How Journaling can Promote Self-growth

We all want to better ourselves. Rather it’s learning a new skill or breaking a bad habit. And journaling is an inexpensive way to do it. It’s a powerful tool for personal growth. It empowers us by analyzing and seeking solutions, instead of feeling powerless or overwhelmed by our problems. It helps us look deeper and define our goals so we can make them a reality. Personal growth doesn’t always come easy, but journaling is a great place to start. So here’s how journaling can promote personal growth.

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Define your Goals

Our goals start as a general statement about what we want to achieve. For example, I want to eat healthier. But if you stop there and don’t explore your goals any further. You’re not likely to achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself. Through journaling, you’re able to define your goals by digging deeper. You can ask yourself what you need to do to achieve your goals, and develop a plan. Setting goals is the first to personal growth but without a plan in place, setting goals loses its power to help us grow. So use journaling as a tool to help you define your goals.

Journal prompts to help you define your goals:

  • What do I need to meet this goal? Who might I be able to ask for help?
  • Why does meeting this goal matter to you?
  •  What could I do to meet this goal with as much joy as possible?

Understand What’s Blocking you

Through the journey of personal growth, you’ll encounter obstacles that’ll slow or even stop your progress. For example, if you’re working towards living a healthier life. You might feel unmotivated to eat healthily or be active, and you’re not sure why. So your progress towards living a healthier life has slowed or even stopped as a result. Instead of dealing overwhelmed or frustrated by the situation, use journaling as a way to understand why you’re feeling unmotivated. Once you discover what’s blocking you, then you can take steps to overcome it and move forward.

Journal prompts to help you understand what’s blocking you:

  • What are your biggest distractions?
  • What challenges do you have to overcome or had to overcome in the past?
  • How do you keep organized?

Discover Strategies to Implement Daily

A part of personal growth is understanding what actions you can take to improve your overall well-being. For example, it may be breaking a bad habit, learning a new skill, or changing the way you think. You can use journaling as a way to discover strategies you can implement daily to improve your overall well-being. As well as discover what works for you and your lifestyle and what doesn’t.

Journal prompts to discover strategies to implement daily:

  • How do you deal with feeling unmotivated? Does it help you get back on track?
  • What did you do today that helped you get closer to your goals?
  • Make a list of self-care ideas.


Keep track of your successes

The road to personal growth is a long and slow journey. So it’s important to focus on your growth and success. And journaling is a great way to do this. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, you can keep track of your progress throughout your journey. Then on those days, you don’t feel like you’ve made any progress or had a setback. You can go back and read your journal and see how far you’ve come from where you started.

Journal prompts to help you track your success:

  • Keep a daily food log.
  • Track your workouts.
  • Think of one success and one failure and reflect on them.
  • How have you changed from the person you were five years ago?

Get to Know Yourself Better

A powerful way to get to know yourself is through journaling. It helps you connect with your inner self, and discover your purpose, goals, and motivations. We juggle a lot of things in our daily lives and sometimes we lose our sense of self, and who we truly are. Journaling can help you get out of a rut, know who you are, and live with intention.

Journal prompts to help you get to know yourself:

  • Write a letter to yourself?
  • What’s something in your home that you love and why?
  • Write about something you’re passionate about.

If you’re looking to improve yourself, journaling is a great place to start. It’ll allow you to define your goals, get to know yourself, and figure out where you can improve. It’s an inexpensive personal development tool to incorporate into your daily routine.

Related post: 5 Daily Habits That’ll put you the path of Success

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Angela Louise
Written by Angela Louise
Angela is the owner and chief content creator for Weird Louise and is working towards becoming a full-time blogger. In addition to blogging here on Weird Louise, she is an artist and owner of the Social Awkward Club. She also has a passion for helping others discover ways to live their best lives.