I am putting out this writing challenge to all Steemians so we can learn to do what we love with people we want to be like, gain prosperity and have fun!!!

It is amazing how much we know about everything else, but how little we know about ourselves. We don't study ourselves, the one person we spend our entire life with.

It is impossible to set goals without knowing who we are first, and what we find meaningful and what we define as successful.

It is a personal challenge and you may not feel comfortable sharing the results with anyone and that's okay! It involves sitting down and writing out where you want to be right now in your life It involves finding out what is meaningful to you. Finding out what success means to you. To some people success involves making 30K a year and that is okay, while for others it involves making a million dollars a year and that is okay too. What matters is YOUR definition of success for you. Life is not a competition with other people, but a competition with yourself from the past.

The Writing Challenge Involves 3 Questions:

1. Where are you now? 2017

2. Where you want to be next year? 2018

3. Where do you want to be in five years? 2022

Writing For The New Year

I have filled up many "morning pages" of freewriting in Hilroy notebooks in the past, and it has helped me to sort out my thoughts and feelings and to solve my problems.

This time I am going to use it as a planning tool to probe what is stopping me or helping me to obtain the vision for my life.

Jordan Pederson, a professor of psychology at The University of Toronto says writing down your thoughts is therapeutic and is a fascinating way to organize your thoughts and emotions.

"Experiments going back to the 1980s have shown that “therapeutic” or “expressive” writing can reduce depression, increase productivity and even cut down on visits to the doctor." www.selfauthoring.com

“The act of writing is more powerful than people think,” Peterson says.

The Power of Writing Meets The Power of Planning

Peterson suggests that free writing erases anxiety.

The challenge involves:

a) write a review of your past. Identify key positive and negative experiences.

b) write about your present. Identify personality flaws and positive aspects of your personality towards developing future goals.

c) write about your future - 3 to 5 years from now.

By starting to reveal your limiting thoughts or emotions, you can reveal where they originated from so you can unblock yourself for the future.

Peterson and his colleagues offer a "Self Authoring" course for sale on this. The website is www.selfauthoring.com if you want to buy the course.

Or, if you feel that you want to experiment with journalling about your life on your own, all you need is a ringed notebook, like the Hilroy type with about 300 pages. Then you can delve into your past present and future while sitting at Starbucks or in your car.

Why Is Handwriting Better Than Typing?

Studies conducted at The University of California and The University of Princeton in 2014 showed that handwriting was better for memory retention and conceptual information. " This 2014 study compared two note-taking techniques common in a college classroom: writing them via pen and paper, and typing them via laptop. The results showed that those typing their notes performed worse on conceptual memory questions than those who wrote them by hand." source - www.simplemost.com

Reasonably Priced Activity

All it will cost you is a notebook and a pen and some free time, and it may gain you the future of your dreams. Are you up for the challenge? Please post in comments if you have done this type of exercise before.

I will transfer 1 SBD to the Steemian that comments and shares the most value about this process. What you hope to achieve with it or how it will help you solve a problem in order to inspire people to do the challenge.

** Contest challenge closes December 31st at Midnight Pacific Standard Time (British Columbia Canada).

Thanks for participating! Happy Jounalling and Wishing you a Happy, Meaningful, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Thanks for Everything Steemit!