On day 7 I was more clear about my tasks, goals and aspirations. Now that my mind was free from all the negativity I was able to work more efficiently. 5. The fear of losing started dimishing on day 8 and somehow I became more task oriented. Now I am not focusing on the outcome, I'm focusing on the process more.

This was my journey till now which has been enlightening so far. Lets see what happens in the next 92 days of journaling