If you have been anywhere near the news or the blogosphere in the last couple of years, then you may have heard mention of the high happiness ratings of the Scandinavians.  The tall people of the northern regions seem to have stumbled upon a recipe for a happy life, and the rest of us are just now hearing about their secrets. 

The Scandinavians have long been acknowledged as the happiest, healthiest, and most content people on Earth.  Yes, really.  Residents of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland routinely rank as having the highest levels of happiness, life satisfaction, comfort, health, and enjoyment.  And this is nothing new; the Norse have data ranking them highest for at least four decades. 

So, what is their secret? 

It seems that they have not one, but many, elements to their society that make life in the cold North so pleasant, and hygge is just one of them.  Yes, the Northerners love their bacon, drink, bicycles, and pastries, but they also love their down time, their cozy time.  That’s hygge. 

I suppose that when a society survives in the subarctic region for centuries, the people get creative about finding ways to make it work.  Hygge is part of the formula for surviving and thriving in the Nordic countries. 

Hygge is coziness.  Hygge is warmth and love and comfort.  Hygge is a board game, a bottle of wine, and a warm fire on a cold evening.  Hygge is a shared meal, a warm pastry, or a book read by candlelight.  Hygge is the time people spend together for the purpose of enjoying the moment in comfort and conviviality. 

Hygge is a particularly Danish practice, although other Nordics practice relaxation and mindfulness activities, especially during the four to five winter months.  When people are cooped up indoors for months at a time, they create ways to get along and make the most of it.  Hygge just makes sense.  
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OK, so if we non-Nordics want to take a card from the Danish deck, how might we be more hygge-like?  How might we engage in cozy activities that might increase our happiness even just a little bit? 

We know from practice, instruction, and research that people who engage in regular journal writing experience a higher level of happiness and a lower level of stress.  We also know that reading quality literature increases happiness, empathy, and intelligence.  As well, we know that journal writers are quicker to engage in creative and productive activities (perhaps daily writing helps them to generate ideas more quickly). 

So, if know that journal writing can keep writers feeling more satisfied and creative, and we know that the world’s happiest people spend a lot of time on hygge, perhaps we should combine the two are create a hygge journal writing experience.   
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When you think about it, hygge and journal writing are a clear match.  

People hold onto very different, very individual writing rituals.  For example, my friend Heather writes with a glass of wine in one hand and her Macbook in the other.  Jason writes only late at night when the rest of the house is fast asleep.  And James writes at the kitchen table when the house is at its noisiest. 

We all have our writing rituals that work well for us, and once we can tap into what those rituals are, then we can do a better job of preparing an environment that supports our journal writing habits. 
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What do you include in your journal writing practice? 

Personally, I am a lover of coffee and tea both.  I love a hot cup of coffee when I write.  In fact, on Sunday mornings, I meet my friend Christy at the café and we spend about two hours writing, drinking coffee, and bouncing ideas off of each other.  The combination of hot coffee, a warm café, and dedicated writing time stimulates my creativity, and I usually write 2-3k words on Sundays. 

On a daily basis, I wake at 5am and write until the rest of the house wakes up.  I brew a hot pot of coffee, sit on my favorite green, vintage couch and write.  The setting of a quiet house, hot coffee, and my own writing time allows me to focus for an hour a day.  

Start by identifying your ideal writing environment.  Do you need a hot drink, a chilled glass of wine, or a plate of sweet treats while you write? 
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How about the time of day?  Are you an early morning or a late night writer?  Do you write on the run while on the bus?  How about during your lunch hour at work?  Are you one to set aside the same time every day to write or do you write on a weekly basis, maybe just on the weekends? 

What are the best tools for writing for you?  Are you one who enjoys writing by hand?  Do you write and draw or doodle at the same time?  Are you someone who loves the pace of a laptop keyboard for high-production writing? 

