Ditch Hustle, Embrace Joy: Building a Life You Love

“I’m not going to plan 2025. I’m going to build it.” —Paul Scrivens.

I was thinking about how I’ve moved away from muscling my way through things, from sheer grit day after day, and am moving towards embracing joy, purpose, and hope. This was not so much a conscious choice as something life did for me. My hustle-til-I-make-it era ended when my body decided that it did.

I still loved pen and paper, but I started reflecting much more, and planning a little less.

Planning a super productive life left me exhausted, but I couldn’t just stop being intentional. I needed to embrace joy, and hope, in my plans.

This week, I came across this thread by Paul Scrivens, in which he introspected:

“It’s not about planning every detail.
It’s about building a world you actually want to live in.
Your goals aren’t failing because you lack discipline. They’re failing because you’re trying to build someone else’s version of success.
Think about the last time you lost track of time doing something you loved.
The kind of focus that makes you forget to eat lunch.
That’s not discipline. That’s alignment.”

https://www.threads.net/@mrpaulscrivens/post/DDLZUACPDgS

Embrace joy today in your goals and weekly bullet journal spread

This Tuesday, what if we did one of the following?

• If you’re a time blocker, block off at least half an hour today for an activity you know you truly love, or call it “research” and let your mind wander in discovery of things you have forgotten you loved. 
• If you’re a list-maker, set a ten minute timer right now, turn to a new page, and make a simple list of things you enjoy. Then choose one activity and schedule it for this week.
• Open to the goals page in any planner, or simply turn a new sheet and label it “goals.” But instead of thinking of productivity, channel joy and hope instead. Write a few things you hope your life could include, things that would truly bring joy to you, and drop them on the page in list or bubble format. It doesn’t matter how. As long as they make it onto the page.

Embrace joy today in your daily bullet journal daily spread

• What’s one small step you could take towards one of the things in the fourth bullet point? Can you do this this week? Today? In the next hour?

Here’s the magic: the more I carve out time for my passions, the less time I spend on things I just do out of obligation. Don’t get me wrong, obligation is necessary and important to keep a society functioning. But man cannot live by bread alone, and neither can we live by obligation alone. Some of these tasks either get delegated, become more efficient, or simply fall away. Meanwhile, the things I truly love — like my novel, logo projects, and this planner company — flourish and bring joy to me, my team, my family, and, somehow, the universe seems to conspire in their favor.

In the top image in this email, I made a few colorful blocks of time for things I wanted to do, and after making a list and a couple of blocks containing “have-tos,” I made two blocks of “want-tos.” Then I made some open time blocks that I could choose how to fill later. It was fun. It got a lot done. 

Life is full of have-tos and want-tos. Journaling is all about balancing those two categories into a reality that makes sense for you and your familly. 

What are other ways you can embrace joy and hope in your journaling? Do weekly time blocks help you? Or daily lists? Or do you feel so overwhelmed by life right now that you can’t even begin to imagine scheduling things that are not solely for the purpose of income or care of others? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Together, we can build a better 2025.