150 Personal Growth Journaling Prompts to get your life sorted

Updated: Aug 6, 2021

Do you feel your life is getting all over the place?

Do you feel like doing so many things but ends up just scrolling your phone or overthinking?

Do you want to focus on the right things at the right time so that you cannot feel overwhelmed by too much work?

Ok, let's just leave these questions!

Do you want to create a life for yourself in which you are successful as well as happy...

Where you have time for yourself as well as for your dear ones?

A life where you have money to buy the things you want, time to go wherever you want, freedom to do the things you want, energy to chase your dreams?

Who doesn't love this kind of life? Everyone want it but the truth is very few people work on it...

Let's figure out how you can create this kind of life for yourself.

Grab a pen and a notebook and write down answers to the following prompts. It might happen that you have to cross-question yourself:

Emotional Well Being

What makes you happy? What makes you sad? Answer this question with respect to all the emotions like Angry, Satisfied, Irritated, worried, etc.
When do you feel confident? If you don't feel it, why? How would your life be if you are confident? What can you do to become comfortable and confident? What's stopping you?
When do you feel peaceful? What are the things you have to stop in order to be peaceful at your mind?
What is the one thing which you can do when you are at your lowest energy?
When was the last time you pampered yourself? What kind of things helps you to feel that way? What do you do for self-care?
Do you know yourself deeply? Can you answer the questions like what makes you smile, how exactly are you feeling right now, instantly?
Are you disciplined? If yes, what quality of yours helps you to be disciplined? If not, why? What can you do to become disciplined?
Are you good at making new habits or breaking old habits that are harming you? What habits do you need to stop? What are some of the habits that you want to start for self-love?
Do you become hard on yourself? If yes, in which situations? Is that helping you in a good way or harming your inner peace?
What are some of the characteristics you like about your personality? What makes you unique? What kind of person you never want to be?

Physical Well Being

Are your eating habits helping you to get energy or they are making you lethargic?
What kind of food do you enjoy? Is that food providing you with enough amount of proteins, fibre, carbs, fats, vitamins and minerals?
What is your BMI? What is your weight according to height? Are you doing fine in terms of health?
Are you moving your body enough? Are you exercising/ doing yoga or dance for that matter?
What kind of physical activity do you like the most? Are you able to take time for it? If not how you can add it into your daily life?
Are you consistent with your workouts? If not what challenges you are facing?
Are you happy with your physical appearance? It doesn't mean you have to work on people standards. Are you feeling good enough about your body? Do you feel healthy?
Do you meditate daily? It doesn't need to be 30 or 60 mins long! Even 5 mins will matter. Are you able to take those 5 mins for yourself daily?
Are you disease-free right now? Are you taking regular health checkups? If no, what can you do to be disease-free?
How do you feel while exercising? Do you listen to any music or prefer quiet time with your body? Do you prefer to do it alone or with someone who helps you feel accountable?

Mental Health

Are you happy with your life right now? In case of yes or no, why?
Are you giving your mind a break which it needs? Are you relaxing regularly?
Are you living a stress-free life? If not how does that life looks to you?
Do you have enough time which you can call as free time?
Do you have well-defined boundaries in your work life, personal life and social life?
In case you are feeling too much overwhelmed about things going on and if you are not happy, are you ready to seek someone's help? If yes, what kind of help you are looking for?
Do you get angry? When and in which situations? How do you calm yourself?
Do you have any limiting beliefs? If yes, how you can deal with them? Are you working on them? In which aspects do you feel your limiting beliefs are stopping you to achieve something in your life?
What kind of mindset you currently have? Are you ok with the changes?
How do you feel in general? Do you take things in a negative direction or find a solution for your problems by staying positive as much as possible?

