70 Journal Prompts For Self-Discovery

 

“It is when you lose sight of yourself, that you lose your way. To keep your truth in sight you must keep yourself in sight and the world to you should be a mirror to reflect to you your image; the world should be a mirror that you reflect upon.”

 C. JoyBell C.

What questions do you ask yourself on a daily basis? Believe it or not, the types of questions you ask yourself will determine the kind of life you will lead in the future. If you only ask yourself questions that meet your immediate needs, you will only get limited results. Today I wanted to share some of my favorite journal prompts for mental health improvement.

I recently realized that I had been living inside my comfort zone, which prompted the following question:  how long had I been staying inside this comfort zone?  😳

Understand that being too comfortable and getting stuck in this zone isn’t a matter of dramatic circumstances, rather, it’s the result of repeated inaction over a long period. This brings to my mind the quote, the devil you know is better than the one you don’t.

I realized that I could stay the same or try something new and challenging. I opted for the second choice and threw myself into a bunch of different projects like starting the blog you’re reading right now. And that creating a daily practice of reflection contributed to my development journey and becoming a better version of myself.

Did you know that you can start a blog in a matter of minutes? I wrote a detailed post on how to start a profitable blog from day one. Read about how here.

Every dream has to begin somewhere and becomes realized with actionable steps that you take daily. If you’re on the road to living out your biggest goals and dreams, you’ll find that success in life rarely takes a linear path.

Today I put together a little list of powerful journal prompts for mental health that I think will help you in visualizing the type of life that you would want to create for yourself. Know that time spent in self-reflection is never wasted – it is like an intimate date with yourself.

I like to incorporate self-reflection into my daily routine because it reminds me to not get too lost in the trivial day-to-day drama. It’s important to never lose sight of the bigger picture – or dreams for your future.

This is just a blog post. Although the post itself might be trivial, the consequences of your action or inaction are not. 

This is your life.

So try to carve out 30 minutes or an hour to answer these journal prompts for mental health.

I guarantee you that once you’re finished, you will feel better and maybe even have a new game plan to help you build a new future for yourself.

One you’ve always wanted. 😄

“Most impossible goals can be met simply by breaking them down into bite size chunks, writing them down, believing them and going full speed ahead as if they were routine.”

Don Lancaster

Reflection Questions:

The following journal prompts for mental health improvement will unpack and evaluate the choices in life that you’ve made so far. You have to evaluate your past experiences in order to make better choices in the future.

1. What makes you feel inspired, motivated, and charged up?
2. How can you do more of that starting today? 
3. How can you make your life more meaningful starting today? 
4. What do you love the most in your life?
5. What are your core values?
6. What are you most grateful for?
7. What are your greatest accomplishments in life so far?
8. What are your biggest failures &/or regrets?
9. What can you do now to make sure that doesn’t happen again?
10. What are some of the biggest things you’ve learned in life to date?
11. Where are you living right now – the past, future or present? 
12. Is there something you’re still holding onto? Is it time to let go?
13. Are there any limiting beliefs that you’re holding onto?
14. Are they helping you achieve your goals?
15. Are you living your life to the fullest right now?
16. Do you love yourself? Why or why not.
17. How can you love yourself more today?
18. What is your inner dialogue like? 
19. What are you afraid of? 
20. Is there anything you’re running away from?
21. What kind of person do you enjoy spending time with?
22. How can you be this person to others? 
23. Who are the 5 people you spend the most time with?
24. Are these people enabling you or holding you back?
25. Are you afraid of letting others get close to you? Why? 
26. Are you settling for less than what you are worth? why?
27. What are you doing in your life right now that is allowing you to have a positive, transformative effect on others?
28. Whom do you admire most in the world?
    • What are their best qualities?
    • Why do you respect them?
    • What can you learn from these people?
29. What are the skills and talents that are innate and unique to you?
30. How often do you get to utilize these strengths? Is your career path aligned with your positive qualities?
31. What do you like to do for fun?
32. What are you passionate about?
33. What inspires you?
34. What challenges you? 
35. What are the top three things you are ignoring in your life right now, that you truly LOVE to do most?
36. What are all the possibilities you see branching out from this direction?
37. What do you not like to do? 
38. What do you read in your spare time? Like favorite books and websites and why you read them 
39. What is your life like today, are you living the life of your dreams? 
40. What are you busy with today? Will this matter 1 or 5 years from now?
41. What’s the top priority in your life right now? What are you doing about it? 
42. What bad habits do you want to break? 

