Journaling is a meaningful exercise to help make sense of your emotions.

Self-reflection enhances your self-awareness, which is necessary for personal growth. Writing about your thoughts and feelings can help transform your experiences into learning opportunities, while cultivating deeper gratitude and encouraging a more profound understanding of the events in your life.

Journal Prompts to Evaluate Personal Growth

The following 10 journal prompts invite you to dive deeper into specific areas of your life that are important to look back on as the year comes to a close—such as relationships, achievements, challenges and lessons learned, as well as hopes for the future. Taking time to look back on the year allows you to understand the decisions you made, why you made them and how you want to implement this newfound clarity into your life moving forward.

1. What achievements from the past year are you most proud of? Reflect on the challenges you faced and how they contributed to this success.
2. What was the biggest challenge you faced this year? How did that challenge help shape your discipline and motivation?
3. What is the biggest lesson you learned this year? How do you plan to carry that lesson into the next year?
4. When did you feel the most content this year? Think back on the occasion and who you were surrounded by at that time.
5. What relationship grew the strongest this year? Reflect on the circumstances that led to this growth.
6. What relationship do you wish had been better this year? How can that relationship improve in the upcoming year?
7. What day of the year stood out to you the most? Was it a good day or a bad day? Explain why that particular day impacted you so deeply.
8. What do you regret the most this year? How can you address that regret in the upcoming year?
9. If you could change one thing and keep one thing from this year, what would they be? Ponder your reasoning behind these choices and how you plan to carry them into the next year.
10. Describe 2024 in three words. Reflect on the reasoning behind your choice of those three words.