As John B. Bejo said and I quote “Focus on your goal like a hungry lion and run after it without any thought except to get it”. Focusing on goals is the key to success. But writing your goals down increases your chances of success. A brief answer to the question How Does Writing Goals Increase Chance of Success will be:

Writing down your goals is similar to constructing a pathway to your success. When you write your goals down, your thoughts get unhindered by which you know what you need to do. It is a source of motivation and manifests your thinking to act responsibly. 

How exactly is the fact that writing down goals paves the way to success? Let’s see.

What Evidence From Science Supports This Fact?

Three groups of Harvard graduates were studied several years ago. Those who wrote down their goals were the most successful at reaching them.

 Those that “mentally” wrote down their goals were moderately successful. The individuals who did neither were the least successful. The key to success in achieving what you want out of life is understanding yourself and then carefully setting some goals — and writing them down (1).

There are also several other explanations in terms of science that support this fact. Every assessment proved that your focus is enhanced when you adopt the habit of writing down goals. When you are focused, it becomes plain sailing for you. 

You have a clear path that gets manifested in achieving success. It becomes possible because you know you have pending works to do. Or else you are in trouble. Or you have tasks to wind up for accomplishing and completing your goals.

My Encounter with This Technique:

I have seen people myself coping up with failures because they learned the knack of overcoming their failures. And to overcome failures, it is necessary to set goals. And to set goals, you have to adopt a strategy.

Personally, to achieve my goals, I jot them down on planners. Writing my goals helps me remembering tasks that are pending. It makes planners the best companion most of us can have. They motivate us to achieve our goals. I’ve recently started to implement gratitude journals into my daily writing. This has done wonders for me. Allowing me to write out my feelings and emotions while remaining gratitude for the blessing in my life.

Here are a few of my favorites, here, & here.

In a previous post HERE, I share 10 reasons why having a prayer journal are important and how they have helped me change my life. I encourage you to take a few moments to read that post. Incorporating both writing journals have been critical to my success.

Importance of Having a Prayer Journal

If you’re like me, you know how important prayer is to your daily life. In the past I’ve struggled with being consistent in my prayer and often lost track of the things I needed to pray for. Wether it was a prayer request for other people or even just expressing daily gratitude I wanted to remain faithful in my daily prayer. I decided that creating a prayer journal for myself would be the best option. A prayer journal will allow you to remain consistent, hold me accountable, and continue to grow closer to God. Does this sound like something you need?

How is your prayer life going?

In Luke 18:1, Jesus tells the people a parable “to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart.“

He then went on to discuss the persistent widow, the Pharisee, and the sinner. In each, He emphasizes the importance of prayer and the way with which we should approach Him.

The Lord places a high value on prayer. We repent, plead for help, thank Him, and praise Him in prayer. It’s a means of communication for us. Of immediate access to God’s “throne of grace.“

Some of you thrive when you can write things down, organize them, and keep them all in one spot. I know I pray more effectively when I have a list of prayers written down and visible.

So, today, I’m going to share ten benefits of keeping a prayer journal with you:

1. A place to remember it all: We may get so busy with our daily lives that we forget to pray for the things we know we ought to pray for. This is the one place where we can see everything, which is particularly beneficial to visual people.

2. Personal Accountability: If you find it difficult to pray on a daily basis, a prayer journal may be very helpful. You can check how long it has been since you last prayed by putting the date at the top of each new entry.

If you notice that you haven’t prayed in a while, it may greatly encourage you to do so.

3. If it is written down you will actually pray: How many times have you agreed to pray for someone and then completely forgotten about it? Everyone experiences it, but keeping a prayer journal may help you remember.

4. You can remember to continue to pray: Because life becomes busy, it’s helpful to have a place where you can keep track of your prayers so you can keep praying for situations and people who need them.

5. Silent Soul-Baring: There’s a difference between writing down your prayers and saying them quietly in your mind. Writing down your prayers, like writing a letter to a loved one, allows you to communicate a deeper level of closeness with the Lord.

A prayer journal provides a private space for you to express all of your thoughts, emotions, and heartfelt prayers, as well as a place to record whatever the Lord comes to mind while you pray.

6. You can see results and record them: Many people like keeping track of how their prayers were answered. With a prayer journal, you can write down if any of your prayers were effectively answered, which will later motivate you to pray more often.

7. You can give thanks to God for how He answers your prayer: Whatever God’s answer to your prayers is, we can be grateful that He is in charge, that He is a sovereign God, and that we can bring everything to Him.

