December 7 is Letter Writing Day. In this digital age that we are currently in with Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, using a pen and paper to write a letter is fast becoming a thing of the past. Today, I want you to take the challenge with me to either write a letter to get your thoughts out of your head onto paper or journal in your favorite journal or notebook. There’s something special about writing things down by hand. You can sort out your thoughts. Issues become clearer. And you can often solve challenges that seem so complicated when you just think about them. When I was a kid, we didn’t call it journaling. We wrote in our diaries, starting the page with “Dear Diary”… This is where my love of writing began. I was dealing with so much hurt from being in an abusive home that I didn’t know who to trust and the best way for me to get my thoughts out of my head was to share these secrets in my diary. All these years later I enjoy the routine of getting a new journal, pens and Post-It-Notes, writing my thoughts, ideas and dreams in. I have so many journals that I had to purchase a shelf just for the journals. Did you know that journaling is a powerful productivity and motivational tool? Would you agree that tools, supplies and systems can help us be more productive, focused and motivated? If so, what about journaling? Journaling is a nourishing and positive self-care practice that is fun, creative and always uniquely your own. With journaling, whatever you write is right! Here are 3 ways journaling can help below. 1) Use Journaling to Process Your Thoughts, Feelings and Blocks! Journal writing offers you a place to vent, release stress and process emotions that might cause procrastination and resistance. In fact, your journal can be a place to explore your thoughts on both your productivity and procrastination. 2) Use Journaling to Gain Clarity There are many journaling methods to help gain clarity and focus. When it comes to clarity and productivity, it’s important to focus on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Also consider what you might like to stop doing. 3) Create a Journaling Habit Pathway Journal writing can become a healthy habit. And this habit of journaling can become a ‘keystone habit’, helping us create other habits that increase our productivity and motivation. Over the years I have explored my life habits (both positive and negative) in the pages of my journal. This reflective awareness practice has helped me cultivate more of the positive habits. And it has also helped me to break ‘bad’ habits – or those that don’t serve me at this time. So, do me a favor, take the Letter Writing Challenge with me on December 7. Don’t make any excuses either. You can take your lunch break, use regular sheets of paper and set a timer for 10 minutes and write your thoughts down of how you are feeling or a goal that you want to accomplish. Here’s an example you could use: I plan to take a course before Christmas on how to self-publish my pain to purpose story. I will take the steps of looking online and locally to see who is teaching this course. Once I find the course, I plan to sign up and complete the work required taught in the course and begin to start writing. My goal is to be a published author by June 2020 and nothing will stop me. Was this blog post helpful? JOIN MY PRIVATE FB GROUP to share what you wrote. Email me just a snippet of what you wrote on challenge day. Tag me in your message on social media using the hashtags #letterwritingday and #tschannataylor with the photo. Share this post with your girlfriends and take the challenge together. I’m rooting for you! You can do this. Happy writing! P.S. If you need more writing tips, journal prompts and encouragement to get started with writing, join me in the free Facebook group- Write to the Point!. It’s a community for new and aspiring authors to write, publish and market your masterpiece! To join, visit us at www.facebook.com/groups/writetothepoint P.P.S. Friend, click the link to order your copy of the 52-week coloring journal, Promises for a Woman of Purpose.