And what about distractions?  Distractions do not mesh well with a cozy hygge setting.  Do you turn off your laptop’s internet connection so that you can concentrate while writing?  Do you close yourself into a quiet room to write?  Do you have to escape technology altogether to avoid the distracting draw of the internet?  

Hygge writing might look like a writer up early in the morning with a hot coffee, a notepad on the lap, and a warm robe. 

Hygge writing might look like a writer in the evening in the living room while the kids play, with the laptop out and a warm cup of tea as the evening light fades. 

Hygge writing might look like a Saturday morning spent at a café or restaurant with a croissant and latte as people mill about all around. 
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Whatever your hygge journal writing practice looks like, get it started.  Create it.  Organize it.  Make it happen.  An environment that gives you hygge and supports your writing will give you the ongoing benefit of a productive space where you can be productive and creative.  

If you are not yet keeping a writing journal, start.  Journal writing is a wonderfully therapeutic activity that can reduce stress and anxiety by creating moments of mindfulness.  As writers slow down time long enough to reflect on life, a wonderful sense of calm and control can be had. 

A few years ago, adults started coloring again and remembered that when we slow ourselves down for a little while, we recapture a sense of self.  By closing out the distractions of our technology-based, fast-paced world, people reconnect with a slower pace that allows for mindful self-care. 

When we slow ourselves down, we open ourselves up.  Journaling can allow for extra time to reflect on our busy lives, can reduce stress, and can open opportunities for creative writing.  Many people find it difficult to make time to be creative and express themselves, but journaling for a half hour a day can provide that opportunity. 
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If you have not journaled in a while, here are some easy steps to get started.

Different writers gravitate towards different mediums.  It may take you a little time and experimentation to find what works best for you, but give move towards what appeals to you. 

​Many people report that writing by hand in a paper journal brings out the most creativity and free-flowing thoughts.  If this appeals to you, then get a hold of a journal with the size and type of paper that you most like writing on and a pen that allows you to write as quickly or as decoratively as you like. 

If you like the idea of slowing down by have let go of writing by hand, then consider a typewriter.  Yes, I said that right—a typewriter.  Over the last 10 years or so, a growing number of people have returned to typewriters for writing.  Why would anyone in their right minds do this?  Well, for the very reason that a laptop is impossibly distracting, a typewriter is incredibly focusing. 

When a writer opens a laptop, they often open up apps, check email, glance through social media sites, and eyeball the news before every opening a document to begin writing.  An hour can be lost in a flash with the annoying distractions of a laptop. 

A typewriter forces a writer to hone in on the writing and disallows distractions in a manner that is freeing and uplifting.  A typewriter forces a moment of mindfulness as the distractions of life fall away. 

But, of course, writing the old-fashioned way isn’t for everyone.  If your laptop works for you, then use it. 

People journal for many different reasons and they use different writing styles to engage in the journaling. 

Consider who your journal will be written for, because the audience can change the tone, flow, and function of your journal.  If journal entries are written to a child, to oneself, to a deceased parent, to a spiritual adviser, or a general public, the entries will come across differently. 

Writers compose personal journals to themselves and can be most intimate and open with this style of writing, because all limitations are removed.  But for some writers, capturing the mindset of writing to oneself can be a challenge.  By switching the intended audience to a child, a parent, or someone else, writers can capture the spirit of the classic journal without losing its flow and creativity by writing to a different audience. 

This does not mean that writers need to share their journal writing with anyone than themselves; switching the audience is just a means for opening up the writing process.  Choose the writing style that works best for you, but do not feel trapped by it; styles can be changed anytime. 

A journal may begin as a series of entries written to a friend then turn into reflections written to oneself then turn into short stories.  Journal writing styles might be reflective, creative, poetic, or in any style that suits best. 

As with many activities, starting a journal can be the hardest part.  The best way to jump into journaling is to dive straight in with a splash.  If you have your intended audience and your writing style chosen, then write your first three to five journal entries. 

Need help getting started?  Try these prompts to jump start your journal writing.

