A few months ago I had the goal of journaling every day for the entire month. I had many reasons for wanting to journal more. It helps you become a better, more creative writer by helping get the juices flowing, does wonders for your personal growth by giving you an opportunity to reflect and process things going on in your life or in your heart; and acts as a record so that you can look back on your old journal entries through the years and see where you’ve been and how you’ve grown. See? So many reasons to journal.
Despite knowing WHY I wanted to, I struggled with actually doing it. I realized that the main reason it was hard was because I struggled to think of something to write about. What I was missing was a list of journal prompts to give me topics to write about each day. So I scoured the internet and found a ton of great ideas. So many, in fact, that I’ve decided to break this post up into a series. First up, journal prompts for personal growth.
I had some help thinking of these prompts and got ideas from here, here, here, and here. Check out their posts and see if they have other ideas you’d like to try. New to journaling? Read this.
Journal Prompts for Personal Growth
- What are you currently avoiding focusing on? Why are you afraid to explore that area of your life?
- What’s frustrating you right now?
- List some of your weaknesses and ways to deal with those weaknesses
- What thoughts have you been thinking lately that are not true or are even harmful toward you or those around you?
- If anything was possible, what would your long-term goals be?
- What’s a desire you have that you’ve never told anyone else about?
- What do you feel like is missing from your life?
- How do you indulge yourself? Do you need to indulge yourself more often or less often?
- What was the biggest mistake you made this week?
- Is there anything you did this week that you wish you’d done differently?
- What character traits do you need to work on?
- What are the top ten qualities a friend should have ( for example: treats people with respect; listens but doesn’t judge; has a quirky sense of humor; is an artist; lives with passion; doesn’t sweat the small stuff; is loyal and trustworthy)?
- What would make you feel spiritually fulfilled?
- What physical characteristics are you most self-conscious about? How could you make peace with those?
- How have you stretched your comfort zone in the past month (even slightly)? What did you learn from this experience? What’s one new comfort zone challenge you’d like to conquer?
- What might you need to forgive yourself for right now?
- What’s the next step you’ve been thinking about taking for far too long?
- How will you embody “love” today? What specifically will you do?
- What kinds of physical clutter have been complicating your life and diverting you from meaningful life experiences?
- What’s something you often take too personally even though, logically, you know better? How has this habit affected your life?
- How can you provide healthy challenges for both your mind and body on a daily basis? What will you do today to walk the talk?
- What’s something true about you that you need to embrace more openly and lovingly?
- How have your recent expectations of others gotten the best of you? What happened, and what have you learned?
- What’s something from your past that you are thankful you gave up on? Why?
- What distractions have been getting the best of you lately? How often? Why?
- How did you procrastinate on important tasks this week?
- What’s one old pattern of behavior that sometimes still sneaks up on you? What’s a better alternative, and why?
- What do you love about yourself?
- Does this have an alternative meaning?
- What feelings are in the backburner?
- What do you feel guilty about right now? Should you?
- Write a list of 100 dreams.
- What did you do this week that moved you closer to reaching your goals?
- Over the past month, what have your actions been silently saying about your priorities? Are there any changes you want to make?
- What is one privilege you have that you often take for granted?
- What is your greatest weakness? Describe a time this weakness held you back.
- How far have you come? How much have you grown? Think about the specifics of your recent and long-term growth. What have you not given yourself enough credit for?
- What’s the hardest thing you’re trying to accomplish or cope with right now? What is something small and necessary about this struggle?
- What are my personal values?
- How am I fulfilling my purpose in life?
Want to Print these Journal Prompts for Personal Growth?
If you’d like to print these prompts out, I created a printable PDF you can snag here. I printed them and slipped in my journal so that I didn’t have to go looking for them in my early morning journal sessions.
Let Me Know How it Goes
I’d love to hear if and how the journaling prompts helped you in your personal growth. Leave me a comment or shoot me an email.
Have anything you’d add to the list? I would love to hear those too!
