31 Revealing Journal Prompts for Self Growth, Self Love, and Self Improvement

5 Shares

Sometimes it’s hard to become your best self. Everyone talks about self-care, but we rarely talk about improving ourselves in the process. Here’s a month of journal prompts for self growth meant to do just that.

Becoming your best self can be really hard.

It takes a lot of self-reflection and honest, habitual changes to create a mind-state where you make decisions that will transform you into the best version of who you want to become. Journaling is a way to talk to yourself and to get in tune with who you are by getting down to the nitty-gritty of many issues.

Overall, no matter which style of journaling you choose, it is a cathartic way to grow in (and appreciate) yourself.

It can take as little as five minutes a day to as long as an hour, but the most important consideration is to find a style that works for you. One that helps you in figuring out who you are, who you want to be, and how to be better as every day passes.

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you.

Table of Adventures

Is journaling good for self-improvement?

Journaling is fantastic for self-improvement. It’s also great for self-love and especially for self-growth. All these different “self” words are interconnected.

At least for me, they are.

I improve who I am through growth, and I, therefore, can see my value and it validates my feelings of self-love. This inspires more growth and, as a result, more self-improvement.

Journaling enables us to wade through emotions, see progress, and keep us accountable to ourselves. In fact, there are five types of journaling that I have done (and I’m not talking about bullet journaling and although that’s a really great version, it’s not what I’m focusing on).

5 Types of Journaling

A 5-Minute Journal

There’s the 5-minute journal which provides daily guided gratitude exercises. It’s a great journal to hone in on the goodness in your life and the steps you took to get there.

It’s a simple journal that is meant to – quite literally – only take up five minutes of your day, with a typical focus on being grateful for your day. Over time it’s a great resource to see how well you’re doing and what you can do to create more positivity in your day-to-day.

This journal became really popular on Tik Tok as a way to wrestle through mental health during the pandemic.

Buy on Amazon

Progress Logging

This is a great method of journaling if you’re in the middle of something that is on a progressive timeline (like creating a new habit).

Take the time to write down a list of things you’re progressively trying to get better at and every day religiously write out what you did to get closer to that goal. The keyword here is: religiously. Don’t miss a day.

Over time you will notice patterns and you’ll be able to correct them if they need correction. This isn’t the time to write fluff, you’re only sabotaging yourself at the end of the day. There are other types of journaling that are better for wrestling with emotions, this is about reaching goals.

In order to keep yourself from being discouraged with this kind of journaling, you look back over your progress on a weekly basis to see how far you’ve come instead of how far you have left to go.

Question of the Day

Otherwise known as journal prompts (which this post is all about), the question of the day is meant to spur some thoughts inside of you to help you become a better person overall.

These kinds of questions are crucial to understanding who we are through self-reflection. I really enjoy these kinds of questions because they’re another form of real self-care and it’s important as all hell to undergo it from time to time.

“We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience.”
— John Dewey, Philosopher

The prompts below are meant to be done over the course of 31 days (a nice short term goal). It’s a great way to get to know yourself better and to find any flaws and habits that need to be taken care of.

Productivity Planning

Productivity planning is a way to live your life with more intention.

You protect your time and the energy you put into your day by focusing on the small goals in order to reach the larger goals set for yourself.

This is an easy thing to do as it requires 15-20 minutes of your day. Consider this your self-improvement journal as you write down your focus for the day (3 max) and as the day progresses you tick off what you have done.

self love journal prompts — Photo Credit: Polina Kovaleva

At the end of your day, you write down what worked and what didn’t to improve on your focuses the next day. This kind of journaling is great alongside time blocking if you need additional structure to stay on target.

Weeding

In 2005, the National Science Foundation found that of the 12-60,000 thoughts we have a day, 80% of them are negative.

In order to combat those thoughts, weeding (or cleaning out your mental garden) is the process of identifying the negative thought patterns and amplifying the good.

Weeding is about identifying the problem and trying to find a solution to the problem.

personal growth journal prompts — Photo Credit: Negative Space

Two ways to do that is by using positive affirmations (e.g., I can spread my bed every day) or by listing what you can do better tomorrow to fix the problem over time (e.g., I can get to bed early, I can’t use my phone until my bed is spread, I can then use my phone).

The point is to find solutions that get to the root of your problem. By writing them down, it shows your thought process and what has worked, and what you should ditch over the long term.

How do you write in your journal to improve yourself and achieve your goals?

Based on the five types of journaling above, I think it’s safe to say that how you write in your journal is really up to you. Improving yourself is, after all, extremely personal.

You can mix it up, especially on days when a different kind of journaling makes more sense, or you could commit to something like following these journal prompts for an entire month. Some people commit to an entire year or the rest of their lives to continue to grow and to improve.

It’s all dependent upon what works best for you. However, you really should set a goal that writing in your journal will help you to achieve.

Is it to become more self-aware and to reflect on a specific issue? Or are you trying to figure out what’s bothering you (e.g., “I don’t know why this issue bothers me, but I want to investigate it.”)

Or it could be because you’re trying to become more creative in general, and it could be a soundboard for yourself. A lot of successful writers, when they’re asked how they write so diligently, they mention that they’re simply in the habit of writing. Writing that next book isn’t as big an issue for them, because it’s second nature for them to write.

The point? When you understand the goal that you’re trying to accomplish, writing in your journal will make more sense.

31 Personal Growth Journal Prompts

The point of these journal prompts is to do a deep dive. Answer each as though they were meant to be a mini-essay. Describe why you think the way you do, why you believe something so deeply, discover yourself intimately.

The words I would like to live by are …
What are three self-defeating thoughts that show up in your self-talk? How can you reframe them to encourage yourself instead?
What can you learn from the biggest mistakes you’ve made?
The kindest things I can do for myself are …
Describe a life-changing moment.
What does love mean to you? And how are you able to identify it?
How different of a person would you be if your childhood had been different?
If you were to lose everything you had in the next five minutes, who would you call to ask for help?
What made the happiest day of your life your happiest?
What is something that really bothers you?
How would you make the world a better place?
What do you regret the most? If given a second chance what would you change?
I feel happiest in my skin when …
What brings me joy?
Write a letter to 5 years in the past you.
Write a letter to 5 years in the future you.
What makes you feel like a strong person?
Write about a time when you struggled with something and how you were able to improve from it.
Describe your biggest distractions and how you’re trying to minimize them from wasting your day.
What does success look like to you and how close are you to those ideals?
Why is it so important to be honest?
What makes you lose track of time?
What is something you do well?
Write down your goals for the next 6 months and how you expect to achieve them.
What is most important to you in a friendship – loyalty, courage, honesty, etc – do you exemplify that/those qualities?
Describe your ideal life when you are 70.
What is your greatest achievement? What did you do to get to that point in your life?
What are three things currently working in your relationship? What could be better?
What are your strengths in relationships (whether romantic or friendly)?
When do you trust yourself the most? When do you find it harder to have faith in yourself and your instincts?
What do you fear the most? How have your fears changed throughout your life?

Hopefully, these journal prompts for personal growth and self-discovery inspire you to continue to discover yourself and to better your life. Take it one day at a time as getting out of your comfort zone can be very uncomfortable.