Prompt 1:
Explain what inspired you to begin a journal.  What about it is appealing?  What do you hope to gain from your journal writing experience?  How might you grow and learn from your journaling?  Do you expect that you would share your journal with anyone else? 

Prompt 2:
When was the last time that you wrote?  Do you have a series of short stories from years ago?  Were you writing just last year?  Did you once compose poetry to share?  What did writing do for you?  Did it bring you peace of mind, a slowing of time, or an opportunity to think about life in a different way?  Write about your experience with writing.

Prompt 3:
What is the story you hold inside you?  Do you have a story that holds value to you?  What is that story?  Is it a history of your family’s genealogy?  Is it a series of poems that reveal the fragility of the heart?  Is it the great dystopian novel that changes the world?  Is it a story or spiritual revelation?  What do you know about this story?  Why do you want to tell it?  What will happen to you if you do tell that story?  What will happen to you if you don’t tell it? 

After you journal, take a glance through them.  No one expects that journals will be perfectly written and contain perfectly edited and revised compositions.  But you may want to glance back through your journal entries and add any details that came to mind after you finished just for the sake of getting all your ideas on paper.  

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One way to advance your journal writing is to ask yourself questions to drive your journal writing forward.  Depending on the content of your journal entries, you may want to brainstorm a series of questions that will help your motivation to keep journaling. 

Writing daily is great for people who have open schedules, but some writers will find that writing two or three times a week allows for time in between journal writing to reflect on life and brainstorm ideas to include into the journal.​

Journaling is a therapeutic form of personal writing that can open up avenues for creative, expository, and reflective writing.  We can start out journaling in one direction but change it over time easily.  Since we have an audience of one when we journal, we can be flexible with ourselves as writers and fluid with the writing process and our writing outcomes.   
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People who journal tend to start with a diary-style journal.  Many will take note of things that happened during the day, major events, and changes they observe in tone, emotion, and atmosphere.  This kind of journal writing can be useful to someone who is processing complicated emotions, keeping track of changes at school or work, or looking for keys to what works best in life.  Reflecting on life can help guide writers through a healthy process of looking back when considering the present and the future.

About an equal number of writers use their journals for creative writing.  Getting a writer’s journal or a creative writing journal started might be a bit of a slow process for some, but it can provide opportunities for collecting ideas on paper which can be used in more formal writing. 

Sometimes writers are rudderless on how to make the shift from a reflective diary to a creative journal, but starting off with creative writing prompts can help.  Once the process starts and the creative ideas start flowing, the momentum tends to build up and sustain itself.  

Sometimes, we fall into a creative slump and don’t write.  There are a bazillion reasons why this could happen—having a baby, not having a baby, busy at work or school or life, stressed about everything from politics to family to health, running around, not running enough, and the list could go on forever.  Suffice it to say that all writers fall off the writing wagon sometimes.  It happens. 
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Once we stop writing, getting back into the habit of writing again can take a fair bit of effort, but the payoff is worth it.  The challenge rarely is that we don’t want to write.  The challenge is usually that life has tossed us around and we lack the energy to dedicate towards another activity so the thought of starting a writing journal can be a bit overwhelming. 

These kinds of writing slumps, when we just do not write at all, happen to everyone.  They can feel like writer’s block where we are out of ideas and have no idea where to start.  Sometimes, a slump can feel more like an overwhelming task, like one more time-consuming thing that we are not excited to add to the to-do list.  Or a slump can feel like a skipped obligation.  It can feel like a party you were supposed to attend but skipped and now everyone is mad at us for it so we are reluctant to return. 

Writing slumps happen.  That can drain our creative juices and attack our emotional well-being as we struggle through them in an attempt to get back into a healthy pattern of writing. 

​No matter what style of writing we are attracted to: creative, personal, reflective, or nonfiction, moving out of the writing slump and into a productive writing pattern can make all the difference for our writing. 

