New Release - My Family Recipes: Blank Recipe Book to Write In: Recipes You Love in Your Own Custom Cookbook, (100+ Recipe Book and Organizer) Paperback

My Family Recipes - Paperback version available

The paperback version of My Family recipes Journal was released in early February.

Organize and write down all your favorite recipes in on convenient book.  This is a perfect gift for the cook in your family.

Available now in both hardcover and paperback versions.

Look inside the book and available for purchase on Amazon at:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RLRHQFX

Great for organizing all your family recipes in one convenient book.  

Front Cover

 

inside recipe pages

For additional books and products take a look at the Available products page.

The description of My Family recipe book on Amazon:

My Family recipes is simple, easy to use, and conveniently designed.

All your favorite recipes organized in one place.

A Perfect gift – Write down family favorite recipes in one place

• Do you have a hard time finding recipes when you need them?
• Do you want a place to capture the recipes you love the most?
• Do you want to organize your recipes in your very own cookbook?

If yes, then you will love“My Family Recipes”

Keep all your delicious culinary creations organized:
Quick meals, main courses, baked goods, desserts, pies, beverages, and more.

My Family Recipes includes:

• Entry pages to record over 100 of your favorite recipes
• Scale to easily rate recipe difficulty
• Lines to track recipe cooking time, servings, calories, and preparation time
• Categories to track recipe type – e.g. Low-Carb, Low Fat, Vegan, Detox, etc.
• Handy kitchen references: Pan size, Measurement equivalency
• Lines to record required Cookware and Utensils, Ingredient list, and Recipe directions
• Free recipe included - provides example for filling in rest of recipe pages

Great gift for organizing family specialties, soups, appetizers and every day meals.

Perfect for friends, family members, and foodies who love to cook and need to record and organize their culinary delights.

Get started now by organizing all your tasty culinary creations and your family’s delightfully wonderful tasty treats in “My Family Recipes”.

You will be the master chef in your neighborhood.

Top Rated Ski Resorts in Colorado

Just got back from skiing in Colorado.  It was such a great trip.   So if you are thinking about skiing out west here is a list of the top rated ski resorts in Colorado:

• Vail Mountain Resort
• Aspen Snowmass
• Telluride Ski Resort
• Beaver Creek Resort
• Breckenridge Ski Resort
• Keystone Resort
• Purgatory Resort
• Steamboat Ski Resort
• Copper Mountain
• Arapahoe Basin
• Silverton Mountain
• Wolf Creek Ski Area

If you are near Chicago, check out ski areas near Chicago on the Travel page.

(C) 2022-23 jspublishing.blogspot.com

Servant Leadership Traits

Servant leadership is leading by example - creating a culture based on a core set of principles and values

Servant leadership is building a community based on core principles and values, which in turn drives meaning and purpose for individuals, empowering the team to be a more caring, just, trusting, and higher performing organization.

Leadership with a true desire to serve is about enriching lives, building organizations driven by purpose, and leading by correct values and principles.  This all leads to creating a more innovative, trusting, and caring team.

Core traits of Servant leaders are:

1. Empathy / Compassionate –Looking to understand the real needs of their staff and seek to address them.   Taking time to listen, understand, and help people.
2. Good listener – Listen to people before speaking their minds.  Important to give your undivided attention.  Pay attention to notice body language and tone.
3. Self-Control - Ability to control one's emotions, desires or the expression of them in behavior, especially in difficult situations.
4. Empower and heal those around you – Servant leaders focus on their staffs emotional health and feeling of completeness.  Making sure folks have access to knowledge and resources to establish a peaceful and healthy work environment and culture
5. Patience – Keep composure and respond appropriately to every individual
6. Optimistic - See the opportunity in everything, and be willing to attempt things no matter whether somebody else thinks it’s impossible or not.
7. Be aware – Be aware of yourself and those around you.
8. Trust – Communications need to be specific.  It is important that they are disseminated to every single level of the organization.  Transparency forments trust and trust has a direct correlation to work performance.
9. Encouragement – this is the hallmark expression of a servant leader.  Experts say this is a tremendously powerful tool for leaders
10. Respectful – Being respectful is very important when working and dealing with people.  Show people they are important by the respect you give them.
11. Bring the Vision Alive – Create a vision and mission statement that provides a sense of purpose for the entire team.
12. Be accountable and practice good stewardship – Take responsibility for the actions, behaviors, and performance of yourself and the team.
13. Build Community – Serve and build an empowered community that you can walk and be among
14. Be proactive and anticipate team needs – Anticipate future events and how they will impact the team.  Use experience, knowledge, and understanding to anticipate and take care to make sure you have already built and empowered the organization to effectively handle these future events.
15. Commit – It is important to analyze staff member needs and develop them accordingly.  A servant leader's main focus is the people so commit to your staffs education and development.
16. Integrity – Follow ethical and a correct set of principles and values

