Episode 16: Motivate Me!

Welcome to the ScrapHappier Podcast where we share quick tips, tricks, and techniques to help you create scrapbooks you love and be happier while doing it. I’m your host, Alice Boll.

Oh my goodness, you’re going to be so happy that you heard this episode. If you have ever struggled with a lack of motivation for doing something that you know that you want to do, but somehow you just don’t get around to doing it, then this is the episode for you. And trust me, I don’t have this all figured out. I still struggle with this too. But I’ll share the tips that I’ve learned that have really helped make a difference in my scrapbooking and in my life. So let’s dive into episode number 16 and our chat about motivation.

Now, it really doesn’t make sense to me. Does it make sense to you? Because I want to scrapbook, I want to be a scrapbooker, and I want to make pages about our life. But sometimes I just don’t scrapbook. And I know I should. I know I should sit down and just get started and dig into it. And then I find myself sitting there watching Netflix or doing dishes or just procrastinating, putting it off. And I’m like, oh my gosh, how lazy are you? But that’s really not it at all. There are reasons that we don’t do the stuff that we want to. So why is it so hard to get started, and why don’t we do what we love?

Well, first off, I’m going to ask you a hard question. Do you really want to do it? If you say you want to, but you don’t actually do it, maybe you don’t want to. What do they say? We vote with our actions. But the good news is that you can actually make yourself want to do things. Just really focus on the benefits. Imagine the benefits of having that scrapbook page completed, of sitting down, reliving your stories, reliving your memories, and putting that onto a page that you can look at after. When I focus on the benefits and I think about having that finished product, I want to sit down and scrapbook right now. And if you’re feeling that way right now, that’s perfect. Take me with you. Let’s sit down. You can scrapbook as we chat.

Have you heard the quote, “If it’s important to you, you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse”? Isn’t that uncomfortable? Because, man, is it true. When I don’t really want to do something or I’m avoiding doing something, there’s a lot of excuses that come up. But why on earth would we make excuses when we want to do something? When we actually love doing it? I love to sit down and scrapbook. So why am I not doing it more often?

One of the reasons that we don’t scrapbook is that we think that we don’t have enough time. Sure, we may need more time than we have every day to complete a layout or a project, but why don’t we take just 15 minutes to work on a project? And let’s be real, are you really too busy to spend 15 minutes on your scrapbooking? Because if you’re actually too busy for that, you’re probably too busy. And I get it. We all have days where we really are too busy and that extra 15 minutes doesn’t seem possible. But then we can go back to that question, do you really want to do it? Because we make time for the things that we want to do, the things that are important.

Okay. Right now, I’m sure you’re thinking Alice, you said I was going to be excited to be here today, and right now this isn’t very fun. Yeah, I know. This is literally my reality too. I’m reminded of the scene in the Lion King when Rafiki, the monkey, hits Simba over the head with his staff. Rafiki told Simba that change is good, but Simba said that it wasn’t easy. Then suddenly, Rafiki bonks Simba on the head and Simba yells, “Ow, what did you do that for?” Rafiki replies, “It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.” And Simba says, “Ah, but it still hurts.” And Rafiki replied, “The past can hurt, but the way I see it you can either run from it or learn from it.” And really, isn’t that the lesson that we’re trying to get here, how to change, which is hard, but that we’re learning from our past mistakes so that we can do differently in the future?

Try and experiment. Commit to two weeks of 15 minutes a day. Hey, haven’t we heard this before? Yes, we have. Way back in episode number four, Khristina Sorge told us about her 15-minute-a-day practice. Did you implement it then? Did you start doing it? Spend your 15 minutes every day? Yeah, neither did I. But we can start right now. And let’s not go crazy. Let’s not just going to say we’re going to do this forever. Let’s just say we’re going to do this for two weeks. Can you commit to two weeks of 15 minutes a day of crafting, of creating, of scrapbooking? And how much can you accomplish in two weeks? And then what would happen if you kept going?

But here’s another thought, maybe you’re avoiding it for another reason. Is your space where you scrapbook easy to access? Do you have to drag things out? Do you have to shove things around and shift the piles? Is your space a little disorganized? If it’s hard to start, sometimes you just won’t. What is the one thing that will make it easier for you to start scrapbooking? And how can you make that happen so that you can just go and sit down and scrapbook? And I can tell you the truth, for me, it involves a little bit of cleaning up around here. But that’s okay because I needed to do that anyways.

And maybe you’re avoiding sitting down and starting to scrapbook because you really want it badly. Is this related to perfection and fear? Oh, you betcha. If you try it, you could fail. You might not be good at it. But if you don’t sit down and scrapbook, well, you don’t really know. And you’re already failing because you’re actually not scrapbooking. Wouldn’t you rather be bad at something than not even try and give it a chance at all?

