Journal Prompts to Help You Try New Things

January 14, 2021 Leave a Comment

Journal Prompts to Help You Decide to Try New Things - Reflections of the past & looking forward | ChocolateMusings.com

Do you like to try new things? Or are you like me and decide that you don’t like something (before giving it a fair chance)? Here is some journal prompts to help you explore your experiences with trying new things.

I am all about connecting ideas. Listing commonalities between multiple items, finding differences, or general list making all fall into my ‘enjoy’ category. Have you ever tried something new you swore you would never try (and liked it)?

{Timidly raises hand} <– That’s me.

What event, person, or circumstance changed your mind?

Why Don’t We Like To Try New Things?
A Shortlist of the Things I Vowed I’d Never Try
Examples of the ‘New’ Things I Tried:
- The Tale of Sour Cream:
Watercoloring – What’s Not to Like?Another Example of Trying New Things (and Liking Them):
Gain New Experiences & Add New Stories to Your Life When You Try New Things
Journal Prompts:
More Inspiration

Why Don’t We Like To Try New Things?

It’s incredible how hard-headed I can be about doing or trying new things, but once I do, I like them (and sometimes a lot).

Two reasons why I won’t try new things:

I’m stuck in my old habits.
I’m rebellious or contrary to someone who wants me to try the new thing.

Do you have a list of things you vowed you’d never try?

A Shortlist of the Things I Vowed I’d Never Try

Here’s a shortlist of the things I vowed I’d never try (I’m sure there’s more out there). Okay, ‘vow’ is a strong word, but there were reasons behind each of them (or so I tell myself). But now that I did try these ‘new’ things I think differently.

Sour cream
Brussell Sprouts
Chromebook
Watercolor painting
Making my bed habitually (it couldn’t make that much difference, could it?)
Mangos (how do you get into those things?!)
Morning Routine
Apple Products
Brain Dumps

Williams Shakespeare Quote - It's not in the stars that hold our destiny, but in ourselves - Watercolor Bullet Journal Quote | ChocoalteMusings.com

Examples of the ‘New’ Things I Tried:

As a kid, I was a VERY picky eater. I would only eat cantaloupe when I was three. (Sidenote: As the mother of a very picky eater, I have no idea of how my parents were so patient with me.) Once I left for college, I tried many new foods and loved them.

All of these examples seem very small, but they’ve made a huge impact on my life. If only I would have tried these ‘new things’ earlier. What would be different?

The Tale of Sour Cream:

At an overnight girl’s camp when I was 12 or 13, we had fire-baked potatoes. Those potatoes smelled so good. Along with the baked potatoes were many toppings and one of the toppings was sour cream. Dolloping that creamy goodness onto my steaming potato and piling high other delicious toppings, I dug into my meal without thinking twice.

I don’t know if it was that I was not around my parents and didn’t feel the need to be so rebellious or if I was famished from a day of hiking in the heat and was slightly delirious, not knowing what I was stuffing into my mouth. Still, I tried sour cream (without realizing what it was), and surprisingly, it was good!

Shocked by my change of opinion, I begged the leaders not to tell my parents that I tried sour cream, which, I’m sure they thought was an odd request. They probably told my parents simply because it was strange for me to make a big deal about trying sour cream.

What in life have you finally tried after years of avoiding it? What was the outcome?

Shiny, Sparkly Space Watercolor Bookmarks

Watercoloring – What’s Not to Like?Another Example of Trying New Things (and Liking Them):

Watercoloring is another example of things I wouldn’t try (but should have) earlier. For the longest time, I thought the color range for watercolor ranged from light pink to pastel blue and seafoam green. Now, there’s nothing wrong with pastel colors, but I am drawn to bright colors.

Mistakenly, I thought there were no bright colors in watercolor. I thought shadows and color depth came from acrylics or other opaque mediums. Admittedly, I don’t know where this idea originated! Perhaps, someone, I knew painted watercolors using only pastel tones.

Oh, how wrong I was! If only I would have tried this ‘new’ thing earlier!

On a whim, I tried watercoloring about two years ago. I hate to say it, but I think I missed out on a lifetime of using this fantastic medium. Despite my earlier assessment, it’s my favorite way to paint, now. I even figured out how to ‘paint with markers’ like watercolor in my planners. I now have to keep myself from buying new watercolors all the time.

Gain New Experiences & Add New Stories to Your Life When You Try New Things

As you can tell, there’s a story behind each ‘new things I won’t try but did anyway’. Though that list for me is not comprehensive by any means, as a keeper of lists, I’ll add it to my journal and then add a short story of the experience that changed my mind.