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1. Organize a Writing Space

Your writing space can be just as important as your writing schedule.  If your space is too cramped or too noisy, writing there can be challenging.  Creating a space that suits your style and needs can improve the likelihood of success.  What does your writing space need?  A standing desk, a cup of coffee, a reference book set—create a space where you can write that includes all the accoutrements of a successful writer.

2. Set a Writing Schedule

Writing schedules vary by person.  Many successful writers recommend writing on a daily basis for a short period of time (1-4 hours).  For those of us who work at professional jobs, have families, or have outside obligations, dedicating daily time is impossible. 
If you are able to write on a daily basis, do it.  If not, then set a schedule of what days and times that you will write.  Your schedule should include at least one writing session per week and should set a specific amount of time that is only for writing.

3. Use Writing Prompts to Stimulate Ideas

When people start into a new writing schedule, the ideas may not yet be available for creative work.  Not to worry, writing prompts can be incredibly useful in this situation, because they can give us ideas to use to start writing no matter what genre we are using—personal writing, nonfiction, or fiction.  When we are up against writer’s block, lacking motivation, or stuck in a rut, writing prompts can do wonders to get the creative juices flowing again. 

4. Stay Accountable to the Writing

​Stick with it.  Even though it may be a challenge at the beginning to stick with the schedule, try your best.  If you fall apart and miss a day or a few days, do not let it detract from your purpose of creating a journal writing practice.  Instead of letting a failure bother you, just start again the next day and try to meet the writing goal.  If you are the kind of person who enjoys giving yourself a treat, then give yourself something nice after meeting a certain number of writing goals (i.e., take yourself out for a nice lunch with a friend after your first month of successful journaling).  Anything that reinforces your writing practice can be useful in supporting your journaling. 

Choose three writing prompts from below to jumpstart your writing.  If any of these prompts move you towards a larger piece, like a story, a novel, or a memoir, then go with it and follow that piece to its end. 

Otherwise, try out different prompts and different writing styles to get your writing practice started.  Try to write 500-2000 words for each prompt. 

Personal Writing Prompts

• Think back over the last year.  What is a goal that you met?  Write about that experience, why it went so well, what surprised you about it, what was interesting about it, and what hopes it gave you for the future. 

• Over the last year, what goal did you not meet?  Write about that experience, why did it not go well, what could you have done differently, what about it was disappointing, and what changes did it inspire in you?

• Think back over the last five years.  Choose a happy moment to write about.  What happened?  What did you gain?  What colors, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures do you recall?  Include a detailed description of the setting and the people involved.  What emotions, thoughts, and reflections came to mind about this scene?  Include them in your writing.  If you were to share this story with someone else (i.e., a younger family member), what details would you want to share with them? 

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Nonfiction Writing Prompts

• Brainstorm a list of ten questions that of things you would like to know or learn.  Then choose one of those questions and research it.  Detail what you learned from your research into one or more blog posts, articles, or letters written to an interested audience.  Share the information you gained with readers who would be interested in the same topics that you are.  What could you teach them about this topic?  

 

• Think back to your favorite family member.  This can be a person who has passed or a person you know now.  Describe the details of this person that make him/her so attractive or interesting.  Retell the story of a good time had with this person. 

 

• Imagine that you will lose your memory in 2 hours.  All your memory will be lost forever.  The only memories that you can save are those that you are able to write down in the next 2 hours.  What are they?  Keep in mind that only what you write down will be kept, so jot down every detail, every joke, every connection, every description that you possibly can in that time period.  

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Fiction Writing Prompts

• These days, everyone has a phone in hand and people talk on the phone in public without any concern for the people around them.  Write out a conversation between two people on the phone based on what you could make out by listening to one person talking.  You are welcome to go into public and listen to someone talking on the phone to get an idea for how it sounds to hear one side of a conversation.  You are welcome to include only dialogue or to include the description as well.

