A lifelong planner and goal smasher, Steph Jagger thrives on setting and overcoming ambitious challenges. Ski four million vertical feet in one year? Check. Go on a journey of self-discovery? Check. Write a book about it? Check.

Jagger's memoir Unbound chronicles her year of skiing around the world. Below, she describes the process of writing her first book.

"When I finished the trip, questions about writing a book came up right away. I ignored the questions because I thought, 'I don't know how to do that. I'm not a trained writer.' Three or four years after the trip, I gathered up the blogs I'd kept, looked through my journals and started writing in earnest.

"It was daunting, but I have done some daunting things before. It's so overwhelming to think, 'OK, I'm going to go ski four million vertical feet.' Just as it is intimidating to say, 'Great, so 90,000 words, here I go.' I broke it down the same way that I did the ski trip — if I want to get a draft done in six months, how much do I need to write a month? How much do I need to write a week? What do I need to write a day?

"It became less overwhelming knowing, 'OK, I have to write 1,000 words today. That's all.' I used the same mental trickery in goal-setting that had worked for me in the past."

"I've heard other creatives, painters, musicians and writers talk about a muse or spirit that helps them seek inspiration or direction in their work. Before I wrote this book, I didn't get it. But while writing, I felt very clearly that I had some kind of intangible, not-of-this-earth help. It was very surprising in a wonderful way for me.

"I could feel a presence around or I could hear a voice. If I had a question, I could hear it answered. Or if my ego was in the way, I could hear someone saying, 'That doesn't belong. Get it out.'"

"Generally speaking, my days would start with coffee and breakfast in the morning. I'd do three pages of writing in my journal, just skimming the fat off the top of my head. Getting rid of thoughts about doing the laundry or paying the bills. I used my morning pages to get those thoughts out and then I would do a guided meditation almost every day that I wrote. It grounded me and connected me with whatever energy was around. Then I would start writing. Sometimes there would also be a candle. Sometimes there would also be a bowl of Whoppers, a chocolate-covered malted ball candy.

"Whoppers were pretty frequent. They were my grandfather's favourite candy. He'd have a dish on the desk in his office when I was a little girl. So I felt I should probably have the same."

"I spent a lot of time reading books about writing and listening to podcasts about writing, trying to figure out what other people's experiences were and just trying to learn as much as I could. I heard a lot of people say that you don't just type the last words, close your screen and then you're done. But that kind of was my experience.

"I did remember standing up from my computer one day and thinking, 'I think that's it. Great. Done.' I went for a big long walk by the ocean. It felt complete and I felt complete."