Journal Writing: An Exploration

Discover the power of Journal Writing.

1. Focus
2. Letting go
3. Healing
4. Brainstorming
5. Calming
6. Solutions over Problems
7. Get UNSTUCK
8. Plan
9. Dream HUGE
10. Make MONEY from those DREAMS

I've been writing in journals since I was 12. I remember when & more importantly I remember WHY?

Being a pre-teen, life starts to get complicated at that phase of our journey. For me, boys started to enter the picture. School started getting tougher, and clicks began to develop. Peer pressure started sucking me in and lucky enough for me, I had a devoted English teacher who suggested journal writing.

I've been hooked ever since. In fact, I still have every single journal I have ever written. It amounts to about 5 boxes. That's a lot of writing. This was back in the day before computers. Some days I would write so viciously that my whole arm would hurt. Most days it was just my hand.

I fell in love with the compassion that my journal gave me. I could write anything and it was always there with open pages, waiting for me to spill my heart, fears, dreams & crazy antics.

My journals helped me to escape chaos, confusion and sometimes even despair.  You see, when I began looking for a way to escape, my dad had just been released from prison. I went from visiting him behind bars every other weekend, to him living back in our home. Needless to say, it was an adjustment on all levels. He wasn't use to being a full time dad to 3 kids under 12. We weren't used to having a dad at all.

It was a time of great challenge and lots of turmoil. Like most teenagers do, they resort to drugs, drinking, partying and getting away from what makes them hurt. And for me, it was my dad.

He wasn't adjusting well. He had a difficult time relating to us, to my mother and generally to society. He hated everything & everyone. Not long after he was released, he got a job as an over the road truck driver. My prayers had been answered. He'd be gone for 2 weeks, home for 1. Life was almost back to normal. No dad, no stress, no screaming and no fear. On the week he was home, I just stayed at friends houses constantly. Avoidance is a great tool for escape.

During all this turmoil and horrific change, I journal-ed. Like a mad teenager does anything, over the top and loud. I scribbled, bleed my heart out on paper and dreamed of a better life. Some where far away from home.

That was the very beginning of my journal exploration. The beginning, certainly far from the last journey we would take together. All through my teenage years, I wrote. It wasn't about being good. It was about being heard. And I felt that somehow my journal could hear everything, even if it didn't have all the answers. YET.

I didn't quite get the magnitude of journal writing until I was in my 20's. I had my first daughter at 18 and my second little gal at 22. I followed right into my mom's footprints. Young mom and barely finished high-school. No thoughts of college. I married my high school sweetheart one year after our first daughter was born. Life was tough. We were barely making ends meet. He was working full time and I worked part-time. We lived with his parents. Which was a challenging strain. He too, came from a house filled with dysfunction, so there was always hate and discontent going on.

My journal became my escape from everything. I wrote dreams, fantasies., prayers, ideas, solutions, Thoughts, but more importantly I started writing PLANS.

Ha...Low and behold the magic of journal writing became crystal clear. It's not just a space to write your worries or fears or heartache. It's a space to dream big and then plan the hell out of getting there.

Exit - Old style journal writing.

Enter - New, Powerful, Profound, Mountain Moving Journal Writing

A new chapter was born. I began using my journal as a dream planner.  I organized thoughts, ideas and strategies for creating what I wanted. It became my go to for brainstorming. I created charts, drawings, and learned all about mapping those ideas out.

I read tons of books and kept notes in my journal as well. It was my own personal arsenal of weapons. I couldn't learn enough, so I could write it in and implement the hell out of all I was learning. Life was improving, because I could see in clear view what needed to be done.

Which is how I began using my journal for brainstorming, life mapping & creating kick ass plans to getting there. While most folks my age were wandering aimlessly through their days, wondering why they couldn't seem to get ahead....I was consciously choosing and planning my day according to the big dreams I had written about. I had a dream, a plan, solutions and tools for when resistance or challenges arose.

It was also in that time,  I was super tired of missing out on volunteering in my gals classrooms, missing the baseball games, and I had a really clingy child who could definitely use a little more attention than I was able to give her. And I was getting tired of house sharing to pay bills. I wanted my own home and to be able to spend more time with my girls.

Enter another new way to journal. The Journal Money Making Challenge.

So off I went to blank pages that had so lovingly been there through over 10 years of challenges, turbulence & dreams. I started brainstorming what I loved, what I knew, what I could tolerate doing. Everything that would bring in a buck or two. I went through all the options I had written, which ones did I love the most. Which were the quickest result based with the less amount of initial investment and came up with importing beads from around the world and selling them to wholesalers, retailers & individual artists & consumers. YEA!! New idea born, planned, mapped, deadlines, and success. That little endeavor allowed me to bring in part time what I would have had to work full time for. The bonus, I did it in the morning, while the girls were at school and sometimes after they went to bed. I created my own website, a little newsletter, tips, ideas, designs for jewelry. I also started my own Jewelry Design company and did that for over 6 years.

None of that would have been possible without the power of my journal. Sorting through the ideas, reflecting thoroughly on each solution, coming up with a plan with doable deadlines, and the ability to be able to expand to Jewelry Designing. It was fun and profitable with very low over head. I designed the website myself, put together a simple, no frills news letter and created a little following.

Then I thought how can I make more money in one lump sum, because I wanted to buy our own home. Another brainstorming session and I came up with creating a bead directory to directly connect companies in third world countries with vendors & consumers here in the U.S. I researched, contacted, created a simple file that I could sell in one lump sum, for a set price. I put it all together and sold said it was a limited supply. I allowed 50 folks to buy my directory for $9.95. They all sold in 24 hours and that was the closing cost for our house. It took about a month to create and 24 hours to sell. EASY.

As you can see, journal writing is a powerful tool that can be used for many things that arise in life. It can be a great escape. A powerful friend. An honest reflection. Your own private mastermind. A planner. And a valuable foundation for making money.

I journal daily, sometimes twice a day. It has always kept me moving forward, helping me cut through challenges, building my courage when I am scared out of my mind and creating businesses that have allowed me the luxury to do what's important to me at that time.

I would love to hear how journal writing has impacted your life? And if you don't journal, what do you think about trying it? How about if we even go a bit further and have a Women's Journal Circle? A place to write, create, mastermind, support and blow our awesome ideas write out of the water. That's what I am offering...

A space devoted to helping women use journal writing as a spring board to create, step up their games, and use this powerful tool to build their lives beyond their wildest dreams.

There's more!

I've been working with a world renowned business person, taking courses that are mind blowing and wallet blowing! In the midst of all these awesome classes, I also learned of an amazing technique for successfully launching anything. I know, sounds too good to be true. Which is why I am building this technique into my Women's Journal Circle Workshop. Because I think it has absolute unreal potential and I want to work with this technique more and would love to have a group of women who are up for exploring this ridiculously incredible strategy.

The class will run from Sept. 4th through Sept. 25th. Four weeks, Live group masterminding with women who want more money, build a business, even start from scratch creating a business, learn how journal writing can pull it all together. We will have a Private Group Coaching Forum, Live Group Coaching Calls, Weekly Accountability Check-ins, Work sheets, Homework, Deep Intensive Journal Writing to get to the absolute core of what you want and how to create a plan that is doable, simple and makes you MONEY. Because really, MONEY does MATTER.

Because of the very nature of this unusual technique that I am learning and how intensive journal writing in it's very self can be, I am limiting this class to a small number.

If you are interested please sign up below for more information, that will be coming out in the next couple days. Those that sign up early will get numerous bonuses!! I love bonuses and extras!

Talk to you soon!
From my heart to YOURS,
Shel * Support Coaching