Nature Journaling | Stay Motivated

‘How do I stay motivated in my Nature Journaling journey?’, is a question that a follower asked recently. What a great question, and an issue that I’m sure we all struggle with from time to time. I know I certainly do. Let’s jump right into the why’s and how’s of staying motivated.

Finding Your ‘Why’ Is Key to Staying Motivated in your Nature Journal

Finding your why — terminology coined by Simon Sinek, a motivational speaker/entrepreneur. Catch his TED talk on the topic at or read his book ‘Start With Why’. In a nutshell, dig deep and figure out why you want to keep a nature journal in the first place. Make sure it’s not just another thing to tic off of your, ‘I should do this’ list. 

There are many ways to connect with nature besides Nature Journaling. Our brains balk at the ‘shoulds’ in our life. Your own personal ‘why’ will help keep you motivated naturally.

How A Growth Mindset Keeps You Motivated to Nature Journal

A fixed mindset is another way we ‘should’ ourselves.

I believe that we often underestimate the power of the words we speak to ourselves. Think about it for a minute. Words can be used to sell, to motivate, to inspire, to belittle, to degrade, to uplift, . . . and the list goes on.

How we speak to ourselves matters! 

A ‘fixed mindset’ might say, ‘I should get out my Nature Journal and create a page. It’s been so long since I’ve done one.’ Notice the ‘should’? See the way that those words conjure up shame and guilt? That’s not motivating, and yet most of us speak to ourselves this way all the time. Shame and guilt are never going to motivate us to create that nature connection that we’re looking for.

A ‘growth mindset’, however, might say, ‘I get to go Nature Journal for a while’, or ‘Woohoo, I have time to work in my Nature Journal today!’ Just a few tiny little words, but what a difference in perspective and staying motivated in your Nature Journal!

Learn to use the power of words to your advantage to build yourself up rather than tear yourself down.

How Time of Day May Affect Motivation

Are you a morning person? Do you have a day job and come home too exhausted to do anything else, much less get out your Nature Journal? Have you really drained all your energy, or are you, perhaps, a morning person? 

No matter what time of day you feel most energetic, that’s the time of day you can try to carve out a bit of time for Nature Journaling. That’s when you will find it much easier to get out and explore! Find times that work for you.

• Get up just a bit earlier in the morning.
• Carve out morning time on your days off.
• Are you a night owl? You can Nature Journal at night too! Sketch a star map or work on cut flowers and fruit at your kitchen table.
• Take your journal with you to work and slip in some sketching time during your lunch hour.

Baby Steps to Staying Motivated

‘An object in motion tends to stay in motion, while an object at rest tends to stay at rest.’ Newton’s first law of motion. 

Most of us are probably familiar with that part of the law of motion. But do you know the rest of that statement? The rest of that law states: unless acted upon by an outside (unbalanced) force. 

So what does this have to do with staying motivated with your Nature Journal? 

It only takes a teeny, tiny change in motion to get you re-motivated. Start with a tiny commitment. Just 5 minutes. You can do anything for 5 minutes, right? Get out your journal and sketch something simple — an apple, for example. Set a timer. If, after that 5 minutes is up, you don’t feel like continuing, give yourself permission to put it away.

Keep those 5 minute appointments with yourself. You’ll be surprised at how often that 5 minutes turns into 10, 15, or 30 minutes. 

Set out on a stroll. Take your Nature Journal along, but don’t plan to get it out. Just enjoy your stroll. Often for me, I’ll head out in a bad mood and as I stroll along, I find myself noticing the bird sounds. Pretty soon, my mood has lifted and I get my sketchbook out. I allow myself to just stroll and enjoy, however, without any expectation of Nature Journaling that day.

So much of the time, the goals we set are unrealistic. We are ambitious, which is a good thing; but when we fall short of our goals, we end up feeling like failures. We beat ourselves up. (Think New Year’s resolutions — and ‘the shoulds’.)

Expectations Can Block Your Nature Journaling Motivation

Do you expect a perfectly executed sketch or painting in your Nature Journal when you head out for the day? Does your finished page live up to your expectations — whether it’s the artwork, the lettering, how well you identified species?

Nature is unpredictable!  So, it follows that predicting an outcome in your journal may also be unpredictable. 

Go back to your why. Why do you want to keep a Nature Journal? If your why is to create beautiful works of art on your pages, then you need to adjust your journaling to accommodate that goal. That kind of page takes much more time, more tools, and more practice than say, a journal page that is more of a diary of your encounters along the way.

Make sure that you’re enjoying the journey of creating your pages — not just looking for that perfect end product. Don’t let BIG expectations steal your ability to stay motivated!

Partner Up

Accountability. It’s not the perfect word here, but stay with me for a second. Having Nature Journaling partners, keeps us motivated to get out there if for no other reason than we don’t want to disappoint or let others down.

There are times when I’ve committed to a Nature Journal outing with other people. Like most introverts, the day comes and I think to myself, ‘I really don’t feel like doing this today.’ Because I’ve let others know I’ll be there, I force myself to get it together and go. I am never sorry that I followed through! But left to my own devices, on those days, I guarantee I would not have gone by myself.

There are Nature Journal groups and clubs all over. Jack Laws has graciously created a page on his website where you can search for one near you. If there isn’t one, he also teaches you how to start one where you are.

Be Kind to Yourself

Be kind to yourself!  We are literally living in unprecedented times — our brains are filled with the chaos and fear of what’s happening around us. It drains us of energy and focus. Although spending a bit of time connecting with nature through our NJ can help with that, ‘shoulding’ all over yourself will only add to your chaos!

Nature Journaling, done right, should be a relaxing, engaging hobby — don’t make it your job!

So there you have my take — 6 ways to increase your motivation to keep Nature Journaling; or doing almost anything else for that matter!