Hello David’s readers! My name is J. A. Bennett and I’m visiting from A Book, A Girl, A Journey for another life list Friday. David is sharing his thoughts and ideas over at Sonia Medeiros’ blog so be sure to hop on over there when you’re done here.

If you want to be a member of the Life List Club, all you have to do is follow this blog, my blog, or any blog listed on the right sidebar. Make your own Life List (check out David’s tab above for inspiration) and follow us around every other Friday.

Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner I wanted to talk about an important aspect of the season, Gratitude. Gratitude isn’t just about going around the table and listing things you are grateful for in your life, it’s about living everyday with a grateful heart.

As the title implies I’m going to bring this around to achieving goals. I’ll start with an example of a goal most writers have in common, to be published. This week I achieved that goal — sort of.

You see, when I started blogging last April I discovered this huge writing community with all kinds of opportunities that I didn’t know existed. I came across a short story contest and I just had to throw my hat in the ring. A contest! My heart cried, a chance to prove to myself that I really am a writer! Well I was completely naïve at the time about anything and everything writing related (I still am in a lot of ways) but I expected to win without anyone even proofreading my work.

To my own surprise I ended up in 4th place. Call divine providence, if you will, but one of the prizes was my entry being published in an e-book. After some serious editing and a few months going back and forth with the blog owners the e-book was finally published, which makes me a published author.

All right, back to the gratitude. Here’s the thing, this isn’t a literally magazine. I don’t have an agent and no publishing house is looking at my work, but I’m still grateful for it all. I feel humbled to even have something in print that can be downloaded and read. If I never achieve more than that, I will still be happy. Why? Because I’ve worked hard and I’m lucky to even get that much.

So, how does gratitude help us achieve our goals? It keeps us working with a positive perspective so that we aren’t discouraged with the position we are in.

What are you grateful for?

Bio: J. A. Bennett is a stay-at-home mom of a three-year-old boy and a one-year-old girl. Besides writing, she has a passion for cooking and good movies. She blogs at A Book, A Girl, A Journey about writing and other life musings. She is currently working on a young adult time travel novel about what would happen to the world if someone changed the past. Find her published short story at http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0068WARZW/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1321624389&sr=8-1 for $.99. She is also on Twitter, Facebook, and Google plus