20 Journal Prompts For Business + Personal Growth

Journaling changed my business. Well, first it changed my life… then it changed my business. I don’t believe that your business can outgrow your personal growth. Personal growth and development should be just as high of a priority as learning what email subject lines convert best, or what time to post on Instagram.

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We avoid the personal work because, honestly, it feels harder than beating the algorithm or writing the blog post. But telling yourself that personal work is hard is a story, one that we can rewrite. Instead, you can decide that when you grow as a person, your business grows too. When you learn more about who you are and how you operate, your business scales. When you uncover your resistances and stories, your business flourishes.

I grew up journaling in some fashion or another. At first it was diaries, and then, being a kid of the digital age, I bared my soul on websites like Xanga and Livejournal, and eventually Myspace and Tumblr. How embarrassing!

Throughout college my journaling became more of an artistic practice and showed up in sketch books and photography classes. And for the first few years of my business, I forgot how much I liked to write to myself - because I was so busy focusing on creating content for others.

The first few years of my business were…. Well they were bad and then they were good. Really good! I’ve talked about it a lot during season 1 of Effortless but where we ended up was nearly 4 years in and successful — booked out, consistent inquiries from pretty big names in the industry, six-figures…

And not very fulfilled. I mean, I loved my clients and the work, but something bigger was missing. There was a bigger purpose inside of me, and I hadn’t really talked the person inside for a while. I hadn’t been journaling, meditating, or any of that. I was just go-go-go-ing.

I brought the journaling practice back after a few failed attempts. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to write, it was — as silly as this sounds — the wrong notebook. I kept getting notebooks that were hard to write it, so I’d find the practice frustrating. 

But when I finally got all the kinks worked out… Well the pen wouldn’t stop, would it? I began pouring everything out. My hand hurt, constantly. Ink was smudged across the page. The writing had mostly turned to scrawl, illegible and rushed. But finally, I felt like I could connect with something deeper inside of me again.

With that, everything started to change. I started to change. And my business followed suit. Then, the crazy thing happened… I started to feel better. More fulfilled. Like the steps and ideas that were coming to me finally made sense. I was excited again! 

I’m telling you all this to get to this main point: if you’re feeling a little lost, or overwhelmed, or like you know something needs to change but you’re just not sure what…

Pick up a pen.

Get the right journal (I like this one the best).

And get 👏to 👏writing 👏

If your next thought is… but writing WHAT?! Fear not — I’ve got some prompts to get you started and some thoughts on how you should use them and start your practice.

Starting Your Practice:

1. Commit to journaling every single morning for one week. Yes, even on the weekends. Do it when you first wake up, so there are no excuses.

2. Set a timer for 15 minutes and do not stop writing until that timer goes off. 

3. Give yourself the option of free-writing or stream-of-consciousness-writing, but if that doesn’t feel good use a prompt from below.

4. Give yourself space and relax. Don’t fret over not knowing what to write, don’t beat yourself up for writing informally or illegibly. Just take a deep breath and go. There are no rules. No one ever has to read it. You could shred it or burn it when you’re done, if you’re really antsy about what comes up (but I don’t think you should do that, personally).

5. Don’t hold back. With that timer going, the first few minutes will feel… sterile probably. Generic. Surface-level. But eventually you’ll get in a rhythm and things will flow a bit easier. Don’t limit yourself with thoughts like, “that’s dumb” or “how weird”, but instead follow whatever paths arise. There are no rules. 

6. Be aware of what your initial thoughts are versus your ego or more logical brain trying to make sense of the thoughts, or prove something right or wrong. When we get into a good writing flow, it’s easier for our intuition to be heard. However, the delay between hearing a thought and writing it gives time for your ego to step in and try to take the thought in a different direction. If that happens, it’s fine — the point here is just to be aware of it happening. 

Okay. I think you’re ready!

Below are some prompts to use as inspiration, but use your creative freedom to come up with your own, to free-write, or adapt any of these. You have control. Oh, and, if you’re stuck on what to write at all, sometimes I’ll just ask myself, what do I need today? as a way to get started.

The Prompts:

1. What moment are you the most proud of in your life so far? And why are you proud of it? What do you admire about the person you were in that moment?

2. What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done? How do you feel now that you’ve done it? What do you feel about the person who managed to do it?

3. What would a younger version of yourself think about who you are today? What would they love? What would they wish were different?

4. What makes me happiest? What are 25 things that make me smile or feel happy?

5. What is something I feel like nobody understands or gets about me?

6. How do you want people to describe you? Why do you want people to describe you in that way? Are you being that person? How can you become that person?

7. How do you define success? How did you come to that definition?

8. How do you define failure? How did you come to that definition?

9. Who were you before anyone told you that was wrong? Who were you as a child? How can you bring more of that into your life today? Do you want to?

10. Describe your ideal day, if you had nothing you had to do?

11. What do you know you need to change in your business, but have been too scared to move forward on?

12. If you could go back to the day you started your business, what would you tell yourself? Why do you think that would matter and what do you think it would change?

13. Look at your surroundings. How do you feel in this space? What would you change? Why?

14. What decisions got you to this business, the one you own today? Go through the big decisions that led you to right here, right now. How do you feel about those decisions now?

15. What are 25 things you love about yourself?

16. What do you want your legacy to be? What do you want people to think about you and your business?

17. What are you avoiding, or ashamed of?

18. Who do you respect and admire the most? What is it about them that you respect and admire? Do you have similar qualities? How can you cultivate that?

19. What do I want my business and life to look like in one year? What kind of choices will get you there?

20. What do I wish I understood or knew better? What tools or opportunities exists that could help me?

Oh hey, just out of curiosity — what prompts stood out to you the most? Let me know in a comment below or shoot me a DM over on Instagram. And if you start the practice and have any great results or insights, let me know!

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