What would you call this list of things you thought you’d never try, but then did?

Journal Prompts:

Here are a list of journal prompts related to trying new things:

What things have you tried (even though you said you wouldn’t)? And what changed your mind?
What new things did you like, and what new things did you try and dislike?
Why do you think you won’t try new things?
What are you gaining/losing by not trying this new thing?
Who influenced you to finally try the new thing? Was it a group of friends, or were you peer pressured into doing it? Or were you entirely alone when you tried it?
Why was being alone (or with others) the catalyst to get you to try the new thing?
What would be different if you would have tried it sooner?

More Inspiration

No Matter Which Notebook I use – You’ll Always Find These Supplies Close at Hand

Ugly Journaling – Why It’s Important

June 17, 2018 7 Comments

What Is Ugly Journaling?

Have you ever heard the term Ugly Journaling? Probably not, because I made it up. Ugly Journaling is when you write so you can get it all out, ignoring the fact that your handwriting isn’t perfectly coiffed, your letters straight and even like you’ve seen or practiced.

The words flow out of your fingertips, even though you’re writing as fast as you can, you miss some thoughts. Rapidly logging all the things that come to your mind, inhibitions of a beautiful journal don’t matter anymore, all that does matter is getting all the thoughts out.

When your pen lifts from the page, and you realize what you’ve done to your perfectly curated journal, you realize for the first time that this journal now belongs to you.

That’s what ugly journaling is – at least how I see it.

Why Ugly Journal?

I don’t ‘ugly journal’ very often. Maybe I should do it a little more, though. Back in March, when I separated my journals from long-term collections to current plans and had a goal to keep the planner for 12 months, I wasn’t stingy with the allotment of pages for each month, but I didn’t add anything extra or fun. When one month ended, the next one began.

Slowly, I felt constricted in my own doing! I still like and use my long-term collections notebook, but I don’t think my red planner will last for a year because I need to do a whole lot more ugly journaling, where I write down thoughts without restriction.

Why Is Ugly Journaling Important?

Just google “Why keep a journal” and you will find many compelling reasons why journaling is beneficial for your mental state. Psychologies.co.uk has an excellent article and five great reasons to keep a journal. I know that I solve more of my own problems and gain more confidence in myself when I journal. I wish I would have journaled more as a kid and now as an adult. Letting go of needing everything perfect, my writing, my life, myself, and just writing frees my mind and my soul.

You don’t have to ‘ugly journal,’ but I find it completely freeing to let go and just write with no restriction.

My Process

Sometimes I ‘Ugly Journal’ everything that comes to my mind. This is kind of like a brain dump where the ideas are disconnected and don’t have a rhyme or reason. I also ugly journal on a theme or a topic. For instance, I expected myself this year to create products and videos left and right. But instead, I’ve been in a rut for longer than I realized, and found myself in the middle of June with nothing to show.

So I sat down and wrote a list of things I feel like I’m lacking. I wrote to myself without inhibition. That writing opened up into more free-form writing consuming 6+ pages in my bullet journal. Finally, I had some ideas of what I was really struggling with.

Finding Solutions

So then I created a grid – Struggles vs. Solution and wrote answers to my struggles. Believe it or not, I found that the root of my problem was that my files on my computer were disorganized, and I get distracted by the mess in my house. I felt stuck.

Seems like a silly thing, right? But the fact that I have a backup drive, my computer, and a google drive which all contained snippets of current projects, I felt lost and completely unorganized. I also don’t have a nightly routine. When I sit down for a few minutes in the morning, I literally have a few minutes. I find myself looking at all the open browser windows I left from the night before instead of finishing editing the pictures or proofing a post as I intended.

After getting to the root problems, I made a checklist and a process of when I would back up my files to the drive, what I would keep on my google drive, and a complimentary file structure for each location. I also gave myself a nightly routine to help with night-time and morning-time distractions.

Both of these are trivial things, but they’re keeping me from moving forward. Until I sat down and wrote my frustrations out, I couldn’t figure out what to do. None of this was pretty, though I tried to make some nice-looking headers and promptly abandoned that endeavor. Sometimes the content is more important than the look.

How does this apply to you?

Sometimes we get so caught up in the beauty or the form of our journals that we forget the function. Form should never take precedence over function. Something beautiful will stay beautifully unused in most cases. So while you’re creating your journals and looking up the most beautiful layouts, please make sure that it works for you.

I’m telling you that it’s ok to have non-Instagram or Pinterest-worthy pages in your journal. It’s ok that your journal has pages that are not aesthetically pleasing contains personal thoughts. This journal is for you, make it what you need it to be.

