Beginning with an end

5 min read

This year starts with a personal accomplishment — I began my second bullet journal today, archiving the first bullet journal which I had not been apart from since 24th September 2017.

My archived first bullet journal :)
My archived first bullet journal 🙂

I have written earlier about the lessons I learned from bullet journalling when I was two months into it and today I am writing about some of those lessons that came up again as I transitioned into a new book. I also want to show the different layouts I tried and the ones that I am keeping for 2018 and some new ones that I have added.

This transition would not have been possible without an email course that I took in December — Design Your Destiny (DYD2018) by Sublime Reflection. I spent many a pages in my first journal answering the questions about my 2017, my hopes and aspirations and goals for the future. This is an exercise I hope to do again next year.

I have made new year resolutions before but they have always been more like challenges about reading— the number of books I want to read in a year. I have aimed for nothing else.

This is the first year when I have not set a goal on the number of books and instead analyzed my 2017 and thought of what I can do be more successful in my personal and professional life. This is also because of bullet journalling where I have been able to record my aspirations over time and revisited them when I have wanted to.

 

My Initial Blogging ideas spread from November 2017, reminds me what I wanted to do it and possible steps I would take.
My Initial Blogging ideas spread from November 2017, reminds me what I wanted to do it and possible steps I would take.

As the year approached an end, I was able to bring together all that I had done and make goals for the new year. DYD2018 gave me a step-by-step procedure on how to select my word for the year and set goals around it.

Proactive is the word for 2018
Proactive is the word for 2018
I came up with the 10 goals that I want to accomplish in 2018 and asked myself why I wanted to pursue them. I choose the top three that were going to be my priority and they are the ones I moved to my new journal.

2018 goals
2018 goals; I like adding inspirational quotes.

Setting up the new journal was an exciting process. There was so much I wanted to keep from my old one and yet so much new that I wanted to add. Here is a glimpse of the pages that I had and the ones that I kept.

Some spreads from my first bullet journal.
Some spreads from my first bullet journal.
My 2018 bullet journal spreads.
My 2018 bullet journal spreads.

Lessons learned from this transition

There will be many bullet journals in my lifetime. One will finish and the other will begin and each one completed will be an exciting accomplishment that will be celebrated. They will all be my journey and it is a living document. No matter how it looks, all of them together have meaning. It is easy to think of the next one as a separate book but nothing has really changed.

I showed my archived first journal to my Mom and she said how much she loves that not every page is perfect and that in some ways, makes it a complete — life is not full of perfect moments (if it was, they won’t be perfect at all because that is relative) — and my journal portrays that well. I made mistakes along the way. Though I tried to fill up each and every page, I sometimes did not. And that is ok.

One of my goals is to be cognizant of my spendings. That is why I decided to analyze how many books I buy this year. This should be roughly what I buy every year and compared to how many books I am able to read, I should be able to set manageable book expenses for the future. My aim here is not to discourage my hobbies, it is only to be aware and encourage them in a more reasonable way.

The books that I have and want to read is already set up on the shelf. All I have to do is reach out to one and begin.

My current reading shelf: Many books relate to teaching while others are novels I want to read or will read as part of the literature course I am taking this term.
My current reading shelf: Many books relate to teaching while others are novels I want to read or will read as part of the literature course I am taking this term.

Bullet journalling is a habit that is here to stay for me. I would not have found another safe place. I could not have found another system that will constantly remind me of who I am, and keep in touch with who I want to be.


Do you have any goals for 2018? DYD was my goal setting system. What did you use and would you recommend it? Happy New Year! 🙂

Enjoyed this post? Get everything delivered right to your mailbox. 📫

Kriti K Written by:

I am Kriti, an avid reader and collector of books. I bring you my thoughts on known and hidden gems of the book world and creators in all domains.

Be First to Comment

What are your thoughts about this post? I would love to hear from you. :) Comments are moderated.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.