Are you a little lost after starting your first job? Don’t really know what you want from life and where to go from here? In that case I’d recommend self discovery journaling and our free journal prompts for self-discovery.
What is self discovery journaling you might wonder. It’s all about taking some alone time and giving yourself the permission to spill your thoughts onto paper. It’s a place for self-love, self-discovery and self-awareness.
When was the last time (if ever) you sat down and really took the time to think about yourself? What makes you tick, what makes you happy, unhappy? What do you want? Journaling is also awesome if you need to rant after a long workday 
. Just don’t forget the journal at the office.
Now you might wonder what should I write in my journal? Technically you can write down whatever, but in case you are a little lost we’ll give you 64 meaningful self discovery journal prompts derived from coaching. Before we check our creative self-discovery questions let’s take a look at the benefits of self-reflection.
Get your daily journaling prompts to:
- Get to know yourself better
- Reduce stress
- Figure out what you really want.
What are the benefits of self-discovery and self-reflection?
- Figure out what you really want instead of what others want for you.
- Create an action plan that fits your life.
- Find out what mentally drives you and what holds you back.
- Learn your pet peeves and how to deal with them.
- Unload all your thoughts and destress.
- Life in tune with yourself.
- Identify your negative self-talk.
- Figure out your bad habits and create better ones.
- Live intentionally following your values and beliefs.
- Improve your life.
What are some ideas to write about in a journal?
If you want to answer the question “What are some good coaching questions for your journal for Self-Reflection and Self-Care?” You might take a look at the 8 types of self-discovery question:
- Goal Oriented Questions
- Hypothetical Questions
- Circular Question
- Ressource Questions
- Reframing Questions
- Solution-Oriented Questions
- Paradoxical Questions and
- Obstacle-Oriented Questions
In the following journal prompts for self-discovery you’ll find examples of Coaching questions for Self-Discovery and Self-Reflection. You can use that question style to create your own questions for even an even more exciting journaling day!
64 Creative Coaching Journal Prompts for Self-Discovery
Goal Oriented Questions to answer, “What do I want in life?”
Goal oriented questions will bring you closer to defining your personal goals. Figure out what you truly want in life and learn to ignore all the noise that tries to misguide you! More on Goal Setting here.
- Let’s say we make a movie about your current life and a movie about your life after achieving your goal, how would those movies differ?
- What would stay the same?
- How would your character look like?
- Would you have certain abilities, which you don’t have right now?
- What do you have to learn in order to get there?
- How do your relationships look like in both movies?
- What’s missing in your life right now?
- What types of hobbies would you have?
- Which places would you have visited.
- What would you like to achieve by the end of this day/ week/ project?
Hypothetical Questions to find out - “Which beliefs and obstacles are holding me back?”
Hypothetical questions are great questions do you ask for self-awareness. They are about situations which aren’t real, but we pretend that they are.
- If you fell asleep and during the night a miracle happened and suddenly all your problems are solved the next morning, how would your life look like?
- How would you know that your problems were solved? What would be different?
- Assuming you ate a magic pill ( no drugs!) and you would be suddenly amazing at communication how would you communicate differently with people?
- What makes a person good at communication?
- What small steps can you take now to get better at communication?
- Assuming you were really good at self-marketing, what would you tell others about yourself?
- How would you market yourself?
- Assuming you were an amazing writer/ blogger/ office worker/ CEO what would your actions look like?
- Assuming you would live healthy, what would your life look like?
- Assuming you were a social butterfly, which events would you visit?
- Let’s say you could erase one of your fears, which one would that be?
- Which step can you take to work on your fears?
- Assuming your family / friends would support you fully, what would you try?
Circular Question
Circular questions take into account the perspective of multiple people and their interconnections.
- Assuming we could ask your boss what he thinks of you, what would he say?
- What would a colleague, who likes you, say about your relationship with your boss?
- (Boss can be substituted with teacher or anything really)
- What would you like your boss to say?
- How can you act to make your boss say those things about you?
- How would your friends describe your strengths?
- What would your parents think, your friends would reply to the previous question?
- Which strengths do you think you have?
- Which strengths do you want to develop?
- Do you have a difficult relationship with someone?
- If so, what would the person say the reason is for the strained relationship?
- What would a friend, who cares about you, say that the reason for the strained relationship is?
- Is it a toxic relationship?
Reframing Questions
Reframing questions try to find new angles and perspectives for a question.
- Let’s say it’s a good point that you are introverted/ extroverted, what would the good point be?
- Let’s say it is good that the relationship with a person is bad, what would the good point be?
- Let’s say it’s a positive sign that your boyfriend/ girlfriend doesn’t message you. What could be the reason?
- Let’s say it’s a good point that you failed your last business ideas. What could be the reason?
- Let’s say it’s a good point you postponed starting a side hustle till now, what would the good point be?
Ressource Questions
Resource questions focus on the resources each of us has.
- How did you get the last job? What were your strengths that led to your hiring?
- How can you draw attention to those strengths?
- What resources do you have access to?
- Who in your social circle has overcome a similar problem and can help you?
- Which books could you read to achieve your goals?
- Which free online resources could you use to achieve your goals?
- What have you previously learned that could help you achieve your goals?
Solution Oriented Questions
Contrary to obstacle-oriented questions solution-oriented ones try to show us a way how to achieve something.
- What have you achieved so far? How did you get here?
- Can you use what you’ve learned in other areas of your life?
- Tell me, have you ever solved a problem similar to your current one?
- What did you do that time? How can you implement that knowledge this time?
Paradoxical Questions
A paradoxical question goes against what we instinctively want. And through approaching ourselves from a different side we can get to new answers.
- What would you have to do to make your situation even worse ?
- What do you have to do so that it gets better?
- What happens if you continue your current actions indefinitely?
- What do you have to change to avoid that outcome?
- What would you have to do to fail?
Obstacle Oriented Questions
- What is currently stopping you from taking action? Is something/ someone standing in your way?
- If your main obstacle didn’t exist how would your life look like?
- What are you doing that is holding you back?
- Why is that an issue for you?
- Do you have bad habits? How do they hinder you?
- How long have you been facing said issue?
- Are there people holding you back? If so, how do they do it?
Conclusion - What are some ideas to write about in a journal?
In coaching there are eight main type of self-discovery questions.
- Goal Oriented Questions
- Hypothetical Questions
- Circular Question
- Ressource Questions
- Reframing Questions
- Solution-Oriented Questions
- Paradoxical Questions and
- Obstacle-Oriented Questions
Those “who am I prompts” help you get insights into yourself. They are great for self-reflection and looking at the different question types you’ll now be able to create your own self-awareness. questions.
Products we'd recommend for our Journal Prompts for Self-Discovery:
We like journals by Leuchtturm, which have dotted pages. They are a little on the expensive side, but worth it. Any other notebook works as well. For journaling we also like to use Mildliners usually we buy Zebra Mildliners.
And last but not least for all the German speakers out there, who are interested in coaching. This is the best book on coaching questions! Martin Wehrle’s “Die 500 besten Coaching-Fragen”. If you can’t afford it try to borrow or read it in the library. Most university libraries should have it.
We hope that the self-reflection prompts we shared above will help you deepen your self-awareness and help you find goals and a direction in life.
Finally, if you want another positive way to improve your life, check out our unit 2 where you will learn all about setting goals suiting your life and actually achieving them. Start to create your ideal life today!