Servant leaders truly desire to serve and develop their staff.  The 16 traits are qualities that Servant leaders exhibit to lead and empower employees.  

The results of servant leadership are impressive - higher employee engagement, low turn over, and a higher performing organization.

Share your thoughts on servant leadership and leadership in general.  

Subscribe or sign up to follow the blog via Follow It at the bottom of the blog to get notified for future posts.

(C) 2022-23 jspublishing.blogspot.com

Leadership – What is it and what traits make a good leader?

This week I read 2 articles on leadership that are important to discuss.  The first article is by Adam Enfroy and the 2^nd article is an article on the Center for Creative Leadership website.   👍

Both articles provide a list of the best leaders’ leadership traits.  While there are many similarities there are surprisingly some differences in the lists. 

Leadership is very important as it impacts every level of an organization.  So, topics and articles about leadership are important to read and learn from.  Check out the related post "Journaling - An important tool for  Leaders" as it emphasizes the importance of journaling as a leader.

Great leaders are extremely important in an organization and we explore leadership and the traits needed for great leaders in this post.

So, why is leadership an important skill? 

Adam Enfroy asserts in his article, “Leaders inspire others to follow a certain path in life.  . . . . Without leaders, it is very difficult to manage large groups of people, set unified goals, and make progress.” 

What is leadership?

Steve Jobs is credited with saying, “Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.”

My personal and professional experiences confirm this statement.  True leaders inspire their folks and support their team to accomplish things that are seemingly impossible.

I feel true leaders are servants who are willing to do the right thing, hold themselves, and others accountable, take charge, and help others.

List of Leadership Skills

The first article by Adam Enfroy states, “There are certain leadership characteristics, traits, and skills that ultimately build the most effective leaders.” 

My experience confirms Adam Enfroy’s article, “11+ Leadership Qualities:  A List of Skills to Make a Good Leader” in that it accurately identifies necessary qualities for exceptional leadership.

In the beginning of the article Adam states, “The most important qualities of a good leader include integrity, accountability, empathy, humility, resilience, vision, influence, and positivity.” 

Great leaders also make it safe for people to speak up and communicate problems and issues within the organization without retaliation and work to fix them.  Truly great leaders look to serve and assist their folks to solve team and organizational issues.

The article includes the following list of qualities and skills most important to look for in a great leader.

1.   Effective Communication
2.   Integrity
3.   Accountability
4.   Empathy
5.   Humility
6.   Resilience
7.   Vision
8.   Influence
9.   Positivity
10.  Delegation
11.  Confidence
12.  Open-Minded

I would add these:  1) Great listener, 2) Expectation setter, 3) Has lots of energy 4) Works to anticipate the needs of the team, 5) Servant leader, 6) Emotionally Intelligent, 7) Good Storyteller

Excellent leaders excel in Active Listening – which is listening and paying attention to every single individual person they are leading and other folks they deal with or work with.

I agree with Adam that, “without integrity, no real success is possible.” 

Great leaders look to do the next right thing even when no one is watching. 

Adam’s article says, “Good leaders, and even great leaders, are not born; they are made.”    So, if you are looking to get into leadership my advice is that is is very important to study what makes a great leader.

