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Shinjini Amitabh Chawla

It's our Birthday! What It Took To Get to our 4th Year in Business

Happy Birthday to my baby biz - Bigger Dreams Co!

Today, on its 4th birthday, I want to tell you a story that has nothing to do with our Annual Birthday Sale.


Once upon a time, there was a woman in her early 30s who had a child. That kid was going to begin playschool, and this mom, who had a full time job too, didn't know how she'd juggle the responsibilities of being a parent to a school going child.


Because this mom was not a regular mom. She was a clinically depressed mom. She had even tried anti-depressants for a while. Nothing seemed to be working.


Now she was worried her daughter would be the kid who shows up to school in the uniform on a casual outfit day, shows up without a certain book, a certain item that was needed on a particular day. Sounds like it's no big deal? To her, it was. A really big one at that. How could she fail? She had failed at so many other things. Not this one, please. All she wanted was to be a good parent.


Googling one night, she stumbled upon this thing called bullet journalling. It opened up a whole new world to her. She had always loved personal development growing up, but it had all fallen to the side once "real world" problems kicked in. But this, was this the answer?


It was finally not bullet journalling that saved her, cured her. It was the process of getting her life together on paper, of taking out time to spend on herself, of building a community of friendly Indian BuJo-ists who shared freely on Zoom calls during the pandemic, of feeling like she finally had SOME control on her life again -- that helped her SURVIVE.


Once she felt survival was assured, she picked up more tools, tried out different therapists and coaches, and slowly but surely, one baby step at a time, moved towards a better life.


Today, she is no longer depressed. She still doesn't meditate as often as she should, sinks her teeth into junk food too often, and makes big and small mistakes every day, every week. But now she works out for the health benefits, not because she won't have a good day without the happy hormones exercise releases. She's free, not because anyone allowed her to be, but because she chooses to be free.


While she went on this long journey of healing herself, lots of things fell to the side. Important things, like the business she was now running. She wanted to help other people discover everything she had, but how could she help them before she had healed herself?


So she spent months and months and months...getting better. Business suffered immensely, it was the price she was paying since she needed time and mental bandwidth to work on herself. To make big changes.


Then one day, she woke up and looked around -- everything was different. She was fine. She felt...fine. She'd forgotten how good "fine" felt!


Time was no longer the enemy. It was available. SHE was available. Her mind worked like it used to. She could go ahead and DO in the world again, whatever she wished to.


Hours, days, weeks passed by. She breathed life into her business again. It took a front row seat in her life again. Made its way back to long to-do lists again.


She was back. And how!


She is me. Pretty obvious, but in case you needed confirmation :)


Depression took a lot away from me, and honestly, I might've done a lot more with BDC in 4 years had I not been going through it. But you know what, I also might have not discovered Bullet Journalling had I not been depressed, so I guess things always work out in the way they're meant to!


The last year of running this biz made me wonder if I was running it into the ground. Delayed shipments to customers, late restocks, a shameful amount of New Arrivals. I'm as shocked as you are - how is this business still alive?!


But we made it to number 4. We must be doing something right. I'm excited to see how the next one year unfolds, especially with me now running the biz as a non-depressed mom.


I'm just as curious as you are to see how it turns out! Just as clueless too 😄

Happy 4th Birthday to not just BDC, but all the parts that make it whole. The people who help run it, my family who supports it (allowing phones at breakfast and lunch and dinner table to prep for the sale!) and YOU, the customer who orders despite mistakes at my end, reposts and gives shoutouts on Instagram, sends the sweetest DMs and emails, leaves the nicest Google Reviews!, and most of all -- loves the living daylights out of all our products! ❤️


This company may be owned by me, but it runs on the shoulders of thousands of people. You're one of them. THANK YOU, with really all my heart. I'm blessed to have you as a part of my journey ❤️


Now go shop the sale 😄 before stocks run out 🏃‍♀️

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This is my favourite store for buying amazing quality stationery and reading this journey is inspiring in itself.

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