8. A place to be still and know he is God: Sometimes, all we need to do is sit still and connect with God on a more personal level.

9. A catalog of answers: It will be easier for you to see how God has answered different prayers you’ve previously written in your prayer journal if you go back and look at them.

After each prayer, you may even leave a place to write out a future praise report. You’ll be astounded by the record of God’s faithfulness that unfolds before your eyes over time!

10. We grow closer to God in prayer: God desires for us to come to Him, and in doing so, we become closer to Him.

My Favorite Journals

I wanted a journal that would be personal to my needs and specifications. So I created my own and now I’m sharing it with you. It has space for everything I need to grow in God and to always focus on the positive things in my life. There is so much for us to be thankful for and expressing that gratitude in prayer is very important to me. I wish the same things for you as well. This prayer journal has space for your to write daily scriptures, praise, inspirations, and daily reflections. It has everything you need to be successful in life and I owe prayer to my own success. You can read more about that here. I listed a few options below for you to review.

www.youtube.com/glam4glam

Here are a few of my favorites, HERE & HERE

 I am by no means a food blogger. In fact, I’m the last person to give out food advice since I am as picky as can be. However, I have become fascinated with luxurious brunches, fabulous charcuterie spreads, and staying on a budget. One night I spent hours on Pinterest trying to learn how to create the perfect presentation that was not only picture worthy but good enough to eat. I didn’t want to invest in foods that I knew I would not eat just because they look aesthetically pleasing. Honestly, I was not in the mood to waste my money just for pictures. I don’t waste food, EVER. So creating a charcuterie board on a budget was my goal.

 Wanting to spend the day by the water alone, just to relax and refocus for the week ahead a solo picnic was the best option. I could be as extra and boogie as I liked and relax at the same time. This is the recipe for a perfect afternoon. Deciding this would be the perfect opportunity to create my first charcuterie board and keep my budget as low as possible. I decided to stick to a budget of no more than $20, that would include everything I needed for my picnic.

I took a trip to my local Aldi grocery store and picked up everything I needed. Aldi has some great options for an affordable price and amazing quality. I kept my list pretty simple since quite frankly I didn’t have a clue what to buy and what I was doing. Here are the items I choose to include for my picnic.

1. Water
2. Wine
3. Bread
4. Cheese
5. Nuts 
6. Fruits
7. Deli meats
8. Crackers

Once I created a shopping list, it was easy shopping. If I would have done this beforehand instead of in the store it would have been a lot faster. I spent way too much time trying to decide what cheese I wanted to use. Aldi had tons of options to choose from and since I’m not much of a cheese connoisseur I kept is basic. Cheddar cheese has always worked for me so that’s what I grabbed. Although I love to eat, I can be very picky at times, so it’s best for me to stick to the safest options available. But I was so tempted to try the spreadable cheese options they had available. 

Aldi’s has the cutest variety pack of crackers to try near the bread aisle and picked that up for only $3.99 and I love them. It features 6 different types of crackers and was great to pair with the cheese. I will definitely purchase this again and a few more cheeses to try. In fact I grabbed some just last night with some wine and cheese. So good for a late night snack and the wine didn’t hurt either. 

Now onto the aesthetics. This was by far the most tedious part of this whole process. Again, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. My goal was for my board to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible using minimum items. If you searched Pinterest before you have seen the amazing options and tons of exotic fruits and jam people use. I’m not that advanced yet so until then I keep it basic.

I found a way to make the deli meat the star of the show. I went onto YouTube and found a video tutorial of different ways to display the meat. One video showed me how to make flowers using salami so that’s what I decided to do. Starting by placing the salami in multiple sections on top of a glass cup. Once you’ve created multiple layers you then turn the cup upside down and remove the meat from the cup. You are then left with a perfectly flower.

This was so easy to make and it was a beautiful addition to my display. Definitely will be trying this technique again using different types of deli meats. I had tons of leftover fruit since I purchased it in bulk so my children were extremely happy to have tons of strawberries and grapes in the house. I even decided to get fancy with the cheddar cheese and use my cookie cutter to make a Mickey Mouse cheese slice. It was so cute and made me extremely happy. 

Once I finished prepping I then packaged everything up in small Ziploc bags to transport. Once I found a nice location near the water, I laid out my blanket and pillows and decided to get to work. It was actually quite soothing to do near the water. I think it was the waves that calmed my nerves and was overall very soothing. Next time I’ll take a bit more photos however this was my first time trying this and I didn’t want to document the bloopers lol.