What to write in your journal to focus on your goals

Are you excited to write in your new, pretty journal but you have no idea what to write in it? Or maybe you’ve already started writing your new year’s resolutions, and now what? In this blog, let’s talk about what to write in your journal to help you stay motivated to do your new year’s resolutions and your goals. 

I’m pretty sure we’ve heard about the wonders of journaling, and at some point in our lives, we’ve tried doing this. There are some who successfully develop this as a habit. In contrast, there are others who couldn’t even write halfway through their journal notebook.

I was (okay, kind of still am) the latter part. I love buying cute notebooks but I don’t like writing on them for various reasons. It may be because I don’t know what to write in my journal and I keep messing up my notebook. 

After many unused journal notebooks, I realized that I don’t have to be that girl who has a cute-with-washi-tapes-filled-with-colorful-pens journal. I just need to have a system that works for me. 

What to add to your journal to achieve your goals. 

There are many things that we can add to our journal. But, in this blog, we will focus on what to write in your journal for you to achieve your goals. 

1. Your goals. 

Of course, if we want to achieve them, we have to put them on the first page where we can easily see them. So, every time we open your journal, we can easily see and be reminded of them. 

There are different ways we can list down our goals for us to focus on the present. 

• Life goals – Basically, this is our life vision, our long term goals. This is what we want to be remembered for.  

• Yearly, monthly, daily goals – Chunking long-term goals into short-term ones makes a lot of difference. By doing this, we ensure that we are making efforts to achieve our life vision.  

Most of us don’t have any problem writing our goals in our journal. The problem is that we write vague goals and we don’t add ways on how to achieve these. 

To avoid this problem, make sure you write SMART goals, and add an action plan to every goal.  

You may want to read this: How to Make an Action Plan to Achieve Goals.

2. Habits to develop and tracker.

Do you notice that we are so motivated to achieve our new year’s resolutions but then it eventually dies out? This motivation when starting will eventually fade, and this is why we need to focus on developing good habits that enable us to take actions. 

By developing habits, we don’t solely rely on motivation. As a result, taking actions isn’t strenuous because it becomes second nature to us.

In our journal, we can list down the habits that we need to work on to help us achieve our goals. Also, we can add a habit tracker for each habit. Aside from having a visual presentation of our progress, a tracker can also motivate us to continue doing our habits; It is just so satisfying to see our progress.

You may want to read this: How to Improve Yourself: Start with these 10 Habits.

3. Daily to-do-list.

A daily to-do-list helps us focus on certain tasks every day. In addition to this, by making a to-do-list, we are prioritizing the tasks we need to complete which makes our life a little bit more organized. 

I know that there are some of us who struggle to finish tasks for various reasons. One is that there are too many objectives on our to-do-list. Second is that the tasks are too huge. In short, the to-do-list is not feasible.

To avoid this, we should take note of what we are capable of doing. Yes, it is good to push ourselves but if it is too much, it will just frustrate us. It is also important to divide major tasks into smaller ones to prevent overwhelm.

Now, it is important to add this to our journal so that we can observe ourselves. How many tasks can we accomplish in a day? Is there any organization of tasks that work for us? Do we prefer finishing hard tasks or the easiest one first? 

Aside from these, having a to-do-list and checking off one task after another motivates us to keep on doing this. Every completed task gives us this sense of accomplishment that motivates us to do more and celebrate these wins.

4. Daily gratitude.

To achieve our goals, it is important to stay positive about it. For sure there will be some obstacles along the way but we need to focus on the positive aspects. Or else, we will be consumed by negativity and stop working towards what we want.

This is why we should keep a gratitude journal. By writing our daily gratitude, we are practicing to find good even on a bad day. Not only does this help us accomplish our objectives, but it also improves our overall health. 

5. Daily Journal Prompts. 

Journal prompt is a question or statement that guides us on what to write in our journal and what to reflect about. For those who can’t seem to find an inspiration to write, this is a great way to get you started.

Here are some prompts for you to stay focused on your goals. 

1. What is it that I really want to accomplish in this lifetime?

2. What do I want to be remembered for? 

3. My ultimate bucket list is…

4. I see myself in five years from now as…

5. This year, I am focusing on…

6. My New Year’s resolutions are…

7. Why do I want to achieve my NY resolutions?

8. Will these help me accomplish my life visions? 

9. To achieve this year’s goals, I have to…

10. How will I measure these goals? 

11. My monthly goals are…

12. What habits do I need to develop?

13. The goal that will be the easiest for me to complete is…

14. The goal that will be the hardest for me to complete is… 

15. My strengths are… 

16. How can I use these strengths to help me achieve my goals?

17. My weaknesses are…

18. How can I improve these weaknesses to help me achieve my goals?

19. I’m pretty sure that these will distract me from my goals…

20. How do I limit these distractions?

21. I know that this person will help me become a better person…

22. Who should be my buddy/ies for these goals? 

23. If I finish this goal, I will…

24. My greatest inspiration is…

25. My daily mantra is… 

26. My favorite quote is…

27. My favorite activity of the day is…

28. I feel most excited about this goal….. because….

29. I’m feeling ___________ thinking about my goals because…

30. So far, this year has been…

31. January is done! I am looking forward to February…

Start filling up your journal and working on your goals. 

Writing goals is the easiest part, and now we actually have to do them. What can we do but to get moving! It will not be easy, especially that first step. Let’s just remember that this is for us.  

Keeping a journal can help us stay focused and motivated. In addition, it can be a storage of our memories, thoughts, and experiences. And from this, we can learn so much about ourselves which can guide us to accomplish our goals. 

As always, rooting for you, 

Meredith Blaise ♡