Did you know that your pencils, pens, markers, crayons and paint brushes are magic wands?

You can:

• write out your dreams and goals to stay LASER focused.
• write out the vision of who you want to become as the next best version of you, so that you make choices and decisions in the now that align with that future vision.
• mine the JOY and bask in all there is to be grateful and appreciative of in your life. This makes gratitude and appreciation a PRACTICE rather than simply a nice meme.
• write down (or doodle!) EXACTLY what you’re feeling WITHOUT shame, disclaimers, filters or editing because of what other people will think.
• tell yourself your whole truth and then follow those emotional signposts and what they’re trying to tell you.
• look back through your journals to realize how far you’ve come – it’s all too easy to forget.
• leave a beautiful – and fully human – legacy for your family.

Think about it.

When you get your thoughts, ideas and dreams out of your head and onto the page, you’r giving them the importance and attention they deserve.

Everyday is a Blank Page

Every single day – every moment – you have a blank page to create what you want.

Sometimes that blank slate waiting to be created on can feel extremely scary and daunting.

What if I mess it up?

What if I don’t do it perfectly?

What if I fail?

I fail a lot. I’ve failed more than I’ve succeeded. In everything.

My art journals have opened my eyes to just HOW MUCH I fail.

You will fail on your blank page – Get used to it

Last year, I met some friends on a trip. My friends were SO EXCITED when they saw my art journal.

“Ooooohhhh, Aaaaahhhh… can we look through your art journal, Maritza?!”

I laughed and asked them if they thought everything in it would be beautiful.

Blank stares.

Yes, in fact they did think that my journals would be all beauty.

Then I proceeded to show them some ugly, some mediocre, some ridiculous and yup… even some beautiful art.

Here are a few examples of ugly art from my art journals.

IF you never create ugly things, there is no way to EVER get to the beautiful stuff.

It was a great example for me of how the “beautiful” success you see someone else having in business and in life is simply a FEW of their pages. They’ve just kept making marks.

The important part for you is to keep making marks.

Make marks in your life and business everyday

Be sure to BE SPECIFIC and TIME sensitive when you are writing and doodling out your goals.

As an example for you, here are some of the things I’m creating and how that looks like for me:

• Finishing touches on my Heartwork Journaling book. Chapters are at the editor for minor changes and spell check. Gosh… it’s SO HARD to see misspellings when you’re staring and working on text for hours! My doodle for this has a specific date for release!
• More connections with friends, family and especially with Joe. We’ve gone through some ups and downs this summer – some of you will remember we decided to end our relationship at the beginning of the summer – and then we made a new decision and decided to stay together and work harder and better at growing our relationship. In fact, Heartwork Journaling Award #2 from last week is a LOT of our new way of showing up in our relationship. This doodle helps remind me when I try to get into his “lane”.
• New, INCREDIBLY fun ways of selling my art and handmade creations online. I do have things in different online stores already but have found those to give such a small percentage to the makers, that it’s almost not even worth it, which then results in having to raise the prices, which results in people having to pay higher prices to have my creations in their home. It’s going to be SO FUN and it’s all going to take place on my FB page here. My specific dates for this have been set in my journal!

Try it because it WORKS…

Ok, for those of you who are thinking, “I don’t have time for that!” (Ah HA! caught you – I know some of you are!) here’s the thing…

THIS STUFF WORKS.

You have NO idea how many people have told me, especially after taking my Business Vision Board Workshop, that what they doodle and write out ACTUALLY happens.

It does not have to take a lot of time.

HOWEVER, the magic of this is that you:

• get clear on what you want
• ysee it often, your brain takes over and starts looking for the breadcrumb opportunities to make it happen
• stay laser focused
• TAKE ACTION on it

I use my doodles & art to uplift and encourage me when I feel scared, or stuck or discouraged.

Hey, I’m human. It happens to ALL of us.

Super easy Supplies to start with (you probably already have them)

Get a waterproof pen like my all-time favorite art journaling pen. I buy them in boxes of 12 here or you can try out a few here.)

Get some color in it, here’s my favorite little tin of colors (it does NOT have skin color AND you can make that by mixing up red and yellow – I’ll do a quick FB live on this soon) BUT you can use any watercolors like this one for kids and your journal (yes, a regular journal – it makes the paper satisfyingly “crackly” after it gets wet) or an art journal like this one.

Just try it, it’s as easy as the video below:

For example…

A couple of recent examples of this working “in the wild”:

After coming back from an unexpected trip to Wyoming, Shane of Arial Starr said she hadn’t realized she drew the EXACT mountains in a doodle she created a few months earlier.

Before going to visit her mom, a woman I’ll call Dina – who’d a historically “problematic” relationship with her mom – drew some doodles of her and her mom getting along smoothly and Voila! They had a beautiful time together with more laughter, peace and fun than she’d thought possible.

Jenny Clark used this to get focused on the specific numbers she wanted to make in her business and then she did it, bringing in over $100,000 in a few months.

Also, remember in the movie The Secret the scene with the expert who recommended that a man “paint” the kind of relationship he wanted? And he got exactly what he painted. This stuff works and when you doodle it, it takes very little time, keeps you focused on your goals and dreams in a FUN way.

What will you create in your life and business?

When you do this, please use hashtag #heartworkjournaling online so I can easily find it! Or you can tag me on Instagram @themaritzaparra or share on my FB page or on Twitter at @maritzaparra

I can’t wait to see what you create with your Magic Wands!