I know there are so many ways in my scrapbooking where I have tried things and I’ve been really terrible at them. Let’s just say my first attempts at watercoloring were pretty horrible. I was really dissatisfied and unhappy with my stamping when I first started. There were just so many things to learn. But I was excited about them because I knew that as I practiced I would get better. And darn it, if that wasn’t true. I am pretty decent at watercoloring. Okay, not a scene or anything, but I’m super good at swashing a little bit of paint over a background and thinking that it looks terrific. And as long as it looks terrific to me, who cares what anybody else thinks? And I’ll confess, I might not be a perfect stamper, but I know a few tricks and I can do a really good job.

But if I quit those first times when I really sucked at those things, then I never would have reached the place that I am now, where I really enjoy those techniques as part of my scrapbooking repertoire. So if there’s something that you’re resisting because of perfection, because of fear, I really hope that you will find a way instead of an excuse.

And perhaps there’s one more thing that’s giving your motivation a run for its money. Have you ever heard of decision fatigue? It’s when you’re making so many decisions during a day that honestly you just reach a point where you can’t make one more decision. It’s just too much. When you get up in the morning, you have to decide are you going to hit that snooze alarm? What are you going to have for breakfast? What are you going to wear today? And then every other decision that you make during the day, whether they’re important or not, you’re still spending time putting energy into making those decisions.

And now think about scrapbooking. You have to pick a style and a design. You have to pick papers. You have to coordinate embellishments. There are so many decisions to make in scrapbooking. I could understand how a person can have decision fatigue and not even want to start scrapbooking.

But here’s the good news. There are awesome ways to help set yourself up for success. You can pick a sketch ahead of time. Maybe when you’re spending your 15 minutes, you’re going to find yourself a sketch. Maybe you’re going to put together and create your own kit. Maybe you’re going to print a photo or photos. Maybe you’re going to jot down some journaling. Then maybe on the next day what you’re going to do, you’re going to take all of those pieces, your sketch, your kit, your photos, your journaling, and you’re going to sit down and put it all together and make a scrapbook page.

And I’ll be the first person to admit it’s not as fun and it doesn’t really feel like scrapbooking when you’re sitting down and you’re just picking a sketch or you’re just creating a kit or you’re just printing photos or you’re just writing journaling. But every step that we’re taking is bringing us a little bit closer to that delayed gratification, where we get to hold that completed scrapbook layout in our hands. By doing all of the pieces, you are making an investment right now into a future full of completed layouts that you love.

I’d like to share the journaling off of a layout that I completed recently during a LayOut A Day challenge. We call it LOAD, and we make a scrapbook page every single day for a month within our ScrapHappy community. Does it sound like a crazy, impossible challenge? It felt that way to me too the first time I tried it. And now I look forward to it and the stack of layouts that I have by the end of the month every single time we do one of these challenges.

The layout is called Blocks: Not Just for Kids. Interlocking blocks took on a new purpose when we built our house. We used Logix bricks to construct our house walls. They are bricks made of styrofoam that lock together, just like Lego bricks that we all played with as children. Jonas built most of our house by himself, and the kids and I helped a bit. There’s also a little side note of journaling on here and it says, “After all of this building, I don’t know if Jonas will ever play with Lego again.”

And I really felt that this was the perfect layout to share today because a house is not something that goes up in a day. It takes a long time, and it’s literally built brick by brick. So for your prompt of the day, what is something that you’ve done in your life that was built over time or created over time? And for the tip of the day, take a moment and figure this out. It is so important. Why do you not have the motivation to do what you love? Why is it so hard to get started? And take one small action to remedy that problem.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast, you might be just like this reviewer who said, “I love the short length and quick tips. What a great idea. Alice rocks?” And do you know how easy it is to leave a podcast review? And ratings are even easier. When you’re listening in Apple Podcasts, you just scroll down and you can hit the five stars, or right from there you’ll see an option to write a review. And that would seriously make my day.

If you’d like to see the Blocks: Not Just for Kids layout and catch up on the tips and prompt and the rest of the information from today’s episode, just pop over to scraphappy.org/episode16. And if you make a page inspired by today’s prompt, then please, if you’re sharing it on Instagram, use the hashtag ScrapHappier Podcast so that I totally won’t miss it. I would love to see your page. You can also let me know, my Instagram handle is @aliceboll, exactly what about this episode really got to you. What spoke to you? What did you need to hear? And how are you taking action?

Thank you so much for listening to the ScrapHappier Podcast. I hope that today’s tips will help you make pages that you love. Happy scrapping. Oh, P.S., I forgot to tell you, if you want to learn about our next LOAD challenge, then you can pop over to scraphappy.org/load and you can get all the information about our next challenge. It’s big, it’s scary, but it is so much fun.