Another blog series on journaling, brought to you by COURTNEY LYNN!

That is how I envision myself introducing this post to you if it was in video format. But alas, I am far too awkward and ramble WAAAY to much to ever consider vlogging. Kudos to all of you who have the patience to do all that work! And for feeling comfortable doing it!

Anyway, I am slowly moving this blogversation (get it, aha? yes, I am FULL of “Mom,” jokes already hah), off topic. Let’s refocus our efforts here, shall we?

I mentioned in another post on journaling that I have monthly pages or things I put into my journal’s to help keep my life organized, help keep me on track with my goals, etc. I figured I would do a few snapshots each month, along with some of my own reflections on what I did well, what I can improve, and see if anyone else out there has suggestions to help me better myself/my journaling experience!

I’ll also include any major progress that has been made (if any), on some of my annual pages. Basically this is a way for me to hold myself accountable, share some of my original creations I am most proud of, and maybe give some of your newbie journalers some inspiration to keep going!

Remember: the mistakes you make, make your journal your own! 😉 Channel some Bob Ross and think, happy little accidents. 

The first page I created while I was on my Christmas break was this cover page for January.

I really enjoy doing cover pages for my months (and incorporating a little Dutch) as I think it helps kind of section off the different parts of your journal. I was really proud of this idea, because it felt super unique compared to the “standard themes,”  that a lot of people select for their journals.

Next up, is my habit tracker! I have already showed you guys my habit tracker when it was half filled in, but here it is totally done *clears throat awkwardly*.

As you can see, I started off the year REALLY strong and then my interest in filling it out kind of dwindled. In fact, this tends to happen to me quite a bit with my habit trackers. Most months I create a habit tracker and am like YES I AM A BADASS AND I CAN DO THIS. Then it tapers off, and I totally forget about them. It really is tough to delegate your time appropriately when there is so much you want to accomplish!

Below I will go through my weakest habit areas:

1. NOVEL WRITING. Like hi, hello, one of my life goals is to become published one day, and I totally forgot that piece of myself in January I guess. Anyway, I already addressed how I would fix this come February, and I really hope that I stick to trading in my reading time for writing/revising time.
2. Crocheting. Yeah….this is one of those habits that is a struggle to incorporate if I am spending 98% of my time reading. Since I padded my reading goals pretty good in January, I’m thinking I can step it up in the crocheting arena next month.
3. Working out. I know, I know. I’m not giving up on this one though. It’s just been cold. I was really depressed this month. It was hard. I went more than once, so I am proud of myself for that.
4. Prayers. This should be like my number one concern. I need to get better at this. I want to be more spiritual. I need to really just make time. Also, I’m a harsh critique when it comes to this. Because sometimes I see the box isn’t checked and so I say a quick prayer and then I’m like “does that even count?” All that Catholic guilt man. A vicious cycle all around. I will try to start and end my day with God on the mind though. And slow my roll on rolling over and instantly picking up my phone.

If I am being honest. These were the only ones that I had major concerns with. If you know me personally and see this, you know it’s a very big deal for me not to drink everyday anymore. I am really cutting back from the “functioning alcoholic status,” so I am really freaking proud about that.

Really quickly, I mentioned how I also include some traditional elements to my bullet journal. One main element that I make sure I take the time to set up is my monthly spread. This helps me visualize what social events I have going on for the month, important dates, and also what some of my major goals are. It’s basically just a calendar spread that I fill in as the month goes on.

Alright, now let’s move onto my reading pages. So I won’t go into detail on the individual review pages that I’ve already shared. Also, I feel like I’m losing some steam/motivation to do them. I definitely enjoy doing the quote(s) page, but like beyond that…I think I might go back to typing out reviews on here and inserting a picture here and there for fun. We’ll see.

This is my rolling list that I am keeping in Journal #2, until I run out of space.

As you can see, I read seven [d: zeven] books in January [d: januari]! And I am so pleased that out of these , five [d: vifj] were female writers and two [d: twee] were from my diverse female writers list. Now I recognize I still have more work to go as far as reading more diversely. But this is already better than my stats from last year. Seriously I read one non-white female! I couldn’t believe it. This year things are changing already. 🙂

I also have decided that instead of weighing myself weekly (because it fluctuates so much if we’re being honest), I am going to do so monthly. So here is my progress on both the exercise tracker AND the weight loss tracker.

As you can see I am halfway down with my gym exercise tracker. I haven’t even touched the non gym going one yet, but I really need to give that one a shot. My goal is to complete 14 at home work outs and the rest of my gym exercise tracker for the month of February [d: februari]. And I am down a few pounds, so that is good [d: dat is goed]! Only four more pounds before I will “splurge,” on a new, fancy water bottle. 🙂 All in all, for how cold the month’s been, I am proud of myself for at least setting foot in the gym a handful of times.

And finally, I want to include some of my favorite daily pages. I have blurred some personal content, but otherwise, I hope you still enjoy these pages!

^^ Was trying to be a little artsy. The first page was a prompt from journalingyourway. And the next two were basically me fangirling about the “live,” version of Rent on FOX.

So that was everything in Journals #2 and #3. Let’s talk about Journal #1 aka my Language Learning Journal. So progress has been made on the 365 words in Dutch pages. I now have two pages of words completed! I’ve shown you the first one completed, so now I’ll show you the next page with the overflow as it wasn’t exactly two full pages, but slightly more! 🙂

Out of the thirty-one [d: eenendertig] words [d: woorden], there are only about ten [d: tien] I don’t know. I am going to include reviewing them (and eventual conjugation of the verbs), in my daily Dutch lessons. Which I will alternate with French in February. 

So all in all, I think I did ok. There’s always room to grow and improve, but I am fairly satisfied that I stuck with journaling for a full month now!

Anyone else out there proud of certain designs/spreads? How is everyone’s habit tracking & goal setting going this year? I want to hear it all!