 

• You walk into a bar/café/restaurant/library (pick one) and see a person sitting alone holding a walking stick, wearing a top hat and long coat, and whistling.  Tell the background story of this person, what happened to this person, what this person’s motivations are, what this person is doing, and what this person makes you think about.  If this character inspires a story, write an entire story, but if not, then write at least a characterization.

 

• Describe a room after a dramatic incident (a murder, a party, a pact made, a peace treaty signed, etc.).  Describe the objects, smells, smoke, light, and furniture in the room that tells you what happened in this room.  What does the full ashtray of stubbed-out cigars tell you?  What does the empty bottle of wine under the nightstand tell you?  What do the popped party balloons tell you?  Create this story by describing the room.​

Sometimes, starting a new activity is the greatest challenge.  We may be stuck in a rut of old habits and behaviors that no longer suit us, but making the transition to incorporate new activities can be challenging.  When writers want to get back into the habit of journal writing, start out using prompts to rejuvenate that creative mojo and after a short time, the writing ideas will flow on their own.  

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As writers, we look at the upcoming twelve months with a combination of panic and excited anticipation.  It is a bit like being a little kid before Christmas, when you were ecstatic at the possibility of opening the perfect combination of toys but also anxious that your parents would revert to socks and underwear because “you need them.” 

The fear was as real now as it was then.  As we look into the future, we can plan our upcoming days by setting writing goals.  We are likely to reach our writing goals if we follow a process that breaks down goal setting into a series of steps rather than leaving our goal at the end of a nebulous road and assuming our only job is to stumble upon it. 
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Today, we panic over the prospect of achieving our writing goals and landing some recognition almost as much as we dread writing naught a word in the coming year and failing terribly at our writing goals.  Writing is hard work.  Period.  To achieve a year’s worth of writing goals requires not a small amount of organization, and the better job we do setting our goals, the more likely we are to achieve them.  

,If you have not yet taken the time to reflect back over the previous year, do it now.  Looking back over what you accomplished, what you meant to accomplish, what you failed at, and what you learned in the last year can provide invaluable information for how to move forward into the coming months. 

Not only can reflecting on the year provide incredible details into how the last year went, but it can guide your writing process for the coming year as well.  When you know with certainty where things went well and where they failed, then you can identify corrective procedures for planning a more productive year to come. 

After you have finished a thorough reflection on what happened with your writing in the last year, take a serious look at where you are in the here and now.  What are you accomplishing right now?  What is going well?  What is a fabulous disaster?  What would you be able to live without?  What would cause you to stop breathing tomorrow if you lost (i.e., my backup hard drive)? 
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Take a close, emotion-free look at where you are right now.  This will show you what tools you already have at your fingertips that could support you in achieving this year's goals.  It can also help you identify the struggles that you are facing right now that may need to be addressed before moving forward.  

Now that you have reflected on where you have been and identified where you are today, plan what is to come.  You have a whole year to work with (although please feel free to amend your plan to span only a quarter or a month if that is more comfortable for you). 
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Having looked at your current projects, what is one large project that you might accomplish in the upcoming year?  That big goal might be: writing a best-selling novel, producing 100 blogs, interviewing two dozen artists for an upcoming book on creativity, or publishing ten short stories in national literary magazines. 

Whatever your big goal is, set it.  Set it on paper.  Write it in red ink.  Highlight it.  Embolden it.  Put your heart behind it, and set that goal as though it is the most important thing that you will do with your life. 

With your big goal set, you can now create a plan that will support you in achieving that goal.  The goal itself is not there just to collect dust, it needs to be active and dynamic as you move together into the upcoming months and collaborate on your engaging project. 

The way that we achieve a big goal is by breaking the goal down into small, achievable mini-goals along the path to success.  No one decided to earn a PhD, went to the college campus, and left a few hours later with a degree in hand; that achievement was earned after a long series of small goals: community college, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and so on. 
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Every big goal that we take on in life—remodeling the kitchen, landscaping the yard, replacing a truck engine, and yes, writing a book all require that we take things one step at a time. 