Lifestyle

Are you happy with your life right now? In case of yes or no, why? What kind of life do you aspire to? If you get a chance to live that life for the next 1 year, will you be still happy?
What kind of lifestyle you have right now? Does that align with the goals you have?
How does your ideal lifestyle look like? Write down in detail.
What are some of the factors you are counting while writing your lifestyle?
The kind of lifestyle you are living or aspiring to live, is that something you really like or want to have? Why?
Why is it important for you to achieve the kind of lifestyle you want? What if you fail in between? Are you prepared enough for the consequences along with the desired results?
You accept it or not, one of the key factors of a perfect lifestyle is health. Does your lifestyle count on 6-8 hrs of deep sleep, at least 1 hr of physical activity, a nutrient-rich diet, no consumption of alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco?
Are you able to manage your personal and professional life along with some time for yourself at least 70-80% of the days? If no, what changes you can do to your schedule?
Is your current or desired lifestyle is only focussing on you and your success or is it also giving some positive insights to other people who are connected with you in some or another way?
Is your lifestyle is balanced enough? Do you have made a proper balance between your digital and without screen time?

Work Life

Are you happy with the work you are doing at your workplace? Why?
Do you feel like giving your 100% to the work that is given to you? Do you enjoy it? Is that work monotonous or full of adventurous learnings for you?
Being an entrepreneur or doing a 9 to 5 job, both have their own advantages and disadvantages. What kind of life do you prefer and why? Since both have their own challenges, are you ready to take that challenge?
Are you a team player or an individual player? If you are a team player what does the word leadership means to you? In case you are an individual player, are you comfortable with giving your suggestion and inputs while working with someone?
What is the one area about which you can learn more in order to become better at the workplace?
What are some of your biggest achievements about which you are most proud of professionally?
What are your biggest weaknesses professionally? How can that weaknesses be transformed into strengths or at least in less problematic situations?
Are you good at communication when it comes to communicating with colleagues, clients, supervisors or with the team under you? Are you open to receiving critical feedback? Do you know the art of constructive feedback? What are some of the room for improvement?
What is the next step in your career? What is the next plan? Do you want to work in the same organization/ project or you need some changes? What are the things on which you have to work?
What is your ideal work routine? How can you make that kind of routine in your current work life? Are you good at time management? If not, why? What can be done?

Financial freedom

Are you financially struggling? Do you have at least one source of income?
Is your current job or business giving you enough money to take care of your current needs or not? If not, what can you do?
Are you saving enough for your and your family's future?
Are you able to invest enough in your learnings or upskilling yourself?
What can you do extra in order to generate side income? It can act as well as passive income.
Are you spending your money on the right things as of now? If not, how can you save money or can either cut down the unnecessary expenses?
Do you have the basic knowledge of handling your personal finance?
Are you a cautious or an impulsive buyer? Do you have the patience to wait and think at least 1 day before buying something expensive as 100$?
Are you handling your money in a 50-30-20 proportion way? 50% for regular expenses like rent, food, etc. 30% for your personal experiences and investments and 20% for savings.
Are you debt-free? Are you getting enough money to pay your credit card bills?

Personal Life/ Relationships

How is your personal life going right now? Do people around you gives you a sense of gratitude or you want to move away?
If you are not happy with your personal life/ any specific relationship, is that because of someone else or something is wrong with your mindset or thinking?
How are you at handling your relationships with anyone and everyone? How does your ideal relationship look like?
Write down the top 5 people with whom you are most comfortable and happy. What are some of the qualities they have?
What kind of people makes you happy? While making a friend, what are the top 5 things you look for in that person? Of course, you don't have to judge any person to be your friend!
If you have a kind of relationship which is broken at this point, whether it is with your partner/ friend or family, what are some of the steps you can take from your side to solve that differences?
Are you a person with egoistic behaviour when it comes to your relationships? If yes, why?
Are you giving enough time as well as space to your relationships? If no, what can you do from your end?
What are some of the activities you would like to enjoy with your loved ones? It can be as simple as watching a movie together or cooking your favourite meals together!
Are you supportive enough in your relationship? If not, what can you do to be that way? Do you communicate with your loved ones openly?