Adam believes, “people can obtain good leadership qualities through teaching and learning these skills over time.”

Read the entire article at:  https://www.adamenfroy.com/leadership-qualities#:~:text=The%20most%20important%20qualities%20of,they%20never%20thought%20they%20could.%E2%80%9D

Center of Creative Leadership

The second article is on the Center for Creative Leadership’s website titled, “What Are the Characteristics of a Good Leader?”

Based on research from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), it was found the best leaders consistently possess these 10 essential leadership qualities.  Several align with the list in Adam’s article but some are different.

1.    Integrity
2.    Ability to delegate
3.    Communication
4.    Self-Awareness
5.    Gratitude
6.    Learning agility
7.    Influence
8.    Empathy
9.    Courage
10.    Respect

CCL, says, “leadership is a journey — different teams, projects, situations, and organizations will require you to apply these leadership characteristics in different ways throughout your career.”

I believe the Center for Creative Leadership article states a very important truth when it says, “It’s also essential to realize that leadership is a social process. It’s less about a strong or charismatic individual, and more about a group of people working collectively to achieve results together. If you demonstrate several of the characteristics of a good leader but fail to grasp this, chances are you won’t get very far on your own. You may be well-liked and respected, but it will be challenging to accomplish team or organizational goals.” 

Read the article from the Center for Creative Leadership at:  https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/characteristics-good-leader/

Please share your thoughts and experiences about leadership in the comments below

(C) 2022-23 jspublishing.blogspot.com

Lake Geneva Winterfest - February 2 - 6, 2022

Winterfest starts today and runs through February 6th.

The City of Lake Geneva will hold the 27th Annual Winterfest, featuring the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Championship February 2 – 6, 2022. As the only national snow sculpting championship in the United States, Winterfest welcomes the most talented and award-winning sculpting teams from across the country.  The snow sculpting competition runs 11am Wednesday through 1pm Saturday at Riviera Plaza and Flat Iron Park along the beautiful shore of Geneva Lake. It's FREE to attend and view, and sculptures will remain on display through Sunday (and until they melt).

Winterfest Snow Sculpture

Regarded as the gold standard of snow sculpting competitions and draws over 60,000 guests annually to enjoy snow sculptures and an array of fun winter-inspired events and activities throughout the region.

The winter fest has many fun events and activities including “BONFIRES ON THE BEACH.”  Bonfires on the beach includes cozy bonfires, live entertainment, warm drinks, and tasty s’mores and other treats.

Besides the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Championship competition Winterfest includes a local school snow sculpture event, a fire and ice bar, the downtown ice sculpture walk, a snowball white party, and the Riviera Ballroom warming center. 

Free shuttle bus service is available for the Winterfest.

Beside the winter fest Lake Geneva has a variety of activities for all ages.  

In the winter Lake Geneva offers many options for fun and unique activities:  Ice skating, skiing, festivals and special events are just a few things you can do in the area throughout the winter. Bundle up and head out for these fun activities.

In the winter at Grand Geneva located at:  7036 Grand Geneva Way  Lake Geneva, WI 53147 Ice Skating and a Sledding hill are available.  You can also do snowshoeing or cross country skiing there.

To find out more about Winterfest go to:  https://www.visitlakegeneva.com/winterfest/

Or check out more travel information and destinations to visit on the Travel Page.

To learn about things to do in Hoffman Estates check out the post at:  Things to do in Hoffman Estates

Journaling - An important tool for Leaders

Importance of Journaling

Two (2) additional recent articles I found from Jeffrey Ton and Aytekin Tank about the importance of journaling as a leader emphasize the benefits of reflection, greater self awareness, and personal / professional growth from the practice of journaling.  

Jeffrey Ton of Ton Enterprises, LLC published an article on his website in August 2020 and the article by Aytekin Tank CEO of Jotform was published on Entrepreneur.com (https://www.entrepreneur.com/) in December 2019.  Both credit journaling to their leadership success.