To achieve this, we can visualize our big goal in the distance, then lay stepping stones on the path to reach that goals.  If I intend to remodel my kitchen, I would conduct significant research, then move onto a planning phase, I would then get all of my information organized, then I would remove the outdated features I wanted to replace, and finally I would install the new features and set out to perfect each one with finishing touches.  The end result would be the only piece that anyone else would see—the completed kitchen, but I would know that I walked on dozens of stepping stones to get there.

The same is true of our writing goals.  We need to break the large goals into manageable mini-goals.  When we do this, we are less anxious about writing and more likely to succeed in achieving the big goals. 

So, if I plan to write a book in the coming year, how might I break up that big goal?  I may start by conducting an extensive brainstorming session to come up with ideas; this process might include research, interviews, and collaborative brainstorming.  Each of these steps (brainstorming, researching, interviewing) would need to be completed before moving onto the next one. 

At the end of each step, a celebration might be in order.  Doing something to acknowledge the completion of a task can reinforce the motivation to keep going and push morale higher.  A simple morning of fun to buy a coffee or browse the bookstore can feel like a nice treat after a creative milestone has been met.  

As each step is finished, evaluate its completion, process, and lessons learned.  By doing this, the writing process becomes smoother and the overall writing experience tends to speed up.  The better job we can do at improving our writing processes, the better job we can do at staying motivated and meeting our writing goals. 

Say that I chose five mini-goals that led toward writing a book as my big goal.  For each of those mini-goals, I should complete the goal, evaluate it to make sure everything went well, then continue moving forward towards that big goal.

Example:

Brainstorming session.

This brainstorming session may include taking my book ideas to a writer’s workshop group where I might share ideas, listen to feedback, and use that feedback to guide which ideas to pursue.  With a few good ideas on paper, I have a brainstorm and evaluate the step. 

• Do I have a completed brainstorm in hand?
• Is the book’s focus coming into sight?
• Is this step completed or is there more work to do before moving on?

Interview. 

To collect specific information on an aspect of my book, I may conduct an interview with a subject matter expert.  The information that I collect during this interview could be used in the book for everything from background content to character development.  After completing the interview, I should evaluate the step. 

• Did I organize the information from the interview into my brainstorm?
• Do I need to conduct additional interviews or is this information enough?
• Is this step completed or is there more work to do before moving on?

Conduct research.  

In the research step, I may spend time in the library, dig into virtual archives online, and take trips to museums or historical sites related to my book.  I would take notes on the research and add it to the information I collected for the book.  Before moving on, I would evaluate the step. 
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• Did I add the research into my brainstorm to create a completed brainstorm?
• Is additional research needed or does this content give me enough to work with?
• Is this step completed or is there more work to do before moving on?

Just as with every goal that we set in life, our writing goals need attention and dedication for us to reach them.  As we enter a new season, we have an opportunity to set goals for the upcoming year, and the better job we do at setting quality goals, the more likely we are at meeting those goals.  Use your journal to keep track of your goal setting and you may find this process supports your writing goals better. 

As we transition into the New Year, we enter the common talk about resolutions and goal setting.  As with our holiday season, this talk of setting New Year’s resolutions, making massive changes, and becoming better versions of ourselves can cause anxiety and set us up for failure before we get started. 

If you are anything like me, then you have set goals to lose weight, write a best-selling novel, land a better-paying job, find the partner of your dreams, and organize all your closets as New Year’s resolutions at some point.  And if you are anything like me, you then proceeded to fail at achieving your resolutions. 

What makes resolutions so difficult is that we do not always have our tools prepared for the journey of self-transformation.  We want to achieve our goals.  We are excited about the possibilities of realizing new versions of ourselves.  But we do not necessarily prepare as well as we need to achieve those goals. 

So, are there steps that we could take to achieve the goals we set for a new year?  Is there any hope for creating more polished versions of ourselves as we drive into the sunset of tomorrow?  Absolutely.  If we pack our bags before we set out on our journeys, we are more likely to reach our destinations, and we can use mindfulness techniques to achieve our personal goals.