I’ve included the best journaling quotes I could find below feel free to pin them as quotes to add to your journal later. I’d love to know which of these or if you have other quotes that inspire you. I’d also like to know if you ugly journal.

~Tricia

Ugly Journaling - use your journal time as a list for things you'd like to change | Ugly Journaling - Why you need it in your bullet journal

Journaling quotes

Here are some quotes about journaling for your journal, I think many of these authors use ugly journaling. Surprisingly, I found many of these quotes separately, but Buzz Feed compiled a majority of them a while ago in an article.

“Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter. And lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.” – Jack London

keep a journal - it's less perishable than gray matter

“…The habit of writing thus for my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments… What sort of diary should I like mine to be? Something loose knit and yet not slovenly, so elastic that it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind.” – Virginia Woolf

“There’s the you that you present to the world, and then there’s… the real one, and if you’re lucky, there’s not a huge difference between those two people. And I guess in my diary I’m not afraid to be boring. It’s not my job to entertain anyone in my diary.” – David Sedaris

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart” – William Worsworth

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart - William Wordsworth

The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it – Joan Didion

It is like whispering to one’s self and listening at the same time – Mina Murray in her journal in Dracula by Brahm Stoker

It's like whispering to one's self and listening at the same time. - Brahm Stoker

I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart – Anne Frank

I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kids of things that lie buried deep in my heart - Anne Frank

Write it down, let it go.

Modern Calligraphy – There is Beauty in the Process

November 28, 2017 10 Comments

Developing a Talent: There is Beauty in the Process

A few months ago, I set out on learning how to paint on canvas in the beautiful thick-and-thin stroke writing. I had NO IDEA what a process it was, I also had no idea how fun it was. I didn’t realize that my hand needed the training to know when to push harder on the brush to make the gorgeous thick downstrokes or that my hand would shake so badly when trying to make coveted thin upstroke. And who in their right mind would think it would be so difficult to make an oval? I learned all these things and more. Though I am far from being the ultimate source of lettering, I have come far in the process. There are many methods, and they are not all called calligraphy. The definitions are interwoven and not clear – this could be called faux calligraphy or even modern calligraphy. I will certainly try to bring a better definition next time.

Whenever you are starting a journey of developing a talent any sort – there will be pain, frustration, and tears. Time will pass and seem like there is no improvement. But then all at once, you begin to see progress and know that all of your perseverance has been worth it. There is beauty in the process. Sometimes you cannot see the beauty when you are in the middle, but once you can step back and see your progress, the journey can be more stunning than even the end result.

Things I never expected to happen during this process:

The muscles in my hand are stronger, I’ve developed muscle memory so the movement is nearly automatic.
I want to practice every day, especially since I got past the initial development part of practicing. It’s now actually fun to practice.
I have heard that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. I do plan on mastering hand lettering. Every day I practice is another step closer to my 10,000 hours logged. But 10,000 hours is a long time.
I’ve gained a love for the process. I wanted to just jump from beginner to incredible, but that is not a realistic expectation. If you are in the middle of a talent acquisition of your own, gain an appreciation for where I am now regardless of how close I am to what I consider ‘the end’.
my handwriting has improved – overall. Even on my notes at work, I see little extra flourishes and sometimes a ‘bounce’ in my letters. Some days I stop for a moment and smile inwardly at this sub-conscious result of practicing my lettering for months.
There is beauty in the process – not just the end result.

I discovered that there are lots of different ways to letter a word. Here is one method to start learning where the thick and thin strokes would go.

Downstrokes are thick

When you start the letter at the top and come down, those lines will be thick.

Upstrokes are thin

Anytime your pen/pencil starts going upward, use the lightest pressure and those strokes stay thin.

Faux/Modern Calligraphy:

This does method does not need a brush pen or anything fancy. I used a PaperMate Flair pen in this case, but you could use anything.

I started with writing out the word but left extra spacing between the letters.
Then on either side of any downstroke, I added extra width to the line as you can see in the ‘b’ and the ‘e’
Fill in the extra lines
Keep going until your downstrokes are completely filled

Faux Calligraphy, Modern Calligraphy, hand lettering, what ever it is called, there is a process and it is beautiful

Now What?

Once you have the basic shapes completed and the down strokes are as thick as you want, you can keep it as-is or you can start embellishing. Add white strokes to the thick parts. Then add highlights to one side of the letters and a slight shadow to the other side. (I always think about where the light is coming from so I don’t get my highlights and shadows mixed up). Then if you want, add more strokes around the edges. Remember that there is beauty in the process – not just in the end result.

In my December 2017 Welcome page, I talk about another method to add fonts to your journaling or pages. Read the post here!