 

Big Picture Questions:

Next, let’s dive into some questions about how you’d like your future to look like. By answering these questions you will be able to have a razor-sharp vision of the “why” you are accomplishing these goals. By not getting clear on your “why,” your choices will be sporadic and random and unlikely to truly lead you toward a fulfilling life that you wanted.

1. How do you want to be remembered?
2. What do you want to contribute to the world?
3. What does your ideal self look like? What does it mean to be your highest self? 
4. What would you want to experience in your life if time and money weren’t an issue?
5. If you could try any job for a day what would it be? 
   
6. What does your ideal workday look like?
7. If you had one year left to live, what would you do? 
8. If you had one month left to live, what would you do? 
9. If you had one week left to live, what would you do? 
10. What are your health, career, family, and spiritual goals?
    
11. What good habits do you want to cultivate?
12. What is your ideal life partner like?
13. Where can you find this person? 
14. Are there people who have achieved similar goals?
15. What can you learn from them?
16. What empowering beliefs can you take on to help you achieve your goals?

For More Practical Self-Improvement Tips

5 Empowering Books for Female Entrepreneurs
9 Habits to Add to Your Morning Routine For A Great Day
15 Books That Will Change Your Life
15 Habits Successful Women Practice Daily
20 Ways To Practice Self-Care

Financial Questions:

These questions are a great place for you to start digging a little deeper on where you want to be financially over the next several years

1. What’s your current financial status like? Write down your current cash and debt balances.
2. What type of lifestyle would you like to live in the next five years? Think about travel, career, location, debt-free, etc. How much money will you need to make monthly in order to achieve this lifestyle.
3. What are three ways you would define financial success? This is different from the second question as you’re asking yourself for milestones or achievements that you can actually measure. Is it necessary for you to have $10,000 in savings in the bank? Own a home or a car? What are things you can actually measure if you’ve achieved your definition of financial success?
4. What age do you want to retire, if at all? At the surface, this sounds obvious. Of course, we don’t want to work forever but actually saying it out loud and coming up with an age is important.

 

Commitment Questions:

Now that you’ve written down some goals and you have identified some of the ways you can make them possible, answer the following commitment questions. Review these questions when you hit roadblocks on your journey.

1. How hard are you willing to work to get what you want? 
2. What short-term “losses” are you willing to accept to reap amazing, future gains?
3. What is your risk threshold and how can you avoid playing things conservatively?

Now give yourself a DEADLINE!

Let’s break some of your goals down into yearly, monthly, and daily actions. When I did this, I had around one hundred daily actions.

Next, you should separate these actions into a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule that is in accordance when you’d like to actualize your goals.

1. What are you doing this year to move you toward your dreams?
2. What are you doing this month to move you toward your dreams?
3. What are you doing this week to move you toward your dreams?
4. What are you doing today to move you toward your dreams?

I hope this article brought some clarity into your life and if it helped you clarify your goals. Make sure to leave a comment below to share your progress or even if you just want to say hi.

I’d love to hear from all of you.

Two REALLY IMPORTANT books that helped me when I was designing my life were:

• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• The Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris

There may be some affiliate links in this article which means I make a small commission if you purchase something after clicking one of the links. JoannaRahier.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and qualifying purchases made from links to amazon.com.   You can click here to read my Disclosure for more info

If you’ve enjoyed this post, share it with your friends on Pinterest or Facebook!

Do you know of any journal prompts for mental health improvement? Make sure to share in the comments below!

For More Practical Self-Improvement Tips

Freebies: 35 Printable Planners For 2024
Bullet Journal On A Budget: The Best Cheap Bullet Journal Supplies
20 Bullet Journal Ideas and Layouts
11 Stupid things that society expects from you & why it’s ok to ignore them.
45 Life-Changing 30-Day Challenges Worth Trying This Month
11 Easy Ways To Reduce Your Plastic Waste Today
Letting Go: A Simple Guide To Getting Over Anything