New Year Journaling Prompts
Around this time each year, people start talking about fresh starts and new beginnings. All of us are thinking about not only everything that happened last year, but also how to plan, set goals and prepare for the year to come—and when it comes to preparing, nothing works quite as well as journaling.
If you haven’t kept a journal before, the new year is a perfect time to start. You can write about anything you want; it can be as structured or unstructured as you like. To help you get started, let’s explore some powerful new year journaling prompts that can help shape your journey ahead.
First, though, let’s talk about why new year journaling prompts are a valuable tool for starting the year off right.
Why you should try new year journaling prompts
Before we dive in, let’s be clear: journaling isn’t just about writing down your thoughts. It’s about creating a dialogue with yourself, understanding your patterns, and mapping out possibilities. Journaling isn’t just a checklist or goal-keeping tool; rather, it’s a new way of looking inward at yourself and discovering things you might not have previously known.
When done thoughtfully, these new year journaling prompts can reveal insights you might never have discovered otherwise. Here are a few new year journaling prompts you might want to try:
1. Reflect on how you felt last year
Think of this journaling prompt as your own personal “highlight reel.” Go back to this time last year and make your way forward, remembering the most significant events and decisions you made. Instead of just listing events, though, try and dig a little bit deeper, capturing not just achievements, but feelings and emotions, too:
- What surprised you most about yourself this past year?
- When did you feel most alive?
- What patterns do you notice during your happiest memories, moments and days?
- Where did you find unexpected joy?
- What obstacles did you overcome?
- What made you feel proud?
2. Write about hopes and dreams instead of resolutions
You won’t catch us talking about resolutions here—we don’t really make them. Why? Because resolving to do something takes all the fun, joy and mystery out of what’s to come. At their best, resolutions feel like just another set of tasks to add to your already overcrowded priority list. At their worst, they put unnecessary pressure on you to achieve things that, because of the unpredictable nature of life, may be out of your control.
Instead, focus on what you can control—your hopes and dreams about what you’d like to experience this year. Think about:
- Places you’d love to visit
- Things you’d like to try
- Events you’re looking forward to
- People you’d like to connect or reconnect with
- Who you’d like to “become” in the new year
- Areas you’d like to direct your energy
- Projects you’ve always dreamt about starting, but haven’t quite yet
3. Explore different ways of thinking
You may be familiar with the phrase “if you always think what you always thought, you’ll always get what you always got.” This saying holds true—in order to experience different results, you need to think about things differently.
Journal about a circumstance that has been a challenge for you, like a problem you’ve tried to solve, a goal you’ve tried to reach, or a relationship you’ve tried to mend. Then write about the thoughts that you repeat in your mind about that situation. Next, jot down alternative ways of looking at the situation that could lead you towards the outcome you’re after.
Someone to share your new year journals with
New years are about new ideas, new concepts, new adventures. To that end, we’re going to suggest you try something new when it comes to journaling—journal with a coach!
For most people, journaling is a solo sport. We keep our journals to ourselves, reflecting alone. But does it need to be this way? Could there be a benefit to sharing your thoughts with someone else?
That’s for you to decide.
For things that you’re not ready to share just yet, you might want to have your own, private journal. But for anything else, we recommend sharing your journal with a coach who is trained in the art of reading and responding to journals.
The right coach can help you become the best version of yourself by offering journaling prompts, asking insightful questions about your journal entries, extracting thoughts that are holding you back, and nudging you in the direction of your hopes and dreams.
