10 Journal prompts to start the new month

Look back and reflect

It never hurts to look back on the previous month to try to figure out what worked and what didn’t work. It’s a great place to start before setting new goals. One of the main reasons why I am unable to achieve a goal is because I’m being too ambitious and get overwhelmed by my own ambitiousness. Most goals take a lot of time to work toward, and it’s important to understand what your starting point is. Ask yourself where you are mentally and what is actually achievable at this point in your life.

5 questions to look back and reflect:

1. What worked well this month? 
   What are the habits or lifestyle changes that worked for you this month? Was it waking up early? Doing yoga first thing? Maybe you made it a goal to drink at least 8 glasses of water each day and you are starting to see the benefits in your mental and physical wellbeing. Identify the habits that you will continue to practice next month.
2. Where can i improve? 
   What are habits you want to change? Do you find yourself snoozing or reaching for your phone before getting out of bed? Or maybe you fall into doomscrolling right after you get home from work or school or do you leave all your makeup out and open on your vanity (I’m guilty of this one). Identify the habits you are not satisfied with can inspire you and provide ideas for new goals to work on in the upcoming month.
   
   

3. What are three (3) things I accomplished?

   It’s important to highlight the small gains. It’s easy to get down on yourself and focus on the negative. Acknowledging your wins and the things you are proud of give you a sense of accomplishment. You have been working hard and you ARE doing well. Even if the progress is slow.
   
   
4. What is a moment I was grateful for? 
   Writing graditudes is something I used to struggle with a lot, but now I love writing graditudes, even if I’m choosing just one thing out of an entire month. I know I will treasure this one precious memory or accomplishment for years down the line if I commit it to paper
   
   
5. What is one thing I learned? 
   This is a real moment of reflection, accumulating all your experiences during the month and making it an observation. It may take you a while to come up with something to write, but I promise you this question has given me so many epiphanies.

Set goals & intentions:

We have reflected and cleared our mind, Now it’s time to look forward and set new goals. I have always been a huge goal maker. Having an endpoint can help me planning the steps that I need to take to get me there. It provides structure, but it’s also just fun to open up pinterest and visualize the life you dream of lol.

5 questions to plan goals & intentions:

1. What is my main goal this month? 
   Like I said before, I used to get overwhelmed when setting too many goals. Now I like to set one main goal for the month. This way I have one overarching idea that will guide my actions. It makes it easier to stay focused and actually reach this goal. Maybe the main goal you have in mind is still to ambitious to reach this month, what helps for me is to then set a smaller goal that will bring me closer to the bigger goal, like a safe point of a game.
   
   
2. how will i improve this month? 
   Earlier we asked ourself what you can improve, look back at this question and ask yourself how you can the points you listed. What are the habits that I can implement this month that will help me reach my goal? And what are small things I can do to better my overall health and mental wellbeing.
   
   
3. What am I looking forward to? 
   What excites you this upcoming month? Do you have any trips planned? Take a look at your calendar and highlight all the fun stuff. If you notice there are a lot of have to’s one week, you could plan in a solo self-care day at the end of that week. You could also plan a future trip, planning an event is almost as exciting as the real thing to me. Sometimes I plan everything out for a citytrip; from museums to restaurants and cute café’s and make a whole pinterest board of a place I don’t really plan on visiting any time soon.
   
   
4. What am I letting go of? 
   What habits or lifestyle traits no longer benefit you? Let go of the things that don’t add value to your life so you have room for things you actually care about.
   Maybe exercising in the morning doesn’t work out as well for you as you thought it would and you can swap this habit to working out in the evening.
   
   
5. What are my affirmations?
   This is the time to hype yourself up! It might sound cringy if you have never  done it before but writing out “ this is the best month yet” and “you are slaying queen!” I don’t care if it’s cringy, if you can’t be cringy in your journal, maybe that’s another thing to add to the “letting go” list.