Aytekin’s article is titled, “How Journaling Can Make You a Better Entrepreneur and Leader”.  Aytekin goes as far as saying, “The most important words you write are ones no one will ever read.”  

In the article, Aytekin Tank highlights that reflection is important in leadership.  And journaling provided an outlet for Aytekin Tank to do just that.

Aytekin’s article states, “Research shows that people who engage in reflection are happier people and higher performers than those who do not. It makes sense. High performers and happy people learn from their mistakes.”  Journaling allows time to reflect on learnings and mistakes and to take actionable steps to grow and move forward.

Aytekin also suggests that journaling provides a creative outlet.  Journaling using freewriting, "cultivates consistency and creativity."

Aytekin Tank is the founder and CEO of JotForm, the easiest online form builder. JotForm was ranked in the 2016 Entrepreneur 360™ List, an annual ranking of the most entrepreneurial private companies in the U.S.

Jeffrey Ton is an author, speaker and led teams in the technology field as small as 5 and as large as 50.  

In the article posted on Jeffrey Ton’s website (https://jeffreyston.com/), the following is included, “Journaling has been a part of many successful leaders for centuries. The library is full of biographies and autobiographies of business leaders, government leaders, and thought leaders. The common thread, most kept some sort of record (uh, journal) of their thoughts, insights, and activities.” 

A journal is a powerful tool.  “Not only does it help you to keep track of details that would be lost to time, but it provides a way to learn from the past…your past. Part of the magic of keeping a journal is to re-read it, weeks, months, even years later. The magic? The lessons change! Why? The journal hasn’t changed…you have!”  

As Aytekin Tank mentions in his article, Jeffrey Ton states with great passion, “Keeping a journal is a great way to understand who you are and what you want and need from your career. I know I have written of this in prior posts…I just can’t emphasize the importance enough.”

Here are direct links to the articles if you are interested in reading them:

• Aytekin Tank’s article:    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/343680
• Jeffrey Ton’s article:  https://jeffreyston.com/2020/08/04/leadership-thought-lets-do-coffee/

In summary, journaling is an important tool as a leader.  It helps develop clarity, enhanced intention, self awareness, and provides time for reflection for personal and professional growth.  Journaling also provides a creative outlet to enhance your thinking, breakthrough creative blocks, and to crystalize your purpose and vision.

(C) 2022-23 jspublishing.blogspot.com

Video on Journaling tips, tricks, and how to

 

Posting this video as it explains the tips, tricks, and pointers for getting stared and staying with journaling.

Leadership and Journaling

Do you want to be an Outstanding Leader?

This week I came across two articles on the importance of journaling as a leader.  

The first is an article on Skip Prichard’s website (skipprichard.com) titled, “Why Journaling Makes Better Leaders”.  

The second is from the Harvard Business Review titled, “Want to Be an Outstanding Leader? Keep a Journal” by Nancy Adler.  

The Harvard Business review article by Nancy Adler starts with the following statement, “Research has documented that outstanding leaders take time to reflect.  Their success depends on the ability to access their unique perspective and bring it to their decisions and sense-making every day.”

As leaders it is important for us to have the courage to share our unique perspective and use it for decision making and action taking.

Nancy Adler concludes her article simply with, “Using a journal regularly will give you the courage to see the world differently, to understand the world differently, and to lead in new and needed ways.”  

The article by Bruce Rhoades on skipprichard.com provides some powerful insight on how journaling helps improves leadership abilities.  

Bruce shares the following areas where he felt journaling improved his leadership abilities:

• Better Organization

• Improved Decision Making

• Improved Demeanor, Attitude, and Judgment

• Enhanced Intention

• Positive Reinforcement

The article goes into further details on each of the 5 areas specifically where journaling resulted in significant improvements.  

The areas of “Improved Demeanor, Attitude, and Judgment”, “Enhanced Intention”, and “Positive Reinforcement” are extremely important to be present and to be a servant leader to your people and in your organization.

