10 Journal Prompts That Will Change Your Life
IT’S TIME TO WRITE
Whether you’re a Morning Pages OG like me or you’re just getting started in your journaling journey. Whether you’re feeling like your life needs a complete overhaul—or you’re just looking for fresh inspiration to push past a plateau, these journal prompts are ones I personally come back to year after year to make sure I’m on staying on that straight and narrow path toward my goals while also keeping me accountable for the kind of lifestyle that nourishes me. These prompts always seem to have a way of bringing me back to center and reminding me of who I really am.
1. What stories are you getting tired of telling?
Whether you’ve been writing Morning Pages for a while or you’re totally new to the practice of starting your day off with journaling, the idea here is to get conscious of what you’re constantly complaining about.
2. Imagine your life as a perfectly efficient machine…
What moving parts can you remove so that your life runs smoother? Most often, we don’t need to add anything to our life; rather, it’s about removing the noise and the clutter so we have more mental space to access our creative expression. For me, this shows up as having too many clothes in my closet (that I don’t even wear), not having bills set up on auto payment, and forgetting to stock up on my go-to mono meals. You can go into deeper patterns and habits here, but the simpler question is, what small decisions can you start removing from your day-to-day routine to avoid decision fatigue and have more mental energy for your purpose?
3. How would you need to rearrange your life & home to be the woman you want to be?
As a creative, you’re hypersensitive to your environment and space. You need what you need in order to get into flow state. This is something I’ve had to practice many times in my life when confronted with different living dynamics. If you don’t have one already, how can you set up a little creative studio or office space for yourself? When you imagine the peaceful, chill, yet totally creative and adventurous Godly woman you want to be— how is she living? What does her closet look like? Is her home orderly or chaotic? Is she constantly wasting time looking for things, or does everything in her home have a place?
4. What do you wish you could do all day?
It’s pretty simple. It’s the thing you get lost in. If you’re like me, maybe it’s writing. Or maybe it’s painting, or cooking, tending to your garden, or renovating a house…The key here is to notice the feeling, the location, and all the other senses that go into those moments when you hear yourself think, ‘Gosh, I wish I could just do this all day…’
5. How do you desire to express yourself creatively?
Dancing, singing, playing music, meal planning, building houses, creative business deals, fashion and style, writing stories, graphic design, interior design, and making videos— these are just a handful of ways people express themselves creatively. How do you feel called to express yourself creatively?
6. What would life look like if you arranged your schedule around when you’re most tapped in?
The best piece of creative advice I ever read said, ‘Find the time you’re most naturally creative—when the work just seems to flow out of you and build the rest of your life around that.’ This is why when I still worked a ‘regular’ job, I always chose serving in restaurants because I could do it at night. Personally, my morning and early afternoons are when I’m most creatively tapped in, so working for someone else during those hours wasn’t even on the table.
7. What gets you really inspired?
Whether it’s dancing at festivals, performing poetry or music in front of a live audience, perusing through bookstores, the excitement of spontaneous adventure, slow mornings with your notebook and coffee, creative brainstorms on the beach, checking out potential retreat venues, or having lunch on a patio with your best friend…Make a list of everything you can think of that gets you feeling really lit up. Next, highlight the top 3 that feel most like; if you could focus your time, energy, and attention on those things, you’d be making real strides toward the woman you want to be.
8. What material items are you holding on to that you don’t even want anymore?
In my opinion, keeping clutter and unnecessary stuff in our space both inhibits and distorts our creative expression. Who would you be without all this stuff? What if your creativity had more space to breathe? Think about the clothes you’re constantly pushing back and forth in your closet but never want to wear. The mugs or dishes in your cupboards you never want to use. Old make-up, college textbooks, expired condiments in your fridge…those tubs in your storage closet that you haven’t even looked in, in years, yet every time you see them, your body contracts because you know they’re just taking up space…ya those. Make a list. Then commit to removing those items from your house one by one. If you need a little added inspo, think of the charities that will financially benefit from you dropping them off at your local thrift store.
9. How do you want your daily life to look and feel?
Imagine your ideal daily life. What do you do when you wake up? How do you spend your mornings? What do you do after that? What do you eat, and who do you spend time with throughout your day? Write out a vision for your ideal daily life. How would living that way make you feel?
10. What conversations would you need to have?
When you think about the new life you’re creating, what conversations do you feel like you need to have with those in your life to communicate the changes? Don’t worry about actually having these conversations yet if you’re not ready. Just write the list of names and what needs to be communicated. This will get you feeling way more confident, clear, and able to communicate from a place of peace and certainty.
Extra Credit
11. Imagine the woman you want to be…
Take a few minutes to relax. Drop your shoulders. Take a deep breath. And imagine yourself living your ideal life. Who are you being? How does your presence feel? What are you wearing? What are you directing your creative energy into? How are you using your gifts to further God’s Kingdom?