Upskilling/ Learning

Do you need the constant support of any mentor or you only need resources to learn any skill? Are you comfortable with self-learning?
Are you learning something new every single day? Are you comfortable with unlearning old concepts too?
Do you have some skills which make you unique from others? If yes, what are those skills?
Are you comfortable learning from people who are younger than you? If not comfortable then why is it so?
How do you upskill yourself? Do you only focus on your current expertise while learning or do you also find your interest in learning things for which you are just curious?
What kind of a learner you are? Do you prefer visual learning/ auditory or kinesthetic?
What kind of mode of learning do you prefer? Online or offline learning?
Do you prefer learning from free resources or you always strive for paid courses?
While selecting an online course, do you see what topics are covered, how much time it will take, is that course completely based on theoretical topics or also focuses on practical knowledge? Are you able to resonate with the person who is teaching you the concepts?
Do you create the roadmap for your learning? If yes, is that visually clear and compelling? Also, have you reviewed that roadmap with someone who has deep knowledge and experience about that topic?

Time Management

Rate yourself on how you are at managing time on a scale of 1 to 10. Figure out what are some of the problems you face while managing your time.
What is productivity according to you? How does your productive day look like?
Write down your 5 priorities on which you have to dedicate your time on a daily basis. Also, define an average time that tasks will take in a day.
Do you write the to-do list for the entire day? If yes, are you able to complete all those tasks?
Do you know about "making a to-do list in a quadrant way?" Are you aware of productivity methods such as Pomodoro technique/ 80-20 rule/ time blocking etc? Which method suits you?
How are you at managing stress while a lot of work? Do you prioritize your work?
What are your 3 biggest distractions while working? How do you reduce these distractions?
How often do you feel the situation of burnout while working? If it is too frequent then why is it so? What is the general working hours you feel productive and high on energy?
When you struggle with procrastination, what do you do? Why you feel that way?
Identify 5 factors related to time management when you feel confident and productive. Write down your 5 biggest mistakes while managing your time.

Hobbies/ Interest

First understand the difference between Hobbies and Interests. Then list down all the activities which you enjoy in your free and relaxation time.
Distinguish your hobbies into categories. Is that digital kind of hobby or without screen activity? It will help you to balance out the screen time.
Are your hobbies and interests exactly similar to your work life or your side hustle? If yes, list some activities other than them also.
Do you feel happy and satisfied after doing all those activity? How exactly do you feel?
How often do you practice those activities? If not very regular, why? What's stopping you to be happy?
Activity prompt: Visualize your dream life and draw it.
Activity Prompt: Recreate your favourite childhood memory or picture.
Activity Prompt: Learn something which you always wanted in your childhood days but not able to do till now.
Activity Prompt: Write an essay the way you used to write in your childhood days. Eg. My best friend, My mother, my favourite place, etc.
Activity Prompt: Go to your picture albums and enjoy those memories. Watch some old recorded videos along with family and friends. Make a greeting card or a handmade gift for your loved ones.

Side hustle

Are you aware of why side hustle is important for every single person especially at this current situation of unemployment?
Do you pursue any side hustle? If yes, why you have selected that particular thing? If no, what's stopping you?
What is the purpose of your side hustle? Is that important for you to practice your skills/ keep you busy or to generate side income?
How much time do you give to your side-hustle on daily basis?
Do you want to scale your side hustle into your full-time career? If yes, how are you planning to take this path forward?
Does your side hustle work gives you happiness or it makes you feel stressed out?
What is the key purpose of your side hustle? Are you trying to address any particular problem which people are facing right now?
What is your mindset while doing your side hustle work?
Do you have time and energy to pursue your side hustle?
Does your side hustle create a conflict of interests? Does it hamper your primary work interest or time? If yes, what you do to keep both the roles separate from each other?