   

So, start journaling today to be an outstanding leader, to have the “courage to see the world differently”, and to use your unique perspective to lead and make decisions with purpose and intention. 

Share your thoughts and unique perspective in the comments.

Journaling for Self Care

 Self Care and Journaling

Self care is about what our souls or inner selves need and then taking action to address those needs.  Journaling helps in self awareness and self discovery and brings about great scientific benefits.  A quick search on Google reveals the many benefits from journaling.  See the blog post Research on Journaling to find out more.  

Journaling is a form of self care that brings about greater self awareness and clarity of what you need and how you can take actions to improve your well-being and mental state.

We will explore the following topics:

1) How to journal for self care

2) Self Care Journaling ideas

Self care is very important.  And Self care journaling brings greater awareness of what may be holding you back and what you can do to cope with and deal with uncertainty and road blocks.  With greater awareness you can determine actions or steps to overcome obstacles and cope with challenges.

Greater self awareness and understanding brings about greater joy, helps you deal with causes of stress, and what you can do to create the life you want rather than a life you are just going through the motions.

Usually our inner selves are struggling with emotions that we fail to process or are not sure how to address.

How to journal for Self Care

Our emotions or feelings become less scary and overwhelming when we are able to talk about them.  Self Care journaling allows you to get your feeling and emotions out on paper so you can process them and write them down.  

Self care journaling allows you to clear your mind and not be weighted down by your feelings and thoughts.

Keeping Track

It is important to keep track of your moods and fluctuation in your moods.  When you have anxious moments it is helpful to describe the experience and what you did to manage the moment.

Ways to Journal for Self Care

1)  Keep a Self Care routine - stick to a ritual

Carve out time during your day (5 - 20 minutes).  Make your journal routine more relaxing to increase the self care quality of it.  Maybe have a cup of coffee, listen to relaxing music, and focus on self care journaling.  Clear out distractions and clear your mind.

2) Let go of your feelings - Be liberated from your emotions

The whole point of Self Care journaling is to let out your bottled up emotions and to be liberated from them.

Be honest with yourself when you are writing in your journal.  Allow your time journaling to process any lingering or unaddressed feelings or issues.  Don't judge your feelings.  Feelings are feelings.  They are neither right or wrong.  It is important to understand your feelings and what may have triggered your feelings.

Being true to where you are at both mentally and emotionally is a key to successful self care journaling.

If you are not sure how to begin you can use the 50 best journaling prompts or you can start with a event that recently impacted you.  Describe your feelings of the event that affected you.  Be it positive, negative, or neutral be honest about your feelings and write from the heart.  Release your feelings and let your guard down.

3) Processing time is required  

It is important to allow time to process your feelings and emotions.  Self care journaling should allow you to separate yourself from your emotions and feelings thus freeing you from them.  

When self care journaling, make sure to spend time in self discovery.  Self discovery of what your capable of and your strengths in managing situations.  Ask yourself questions that help you find or determine solutions or actions you can take.

Questions such as:

1) Why am I feeling this way?  What triggered this feeling?

2) Is there a real threat or am I just anxious or am I uncomfortable about a situation or the company that I am around?

3) What is the best way to respond that won't hurt me further?

4) What do I need to do to move forward?

Allowing time to process our feelings, helps open our path ways and clear our minds.  In processing our feelings, we are able to turn something negative or something that is bringing us down into a positive.  Self Care journaling should also focus on how to move forward from our current situations or feelings.  The journaling should reveal actionable steps to move forward to a better path.

4) Try Guided Journaling or try using journaling prompts

Try the 50 Best Journaling prompts or guided journaling techniques.  If you do a little research you can find journaling prompts (questions) or journal books that are structured and maybe suited to your personality.  

There are plenty of guided journaling resources out there that maybe helpful for getting started with self care journaling.

5) Gratitude is Key

Self Care journaling is a great way to allow gratitude into our daily lives.  By being mindful of the little blessings that happen every day that we normally look past will bring you joy.  Keeping a gratitude list of kind acts, spontaneous joys, or little blessings will have a profound impact on your mental focus.  

