Pierce - Handwritten Notes: Learn How a Small, Powerful Act Can Enrich Your Life

Copyright Carrie Pierce 2022

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, stored in a database and / or published in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

First published by Hiccup Press
October 2022

ISBN 979-8-9870903-0-5

Although the publisher and the author have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book is correct, they assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any other inconsistencies herein and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. In other words, dont believe anything you read in this book.

Cover photo by Kate Macate from Unsplash.com
Book design by Adam Robinson for Good Book Developers
The Sankofa Bird logo from The Noun Project

The Sankofa Bird, depicted reaching backwards for its egg, is an ancient symbol of the Akan tribe in Ghana. It means to go back to the past and bring forward that which is useful. Connecting our past with the present allows us to understand what impacts our future. We cant change whats already happened, but we can choose how to move forward. And we honor those whove gone before us and shown through their experiencestheir mistakes and their wisdom alikehow we can endure and thrive.

Please visit CarriePierceNotes.com

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Diana, Mike, Rachel, Adam, Laura, Steve, Robert, Bunny, Colette, Brady and Piper for your infinite wisdom and encouragement along the way.

Handwritten Notes

Learn How a Small, Powerful
Act Can Enrich Your Life

Carrie Pierce

Contents

To my dad, who fired me up with motivational sayings like only lazy people write books.

One is only happy in propotion as he makes others feel happy

MS Hershey

Introduction

This book is an invitation to reexamine old ways of thinking, to take the best of the good ole days and intermingle it into your world today. It invites you to revisit a time before distractions replaced focused thought and when human interactions were more intimate and genuine. In particular, handwritten notes were frequently used to communicate long before technology and e-communications became the norm. If you read the book closely enough you might convince yourself that this practice of writing notes by hand and sending them out into the world can do more than simply express thoughts, it can actually fill your life with greater joy and abundance. Ive seen it work for me and it can work for you too.

I know, you probably think that sounds ridiculous. As I read it over, it sounds a little crazy to me too. But its true and if you hear me out in the pages of this book youll see how Ive reaped the benefits enough that it has become a ritual in my life. When I want to deepen my relationships and fill my own cup so to speak, I write hand-written notes. I write them to everyone, I write them to people I love and to total strangers. I write them to friends, family, and business connections. I even once wrote a note to my brother from his feral cat. My handwriting is only so-so. My grammar and spelling are not always on point. I often dont have the right paper or pen at hand. But I dont care. I keep at it because I have seen the difference writing a heart-felt, sincere note and sending it off into the world can make for both the sender and the receiver. It has become my habit, my way-of-lifemy ministry.

I tell everyone who will listen, this stuff is magic. In a disconnected and disengaged world full of loneliness and empty communication, writing personal notes can deepen connections and create meaningful community.

Writing hand-written notes has become a lost art of sorts. How many people do you know write them? How often do you receive them? If youre one of the lucky few who receive notes, how does that connect you with the writer of the note? The more I investigated its impact, the more I realized I had to look into this whole note writing business a little deeper. Was I crazy? Or too old-fashioned? Or was there really something behind what I was doing? What precisely about writing notes by hand made their power so extraordinary?

It turns out theres real science behind this note writing business. In these pages, Ill lay out the neuroscience that proves that there is true power in handwritten words as opposed to the digital or typed word. Youll hear psychological studies that explain why the process of writing and receiving handwritten notes is so important to our well-being, especially in this age of ever-advancing technology. Youll read famous notes of powerful and successful people that break down just what exactly these people intuitively understood about humanity and note writing that made them so powerful and successful in the first place. Ill share with you my own personal stories of seeing all this science, psychology, and historical data play out in my own life and in the lives of others around me. The proof is in the pudding.

As I put this book togetherresearching, studying, and compiling dataI realized that I had not hit on something big. I had hit on something small that had big and compelling ramifications behind it. Something so small, in fact, that every person could do it every day. This is where I will tell you about my second passion after note writing: the philosophy of Dale Carnegie.

Dale Carnegie was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, the 1936 bestseller that is still in print today. He has sold over thirty million copies, making it one of the bestselling books of all time. As I went deeper and deeper into my research on handwritten notes, I began to see the parallels between Carnegies ideas about how to find success and happiness and what I was learning about writing notes. Carnegie had big ideas. Timeless ideas that are just as viable today as they will be 100 years into the future. With his philosophy we can find small ways to act on his ideas every day, to make them habit and to manifest them in our life. By writing handwritten notes, we can change the way we are in the world.

My hope for you is that you experience this same power in your life. In these pages, youll be taken through a step-by-step process showing you how to write the engaging type of notes that deepen personal connections and build friendships, which Carnegie (and science) tells us are one of the only routes to true happiness. You will see multiple examples of how to write notes that deeply influence the only route to lasting and remarkably effortless business success. By integrating Carnegies insights into your note writing, youll understand the impact of this small act. By the time youre done reading these pages, you will know exactly how to do what I did and why it works.

It will be so clear that my biggest fear in writing this book is that in taking apart and analyzing why notes work, the people to whom I send my own notes will think the notes Ive written then were all part of some habit, that they hold some degree of insincerity. This is not the case and as you read on, youll see that sincerity and authenticity in thought and expression is absolutely key to impactful note writing. To those people Ive written notes to in the past, and there are many of you, I just want to say you are as special as the note you receive. In fact, due to my not really being all that great of a writer, youre most likely much more special than my notes could ever capture. One of the biggest lessons of note writing is that the how and the why of handwritten notes needs to be put away when you set out to write a good one.