Why I Quit Project Life – Part 1

Confession time – I only did 6 weeks of Project Life in 2013.

Not sure what Project Life is? It’s a system created by Becky Higgins, who describes is like this:

The idea is simple: Photos + memorabilia + journaling together in an album – everything slips into pockets. No requirement to cut or glue or embellish a thing. And yet – the results are stunning. Project Life is back-to-basics scrapbooking at its finest.

In the past, I would have felt like a failure because I only did 6 out of 52 weeks, but now I don’t. I’m just grateful that I did those 6 weeks. When I open up the album, all the memories from the beginning of last year come flooding back – lots of small details that I’d forgotten. Sure, 46 more weeks would have been nice, but I have that snapshot of January and February 2013 and that’s precious.

So, why did I stop?  3 reasons:

Perfectionism

Back to my old friend perfectionism. While the idea of keeping it simple sounds good, the overachiever in me wanted to create mini works of art similar to those I saw on Pinterest. I was comparing my work to that of others and that was a mistake.  As Julia Cameron wisely says in Find Water – The Art of Perserverance:

Perfectionism measures our beginner’s work against the finished work of masters. Perfectionism thrives on comparison and competition.

Recording the details of my family’s life is personal to me and it’s for our enjoyment now and in the future. I like to be inspired by others’ work, but I tied myself into knots trying to create perfect pages that looked like other peoples.

 Time

This is part of me trying to create perfect pages each week – it was crazy the amount of time it took to make them. I don’t have that kind of free time.  In the end it became something that hung over me as another chore to do on Sunday afternoons and not a celebration of our life.

 Overwhelm

Finally, I don’t know about you, but the sheer volume of products available to create Project Life is overwhelming. Again, this ties into my buddy perfectionism.  I would spend hours looking through design galleries, choosing and ordering the perfect products to make perfect pages. When really that time could have been used to create the pages. But I was just so overwhelmed by the options available it became paralyzing.

Perhaps I’m over thinking this whole thing (which I do about most things).  But as my daughter is preparing to enter high school in September, I feel precious time with her slipping away. I want to celebrate the beautiful moments I get to spend with my teenage daughter and my husband.

So, I’ve started over. I will fill you in on all the details in Part 2.

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