List all the people, places, situations, and things you are grateful for in your journal.  For example, I am grateful for my kids, for my neighbor that stopped by to say hi, for my mom who sat and listened to a problem I was having.

Keeping a daily gratitude list helps you realize how blessed your life is no matter what difficulty or challenge life throws your way.

Write down one or a few things you are grateful for each day.  This will help you realize how truly blessed and loved you truly are.

6) No Editor Allowed

Journaling and Self care journaling are about free form writing.  Let your feelings and thoughts spill freely on the paper.  Don't worry about grammar, spelling, or if it looks good.  As long as you can understand it then that is all that is needed.

So, allow your thoughts and feelings to flow freely on paper and clear your mind.  Allow journaling to help you process and get your emotions, feelings, and thoughts out from your inner self so you can figure out how to manage situations and take actionable steps to deal with the situation with integrity, guided by your value, and realize how truly blessed you are with the daily gratitude list.

In Summary

Self care journaling is a healing process.  Allowing your thoughts, feelings, worries, and struggles to flow freely on paper allows you time to process and think through your situations.  Journaling brings about greater clarity, self discovery, and more awareness of actionable steps you can take to cope and manage difficulties life may throw at you.

Journaling allows you greater awareness of the people, things, and situations you are grateful and allows you to deal with the struggles with greater understanding of your feelings, and choices in dealing with them.

Are you ready to get started?  If so, check out Getting Started Journaling and the next section "Self Care Journaling Ideas".

Self Care Journaling Ideas

Self care journaling is a great way to support yourself in life.  In Self Care journaling you are taking the time and taking actions to put together a list of different ideas and actions to aide in feeling more peace and joy.  It will likely also attract more positivity, resilience, and a greater sense of strength and well-being.

To help in getting started with self care journaling here are various ideas for your self care journaling:

1 - List or write about the good parts of your day - What inspired you today?  Did you enjoy your time with someone special or a friend today?  Did you have an enjoyable experience?  Did you learn something new that you can teach someone else?  What are a few things you are grateful for today?  

Write about the good moments that happened in your day.

2 - Freely write about or list the bad parts of your day - The bad parts of the day tend to stay in our mind weighing us down and bring us down.  

By freely and openly writing about the bad parts of the day and how you felt and what you wished happened differently allows you time to process and release those negative feelings lifting the weight off you.

3 - List what you thought about through the day and why - Why are you struggling with certain emotions or insecurities now?   By thinking through the reasons for your struggles or difficult emotions it helps you understand yourself better and have greater awareness of yourself.  It may lead you to some past issues or wounds that you need to heal from.

4 - Make a gratitude list and write positive memories - Take time to reflect and be mindful of the most positive moments in your life.  Bringing awareness and being mindful of the positive moments and blessings in your life will allow you to be kinder and gentler to yourself.

5 - Keep a list of your favorite activities and meals - Add to this list so you have a variety of options when you need some self-care in your day

6 - Make a goal list

7 - Make a list of your hopes and dreams for the future

Check the Travel page for destinations in the Midwest you can travel to for inspiration and journaling spots.

In Summary

Be disciplined in your self care journaling ritual.  Journaling is a great way to support yourself in life.  Through self care journaling you will discover yourself and have greater clarity and be more aware of yourself.  It aides you in putting together a list of actions and items that bring you more peace and joy in life.  There are seven (7) self care journaling ideas to use when journaling - writing about the good parts of your day, listing or writing about the bad parts of the day,  write about what you thought about throughout the day and why, make a gratitude list and write about the positive moments and memories, keep a list of favorite activities and meals, make a goal list, and finally make a list of hopes and dreams for the future.

50 Prompts for Journaling

50 Prompts to help with Journaling:

If you are having trouble getting started journaling, journaling prompts can be useful.  The list of below prompts are grouped into several categories (Self-reflection, Best version of yourself, Work and Career, personal growth, etc).  These prompts help you get clarity and explore your dreams and develop actions to be the best version of yourself.

