Setting goals is easy to do, following through to those goals is the real challenge.

I was discussing with myself on how I should create my profile icon. My head kept branching out from the website’s name.

“Reiya talks. Rei means bells and lovely, talk can be like a phone ringing.” The ideas and connections popped into my head and I had to mentally “swim” through the different designs I could create.

I settled on the capital “r” for my first name and talking became the ringing symbol. It wasn’t until I drew my final copy that I decided to include a star, which is the meaning of my surname.

I felt this design was for me and my website as an original but simple symbol. I enjoy simple and easy activities, recipes and lifestyle so this idea is perfect for me.

Deciding between a black-and-white concept and a colourful one was hard, because there is several factors to consider. Including lighting, colour combinations and if it would be part of the colour theme. My head was about to burst.

Colouring the picture was almost the hardest part, since my choices in tools were limited to my pencil case. I had to try different colours I liked and was available to me.

I took a break and when I came back, there was a little bit of effort for each example.

In the end I chose the farthest on the left as my design but I was scared that my outlining would be bad. So I didn’t include it.

I took a picture and uploaded on my profile picture, which is also my icon.

Then I started to think about my header image. This took me about half an hour to just decide that I would use an online photoshop site, called Photopea. The time I used was spent on thinking 50% on what format should be used, and 50% on irrelevant things.

Photopea gave me options to choose my header in different colours, fonts and layouts. Photopea’s tools were all available to use, so I began with a teal background with trees.

No text was here because I felt the text was not needed in my image. I wanted to focus on the visuals and their meaning instead of the words standing out.

I drew in mountains and a golden trail using the brush tool. The mountains and trail were added because they are commonly used to reference to a journey and a path. I am on a journey and my blog is talking about it. The path I’m taking is not straight and doesn’t have a end.

The cycle of planning, completing steps halfway, then scrapping the entire schedule repeated constantly. I couldn’t stay on task, but I was able to finish everything that was needed without truly sticking with my plans.

This is how I will live my simple life, going through my endless swirling path without proper planning.

Cover image by Mohamed Hassan/ PxHere