Environment/ Surroundings

Do you like to spend your time in nature? Do you enjoy watching birds, trees, water, mountains and all the elements associated with nature?
How frequently do you visit such kind of place? When & Where you visited last?
Where do you want to visit next or may be in future? What is your dream tourist place? Do you want it to be a solo trip or you want to visit with your loved ones?
Whatever you do, is it helping nature to enrich and heal or is it harming? Eg. Is your throwing away mixed garbage is creating a problem for frontline workers? Is that garbage is unfortunately getting collected in landfills? If yes, What kind of steps can you take from your end to stop or atleast minimize that negative impact?
Are you keeping your environment clean? What kind of small steps you can take to clean up the surroundings not only outdoors but indoors as well?
While doing some work, do you prefer sitting in clean and open space or 10 other things lies beside your work desk?
What kind of buyer you are? Do you wait for some time to think you actually want that particular thing or are you an impulsive buyer? Figure out the situation because it might happen that most of the clutter is coming that way.
Have you read or heard about the concepts of minimalism and essentialism?
Are you an organized person? Do you organize the things generally? Are you able to visualize your goals, to-do's at your work desk?
In terms of people, what kind of people do you catchup with? Generally we become like the people with whom we interact.

Gratitude Prompts

Write 5 people who create major positive and powerful impact in your life and on your overall decisions. Why those 5 people are important in your life?
What are the 3 things you have that makes your life easier no matter how small or big those things are?
Who is that one person in your life who gave you opportunities in your life?
Are you thankful for your good health during this pandemic?
Write about a teachers/ mentors who created good impact on your life. What's special in those mentors?
What's something that you bought recently about which you're grateful for?
What is one mistake or failure which left a positive impact on your life? Why are you grateful for that mistake?
What is the one thing for which you are thankful today?
What's something or someone that makes you feel safe?
What is something that you have today but not had a year ago? Are you grateful to that thing/person?

Manifestation Journal

In manifestation journal, you have to write everything from the perspective of your future version. Imagine yourself in future. Imagine you are living your dream life. Answer all the below questions according to you being in future.

Imagine you had taken a 90 day challenge by yourself for something. You have successfully completed that challenge today. How are you feeling? What was that challenge all about?
5 years from now how does your life looks like? Write every single detail about your life. How have been your journey?
What were some of the hurdles you had in your path in these 5 years? How did you crossed them? What were some of the things you had to give up on in order to achieve your goals?
Write a thank you letter to yourself for achieveing all the things you wanted and for being kind to yourself.
What are the 3 things you did every single day for yourself (which we call as self love).
What kind of mindset you have in your life? Is that same or different from your past. If different, how better you are at your thoughts?
What were some of the things/ people/ affirmations that motivated you to show up each day in your life as a mover.
How is your relationship with money right now?
What are some of the words by which you want to be described? What are some of the accomplishments you had so far?
How do you manage your time now? How you spend your time on different things in your life? How much time do you sleep daily, how much do you work, etc?

Action Journal (Summarize)

What are your short term goals (weekly, monthly, quarterly and bi-anually), middle term goals (for 1 or 2 years) and long term goals (for 5 years)?
What are some of the habits you have to focus on in order to get things done on daily basis?
How you want to feel each day? Do you need to work on your emotional, mental and spiritual health to feel so? If yes, what are those changes?
How much do you want to earn in order to meet your expected needs? How will you earn?
What is the one field in which you want to be called as an expert? What is the roadmap to be expert in that particular area?
In order to achieve your dream life, what is the dedicated amount of time you have to work daily? How is that time divided on respective work?
What is the kind of meal you have to take, time of exercise/ yoga/ workout and meditation you have to do on daily basis to get better in terms of your health?
How will you cheer yourself up when you are at your lowest energy? How will you make sure that you are not losing 'yourself' in between achieveing your goals every single day?
How you will make sure that your work life and family time is not getting mixed up? What are some of the boundaries you have to draw in between.
How are you tracking the goals?

SAVITA GYANCHANDANI