Also, check out the blog post on getting started journaling.

If you have journaling prompts that are helpful please share with others in the comments below.

Self-reflection

Some ideas to explore include:

1. What three things would you most like others (loved ones, potential friends and partners, professional acquaintances, etc.) to know about you?
2. Describe yourself using the first 10 words that come to mind. List 10 words that you’d like to use to describe yourself. What ways can you transform those descriptions into reality?
3. Finish the sentence: “My life would be incomplete without …”
4. Describe one or two life events that helped shape you into who you are today.
5. What five (5) changes can you make to live according to your values?
6. What values do you consider most important in life (honesty, justice, altruism, loyalty, etc.)? Do your actions align with those values, if so, how?
7. List three beliefs you’re willing to reconsider or further explore.
8. What do you most appreciate about your personality? What aspects do you find hard to accept about your personality?
9. What opinion or few opinions have you held in the past but now question or have changed. What was the reason for the change in opinion?
10. When do you trust yourself most? When do you find it harder to have faith in your instincts?

Best version of yourself:

Here are some prompts to try:

1. How do you prioritize self-care?
2. List 10 things that inspire or motivate you.
3. What aspects of your life are you most grateful for?
4. What are your favorite hobbies? Why?
5. What ways do you show yourself kindness and compassion each day?
6. Describe two or three ways you relax.
7. List three things that help you stay present in your daily routines. Then, list three ways to help boost mindfulness in your life.
8. What three things bring you the most joy daily?
9. Describe your favorite thing to do when feeling low.
10. What place makes you feel most peaceful? Describe that place using all five senses.

Personal growth:

Try these prompts to explore your dreams and outline potential paths toward change:

1. How do you make time for yourself each day?
2. Do your goals truly reflect your desires? Or do they reflect what someone else (a parent, partner, friend, etc.) wants for you?
3. What do you most want to accomplish in life?
4. Identify one area you’d like to improve. List three specific actions you can take to create that change.
5. List three important goals. How do they match up to your goals from 5 years ago?
6. List three issues lying in the way of your contentment or happiness. Then, list two potential solutions to begin overcoming each obstacle.
7. What three things would you share with your teenage self? What three questions would you want to ask an older version of yourself?
8. What helps you stay focused and motivated when you feel discouraged?
9. What do you look forward to most in the future?
10. What parts of life surprised you most? What turned out the way you expected it would?

Unwelcomed emotions

These prompts can help you explore challenging emotions productively:

1. What three self-defeating thoughts show up in your self-talk? How can you reframe them to encourage yourself instead?
2. What go-to coping strategies help you get through moments of emotional or physical pain?
3. What difficult thoughts or emotions come up most frequently for you?
4. Who do you trust with your most painful and upsetting feelings? How can you connect with them when feeling low?
5. What parts of daily life cause stress, frustration, or sadness? What can you do to change those experiences?
6. What do you fear most? Have your fears changed throughout life?
7. Describe a choice you regret. What did you learn from it?
8. Which emotions do you find hardest to accept (guilt, anger, disappointment, etc.)? How do you handle these emotions?
9. What are three things that can instantly disrupt a good mood and bring you down? What strategies do you use to counter these effects?

Note: If writing about painful emotions makes you feel even worse, there’s no need to push yourself. It may help to establish a regular journaling habit before you turn to more challenging topics.

Work and career

Here are some prompts to consider:

1. Does your work drain or overwhelm you? Why? Is this something you can change?
2. How do you use your personal strengths and abilities at work?
3. What are your career ambitions?
4. What three things can help you begin working to accomplish those goals?
5. Do you see yourself in the same job in 10 years?
6. How does work fulfill you? Does it leave you wanting more?
7. What can you do to improve your work performance?
8. What about your work feels real, necessary, or important to you?
9. How do your co-workers and supervisors recognize your strengths?
10. What part of your workday do you most enjoy?
11. What does your work teach you? Does it offer continued opportunities for learning and growth?