Before I get ready for a trip, I take inventory of what I already have.  I take stock on where I am presently and focus on the now before filling a backpack with the things I assume I might need.  We can do the same thing with our goal setting as we journal for mindfulness. 
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Take stock of where you are now by reflecting back over the past year.  Choose three of the following questions to guide your reflection over the last year.  Try to include as much depth and detail as you can.  The better we do at taking stock of our past year, the better prepared we are to move into the New Year with a clear sense of self while being mindful of our needs. 

• What goals did you achieve?
• What goals did you make progress on?
• What goals did you set but later abandoned?
• What projects were you proud of?
• What book(s) did you read that made an impact on you?
• What art, film, lecture, or class inspired new ideas for you?
• What failures did you experience and what did you learn from them?
• What connections did you make that benefitted you?
• What lessons did you learn that helped you? 

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One of the reasons that people fail to meet their goals, include goals in writing, creativity, reading, and learning, is because they race into the new year without being thoughtful.  If we slow ourselves down, focus on the present moment, and set our goals and plans with mindfulness, we are more likely to reach those goals. 

If you have used the journaling questions above to reflect back on the past year, then you are now ready to evaluate the present. 

Take a look at what is happening with your life right now and what areas you might like to work on.  Again, I included guiding questions to help you evaluate where you are.  Try to stay in the present tense, think about what is going on right now, and avoid the temptation to look into the past for old details or glance into the future for new possibilities.  Just focus on the now as much as possible. 
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Choose three questions to journal on; include as much depth and detail as you can on each question 

• What is going well in terms of your creativity and writing?
• What is going well in your reading and learning?
• What is something that you are learning right now?
• What is the last book you read (or film, or art, or lecture) that made a significant impact on you?
• On a scale of 1-5 (1 being no production and 5 being highest production ever), how much writing are you completing on a daily/weekly basis?  (Replace “writing” with another creative outlet if you are not a writer).
• What is your current main focus as an artist?
• What have you been struggling to accomplish lately?
• What is taking up too much of your time lately?
• What would you work on if you had 50 hours of free time right now? 

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When we look at where we are in the present moment, we force time to slow down.  We create a bubble around the personal universe that stops the hustle and bustle of the workaday world and lets us breathe long enough to take a close look at where we are right now. 

If you have completed both of the journaling activities so far, then you have looked back over the last year to reflect on what you worked on last year, then you took time to evaluate where you are in the present.  This process does not have to be done in one setting.
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Some people might like to look at the past and the present in an afternoon spent at the café with a cup of tea and a writing journal.  And others may want to break up the process into multiple sessions, so that reflecting on the past is done on one day and evaluating the present in another day.  Whatever works best for you is what works best.  

Now that we have looked at where we came from and where we are now, we should look into where we are headed.  Finally, it is time to start packing for the upcoming trip.  Just like when we prepare to travel, we follow a logical order of procedures.  By doing this, we control the process of setting goals and are more likely to meet our aspirations. 
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We have looked back and looked at the present, now look to the future.  As before, I include a list of guiding questions to help you journal about goal setting for the upcoming year.  Try to respond to three of the questions and include as much depth and detail as possible.  

• What writing skill(s) would you like to improve upon?
• What writing skill(s) would you like to learn?
• What writing rule(s) do you need to review (i.e., writing process, comma rules, etc)?
• What connection(s) would you like to make?
• What conference(s) or classe(s) would you like to attend?
• What book(s) would you like to read?
• What piece(s) would you like to write, edit, or complete?
• What piece(s) would you like to publish?
• What contests or contracts would you like to win? 

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Your journal now contains a thorough reflection of where you came from, where you are, and where you are going.  This is a great time to set goals for the upcoming year.  Now that you have looked at your process from a distance, you have more detailed information on how to set those goals in a way that you are more likely to achieve them.  The foundation is laid.  You are ready for your journey.