Week 1
So, you’ve decided to go on a journaling journey. Be proud of your decision to prioritize your mental health and self awareness. Too many people push it to the background or decide that it’s too much work. Knowing yourself as best you can is the greatest gift you can give to yourself.
Remember that this is your journal – your time and reflection. So write like no one is reading it. This isn’t a place for judgement, either your own or someone else’s. Don’t shy away from anything your brain churns out on the future pages, this is your first step towards knowing.
This week’s prompts will dive into a lot. This is so you can build a solid foundation to build on in the future. Think of it as a check in. These ideas and thought processes will be touched upon in the future in greater detail. Right now you’re creating a map to look at when you do so. Put in genuine effort now to get the best results down the line.
Monday October 6 2025
Let’s start on a positive note!
What are three things about yourself you’re proud of? And I’m not talking about accomplishments or events in your past you’ve handled well. I want you to identify three attributes about yourself you represent well in your every day life. Perhaps you’re kind to strangers and friends. Or generous with family. Or a veteran of maintaining a positive outlook in dismal situations.
Reflect on why you’re a good representation of your chosen attributes. How did you come by such an earnest connection to them? Do you think you could strengthen those? How? What benefit would come from doing so? What are the potential negatives? How would you best avoid those pitfalls?
To end this prompt, explain how these positives about yourself have changed your life in positive ways.
Tuesday October 7 2025
While you were thinking of the three attributes that represented you, you probably came across several that didn’t fit. List the top three attributes that you want to improve in yourself. These could be things you want to optimize from a strong foundation or things you’re abysmal at.
Why did you pick those three? What benefits could come from improving on them? Why do you do want to see those improvements? What are the long and short term affects of not improving vs improving? How do you intend to do so? Which steps in your plan will be the most difficult? How can you make that easier on yourself?
Wednesday October 8 2025
No matter where you are in life you will have obstacles. It is an inevitability.
Identify your current biggest obstacles. Try and get a combination of types: physical, mental, spiritual etc. Anything that you feel is holding you back. Both outward and inward.
Which of these things could be altered? Either through strategic decisions or a change in perspective. Which are out of your hands? Are you certain about that? Can you mitigate the effects in any way?
Identify the biggest obstacles. Identify the most important – what you want to focus on most in the future. Are any of these self-imposed? Really reflect on that. Are you limiting yourself in any way?
Don’t be disheartened by this exercise or the perhaps intimidatingly large list you’ve made. It’s always better to know and face these things. This is a step in the direction of knowing and understanding what your situation is, that’s all.
Thursday October 9 2025
Spend some time today going through all aspects of your support network. Who is it? What is it? Is it in limited demand? When have you relied on it in the past? Would you change how you do that in the future? Have you returned the favor?
Is your support network easy to access? Can you make it easier? Will you be able to do so even in a bad mental state or physical duress?
Now is the time to make sure this network is strong and healthy. These are often connections that require consistent maintenance. Have you put in the time to do so recently? Are you in a safe place to do so? If you aren’t right now, will you be?
Perhaps your support network is weak right now. Take some time to research community resources that could be of help financially or logistically. Groups that meet that could aid your mental well being. Or organizations that offer classes in things you’re struggling with.
A support network is one of the most important things to be aware of in your life. Both to safeguard your own well-being as well as to take the appropriate time to be grateful for it.
Friday October 10 2025
Just as obstacles are an inevitability, so is failure. Being more aware of yourself will allow you to identify failure in its earlier stages and thus mitigate the effects. But failing is always a possibility, even a likelihood. What matters is what you do when it happens.
So, what will you do? Focus on your positive attributes to bring stability? Call on your support network for help? Think about the progress you’ve made on your negative aspects?
What are some ways you’ve failed before? What did you do then? Did it work?
What are some ways you could fail in the near future? How would that affect you? What ways should you let it affect you?
If you have the time and insight, put together some plans for specific scenarios. It’ll really grant you awareness of your potential. Not only in how you could fail, but in ways you could succeed.
Failure will come. Big and small. Make sure to learn from it by working through why it happened and how you can prevent it in the future.
What do you want to learn?
Saturday October 11 2025
Now that you’ve thought about failure, let’s look at success. It will mean different things to different people. It can be major and minor. Life changing or day changing.
What are some successes you’ve had in the past? Were they recent? What do you think contributed to your success? What things or attitudes worked against you? Were those avoidable? How would you do things differently in the future?
Now, look at your scenarios of failure, and what that revealed about your potential success. What are your scenarios for success? What does success look like to you in this moment? Big or small? What do you gain from it?
What are you willing to sacrifice to succeed in your scenarios? What are you not willing to?
What does success mean to you?
Sunday October 12 2025
Now that you understand what you want success to look like, what will you do when you get it? Maybe that seems like a silly question, but sometimes sudden success can be a hurdle in of itself. It’s easy to not be ready for the next step or to be taken by surprise and squander your hard work.
So, you know what success looks like for you now. How will that affect your future? How will others react to it? In what ways can you prepare for either?
Will success give you a surge of motivation to take it further or do you think you’ll stall out? How can you avoid the second, while encouraging the first?
If you sacrificed to get it, how are you dealing with that? What did you do, or what will you do, to fill that space?
What sort of check ins with yourself have you prepared for these scenarios?
Those are the prompts for this first week. Bit of a doozy, huh? These are hard hitting questions that require a lot of thought and patience with yourself. If you didn’t get through them all, don’t worry. They’re not going anywhere. Work at your own pace and make your own discoveries.
Next week we’ll be getting into goal setting.