Dear Friend,

I am writing this newsletter from my mom’s house, where I have spent the last week. She is was in the hospital over the weekend and I came in to visit with her and help where I can. She is home now and we have shared lots of coffee, lots of quiet, and lots and lots of Chex Mix.😂 It’s always been something she loves and now, in her Picky Era, it is a snack she will actually eat. So… the holiday treat-making has started early for us!

I had a couple of hours in the car on my drive over. I listened to several podcasts and one shared some stats that have had me thinking on all week. The episode was about setting goals by the podcast ‘Finally Fearless’.

… “researchers studied Harvard MBA students before graduation and asked them, “Have you set clear written goals for your future and have you made plans to accomplish them?” They found that 84% of students had no goals set, 13% had goals in mind but didn't write them down, and only 3% had goals written on paper along with clear plans to accomplish them.

Ten years passed and the researchers checked back with the graduates. They discovered that the abstract goal setters were making twice the amount of money as the students who had no goals, which is really impressive, right?

But the real success story was the 3% who had written down their goals. They were making 10 times the income of the other 97% combined.”

TEN TIMES MORE.

I think it’s fair to say that there is power in writing down your goals. Goals are great and necessary and something that have been life-giving to me in this mid-stage of life.

But I don’t want to just focus on the goal part of these stats. Goals are great, but I would be so bold as to say there is power in simply WRITING. Period.

You can do some research on this and find there are SO MANY benefits to writing by hand.

Handwriting…

…activates motor, language, memory, and visual circuits simultaneously

… forces your brain to slow down which in turn forces deeper processing

… allows for more key concepts to be remembered during note taking (as compared to typing)

…increases recall and stronger comprehension

… narrows your attention by forcing single-tasking which deepens your focus

Now let’s take this knowledge of handwriting and apply it to handwriting letters. Forcing our brain to process the words we write to someone we love… allowing our brain to REMEMBER TRAITS OF THAT PERSON… INCREASING MEMORIES OF THAT PERSON, TRULY TAKING IN ALL WE LOVE AND APPRECIATE ABOUT THAT PERSON… and DEEPENING OUR FOCUS ON THAT PERSON.

This. Let’s sharpen our brain with this.

Now let’s look at the numbers in that podcast quote above. Those that wrote down goals had ten times the impact on succeeding.

Imagine if writing letters could do the same! Writing down words and mailing them as a gift could have TEN TIMES the impact compared to a more passive approach to encouragement, or worse, no encouragement at all.

TEN TIMES THE IMPACT.

As you go about your weekend and plan your week ahead, where can you schedule in some writing of your own? It’s a health benefit to you, but it’s a heart benefit to the person you take the time to focus on.

And that, my friend, is a gift the world needs more of.💌

Need a fun place to start? I’ve got several options in my shop that make it easy and doable to simply sit down and write.

​See what’s in my shop!​

Or how about a spooky greeting just for fun?

​I’ve got a new mini collection in my shop that is a great way for you to write some Halloween cards of your own. Five whimsical designs that are even stamped with a jack-o-lantern stamp. The only thing these cards need are your words and an address!

And if you want a quick download with a stationery sheet you can print and use right now, click the file below. Perfect to use all season!

​Autumn stationery sheets.pdf.pdf​

Happy Writing!

​
❤️ Jill

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