Guest Post: Putting Your Pen to the Paper

Hello all.


I've got Melanie here from Milady knows and who also writes for the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance, who wanted to share about setting goals and achieving them. Read a little bit about her work here, and what she has to tell us.

"Melanie Bowen is an awareness advocate for natural health and holistic therapies for cancer patients. You will often find her highlighting the great benefits of different nutritional, emotional, and physical treatments on those with illness in her efforts to increase attentiveness and responsiveness on like topics. Here, she will be writing about the benefits of tracking your thoughts and goals because thoughts are merely thoughts but writing is the first step to taking action, organizing oneself and being proactive."

Making Your Dreams a Reality by Writing Them Down

With the challenges we encounter within our daily lives, just getting through each day can seem like an accomplishment. It can be easy to lose sight of bigger goals, especially when faced with illnesses like mesothelioma or lupus. However, writing down your dreams and keeping them visible is an important first step towards making them a reality. Your desires can be as simple as trying a new food, or as challenging as running a marathon. Making a list of goals will enable you to have a constant reminder to work towards as you go through your daily life.

How Writing Down Your Goals Can Improve Your Chances for Success: 

Many studies, including one from the National Institutes of Health, indicate that listing your goals and making them tangible increases the likelihood of success. For example, do you want to get out of debt but find yourself tempted by impulse spending? Write down an amount that you would like to save over the next year, and refer to it anytime you get the desire to splurge on a non-necessity. You will find it harder to rationalize these purchases when you're reminded that they won't help you meet your goals. 

Writing down your aspirations can also make them seem like more of a reality rather than just a pipe dream. You've taken the time to acknowledge that it is something you want to accomplish; it's gone from your head and onto a piece of paper that is harder to ignore. If you want to share your goals with others and need the outside motivation to hold yourself accountable, consider starting a blog to publicly state your goals and your progress as you work towards them. A great blog theme would be to list all of your ambitions and things you want to do with your life, and take your readers on your journey with you as you cross them off one by one.  

Properly List Goals to Ensure You Will Achieve Them 

For most of us, simply writing down our goals is not enough to ensure success. Especially when faced with a difficult prognosis, such as mesothelioma cancer, we have to work around obstacles that can keep us from our desired results. Rather than letting these roadblocks derail you, take the time to anticipate what might keep you from success and how you can continue to forge ahead. Realize that setbacks are bound to happen along the way and that it doesn't indicate failure. By acknowledging that difficulties are inevitable, you are allowing for these occurrences rather than giving up when they happen. Set small milestones along the way as well to encourage your progress and make it seem more attainable. 

Setting goals is an important part of overall health and happiness. Make the commitment to success by listing your goals on paper. You're not only making them more tangible, but you're taking the first step to increase your chances of success.

Thanks Melanie for sharing this. So now, what are your goals? Are you writing them down? Let's try to accomplish them! I'll share some of mine soon.