Last Updated on May 22, 2023 by Lori
Writing prompts are a great way to brainstorm goals you want to achieve – and create the motivation, positive thinking, and planning necessary to achieve those goals. Use the writing prompts below for your goal-setting journal.
Keeping a journal is an excellent way to identify goals and create plans to reach them.
Why Should You Keep a Goal-Setting Journal?
Journaling can be used to find answers to life’s difficult questions, to find peace with your past, to contemplate your future, and to express your deepest feelings and desires.
But you can also use a journal to identify priorities in different areas of your life and to set goals for each of those areas.
Once you’ve identified your goals, use your journal to evaluate your purpose, create schedules, and as a means of documenting progress along the way.
Be sure to include your thoughts and feelings as you move toward the goals you have set, as these can be very motivating for you.
Why Should You Use Prompts for Your Goal-Setting Journal?
There are no “rules” when it comes to journaling, but prompts can be a helpful start.
As a motivational tool, it’s often helpful to have questions, or guided prompts, to help focus your thoughts and direct them inward.
The use of prompts, or direct questions, help to steer your writing in ways that give you personal insights you might not get otherwise.
Focusing on a topic or question that is provided for you helps direct your thinking to a particular subject and allows you to look in directions you would not necessarily have explored.
Although each of these prompts is short, the answers they require will take some introspection on your part.
They will help you clarify your desires, and the reasons behind those desires, then ask for you to make commitments to the goals you have chosen for yourself!
10 writing prompts for a goal-Setting journal
1. What is one goal you want to reach within the next 6 months?
Why is this goal important to you? What made you choose it above others?
2. What specific steps can you take to reach that goal?
Make a list of the steps you need to achieve your goal, and create a timeline.
Is 6 months a realistic amount of time to achieve this goal? If not, modify either the timeline or the goal so that it is more realistic.
3. In Ten years, what Would Your Ideal Life Look Like?
What would you like to be doing?
Where would you live?
Who would you surround yourself with?
4. Name three people you admire and why.
What characteristics do you admire about each of them? Do these characteristics overlap, or do you admire them for different reasons?
What characteristics of yourself do you see reflected in each person?
5. Name two of the biggest personal challenges you have faced in your life
When did they occur? How did you succeed?
What were your biggest concerns about them before you started? How do you feel about them now?
How have these challenges affected you?
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6. What was the most important lesson you’ve learned this year?
What have you learned from the experience? Has it made you stronger?
7. Name five people you spend the most time with.
The highly-respected author and motivational speaker Jim Rohn said that “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”.
Name the five people you spend the most time with, and list one positive quality you share with each of them. Do these qualities help you achieve your goals?
8. What does success mean to you?
How will you know if you have led a successful life?
Is it determined by your professional achievements, personal relationships, fame, or fortune?
9. Name 5 ways you can step out of your comfort zone.
Being willing to take risks is a huge indicator of success and goal achievement. What are some ways you can step out of your comfort zone in order to reach your goals?
10. Find The Words that Motivate You
Make a list of affirmations, mantras, or things you can say to yourself to make you feel more confident and self-assured.
Bonus Quotes You Can Use for Your Journal Writing
- “Hustling is putting every minute and all your effort into achieving the goal at hand. Every minute needs to count.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
- “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison
- “To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.” – Bill Gates
- “Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.” – Diana Ross
- “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” – Henry Ford
- “You have to be able to get up and dust yourself off and always be going forward.” – Rita Moreno
- “To live a fulfilled life, we need to keep creating the “what is next”, of our lives. Without dreams and goals there is no living, only merely existing, and that is not why we are here.” – Mark Twain
- “If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall, and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.” – Jeff Bezos
- The distance between your dreams and reality is called action. – Unknown
- “It’s harder to stay on top than it is to make the climb. Continue to seek new goals.”– Pat Summitt
“Keeping a journal of what’s going on in your life is a good way to help you distill what’s important and what’s not.”
Martina Navratilova
Read More:
- 11 Effective Ways to Begin Journaling for Personal Growth
- 50 Incredibly Effective Journaling Tips for Absolute Beginners
- Fitness and Health Journal Prompts to Help Achieve Your Goals
- 10 Journal Prompts for Self-Discovery
- Create Daily Routines in Order to Achieve Future Dreams
Final Thoughts on 10 Writing Prompts to Help You Set – and Achieve – Your Goals
Can you really set and reach goals through journal writing? Absolutely!
Your journal helps you monitor your progress, modify your steps, document your successes and missteps, and record your feelings and thoughts along the way.
A large part of sticking with your plan and reaching your goals comes from understanding your “why” – the reasons you have set the goals in the first place. Journaling can help you find your “why”.
Grab a notebook and a pen, use these prompts and quotes, and set sail on your goal-setting journey.
You are sure to be successful!