I love the power of the written word, how it is used to inspire, convey a message, teach us something new or instill fear in our hearts. The written word is a powerful tool, so therefore why wouldn’t writing down your dreams and goals be equally as powerful.

I was reminded of this point a couple of weeks ago when I attended a Self-Development Workshop. One of the facilitators Lisa Bowen discussed the power of writing down exactly what you want. Not just in bullet points but a whole paragraph, a whole page, flowing sentences of prose.

Being a writer; it easy for me to write something down. I usually write too much, but for a lot of people this is a challenge especially when we are used to working in jobs where time is money, where being concise is essential to productivity, bullet points instead of self-expression. Lisa Bowen had entitled her section of the workshop as ‘reprogram your brain, unlock what’s holding you back.’ Powerful words and a powerful statement, but all I could think of was my fear, could this workshop unlock my fears that were holding me back.

During the first part of the course we were asked to purge ourselves of our worst fears, we were encouraged to confront them and then break them down into what that fear really was. Lisa then asked us to take that fear and turn it into a positive affirmation, writing it down on a pocket sized card that we could carry with us to read when we needed a reminder. Somewhere through the writing, I lost that fear, it had gone, when I talk about it now, while writing this now; I smile there is no more fear.

8 months ago, I had a domain name and a word press theme then I did nothing. I was paralysed into inaction by a fear of social media that I had carried around with me constantly. I cannot do this I would tell everyone,

I am too scared, I don’t know how…

but somehow, through the power of writing down exactly what I wanted to achieve from social media and creating a positive scenario to focus my mind; words instead of images, within one week I was able to finally finish the webpage, start an Instagram account and a face book business page. Problems and fears were now only questions I knew I could find a solution to. I was that confident. I had the power.

This article by Mary Morrissey backs up what I have been through with scientific study. Dr, Gail Matthews found that people were 42% more likely to achieve their dreams and goals if they wrote them down on a regular basis.

If you could really increase the chance of achieving what you can only dream of right now by 42% if you only wrote them down, why wouldn’t you?