7 Journal Prompts to Boost Your Confidence
What would you do with more confidence?
Would you step outside your comfort zone and try something new?
Would you hit “publish” on your first blog post?
Would you matter-of-factly state your prices without fear of rejection?
If confidence doesn’t come easily for you, it might be overwhelming to consider taking powerful action or doing the things that scare you.
In that case, journaling is a great way to build confidence, because when you journal, you begin to deepen your connection with your inner world in a supportive environment.
You start to build trust in yourself, and you start to understand yourself better.
The act of journaling also helps you replace old, negative thought patterns or limiting beliefs with new, empowering thoughts and abundant beliefs.
These seven journal prompts are designed to give you an instant confidence boost.
You can journal with one prompt each day or tackle them all in one sitting. You can also come back to these prompts any time you need to check in with yourself or build a little more confidence.
Set aside at least 10 minutes, put pen to paper, and allow your thoughts to flow onto the page without judgement. Your future, confident self will thank you for it!
Here are 7 Journal Prompts to Boost Your Confidence:
1. Despite the ups and downs of your life/career/business, what makes you successful?
It’s common to think of success in external terms only. If you’ve ever thought, “I’ll be successful when…” that might be a sign. It also looks like measuring your value or worth based on external factors like income, job titles, number of followers, or awards and recognition.
Let me remind you that you are worth itself. You are not worthy because you achieved a certain award or milestone, and you’re not unworthy if you don’t achieve those things. Defining success internally – despite external factors – is one way to build sustainable confidence.
Even if you fail or make a mistake or hit a road block, how are you still successful? You have a unique blueprint of strengths, experiences, and skills that make up your Unique Soul Perspective (USP). These are what make you successful; not the bonus you received or the new client or the number of views on your website.
Instead of focusing on those metrics, create new success metrics for yourself. These could be personal or self-care measures like the number of days you genuinely felt happy or the number of times you were able to reframe a negative thought or how often you felt present.
Or you could choose values-based metrics like spending more time with your family, or settling into a meditation routine that makes you feel clear and calm.
The thing is, you are who you are with or without the email subscribers, revenue, salary, job title, or followers. So, who are you? And how do you measure that?
2. What accomplishments, big or small, are you most proud of?
This is a simple one, but it is one we tend to forget! How often do you obsess over things you got wrong, or things you “should have” done differently, or mistakes you made? And how often do you really stop to celebrate the things you get right? My guess is – not often enough.
Confidence comes from a deep trust in our abilities; believing that we are capable of achieving our goals and dreams. And sometimes you need reminders of your greatness!
This journal prompt is a great way to reconnect with your accomplishments and remind yourself that you are capable of achieving great things – you now have the evidence that proves it!
For this prompt, you could list your accomplishments each week or month, or you could do a Year in Review exercise, listing all of your achievements over the last year.
You could also do a decade review, where you split your life into decades (age 0-10, 11-20, 21-30, etc.) and write about your accomplishments at all stages of your life. This one is kind of fun to look back on the things you were most proud to achieve as a younger you!
The how doesn’t matter as much as the what – simply thinking about, reflecting on, and writing down your accomplishments. Then feeling into those positive emotions and giving yourself a hug or high five!
3. What value do you bring to your life/career/business?
In a recent blog post, I talked about the difference between worth and value, and how we sometimes mix those up! As a refresher: worth is inherent. We are all worthy by virtue of being alive on this Earth.
Value is your unique blueprint – your USP – what makes you stand out from others, what you bring to work each day, how you show up in the world. Each of us has a unique value because we all have different strengths, skills, experiences and areas of expertise. No two of us are alike, and that’s such a beautiful thing!
So, consider the value you bring to your life/career/business each day. What skills are you showing up with? What experiences taught you the most? What expertise do you hold that sets you apart from others? And what strengths do you have that make you unique?
Writing about what makes you valuable is an important way to build confidence. Similar to the accomplishments journal prompt above, documenting what makes you unique helps you build the evidence you need to remember (or realize) that you are capable of achieving success. Because no one can do what you do the way you do it!
4. What compliment do you receive most often? How can you lean into this?
If you have trouble thinking about your strengths and accomplishments, you might want to start with this journal prompt. Think about the compliments you receive most often. What do others compliment you on?
Pay special attention to the compliments that are hard to receive. When people compliment you, do you minimize your greatness? Or try to change the subject? If so, those actions are slowly stealing your confidence!
Instead of changing the subject when someone compliments you on your excellent presentation skills or amazing website, how can you lean into those areas of expertise? Journaling about this helps you prepare for the future compliments to come, and it helps you step into your power in that area.
If you get complimented on your inspirational emails – own it! Keep inspiring and serving others. If you get complimented on your warm demeanor or ability to hold space for others, open your heart wider. If you get complimented on your style, rock on with your bad self!
Practice journaling about the compliments you receive and how you will respond the next time you receive a compliment. (Side note, if you still struggle with this, a simple “thank you,” is always an appropriate response!)
5. What energizes you? How can you bring more of this energy into your life?
Confidence is a form of energy – just reading this journal prompt lights me up and makes me feel more confident! And you can get your own burst of confidence by paying attention to the things that energize you.
Start by reflecting on times when you feel the most confident in yourself – what are you doing? How are you feeling? Paint the picture of ultimate confidence. Then think about other times you tapped into those confident feelings.
Once you reflect on the things you’re doing or the people you’re with when you’re feeling your most energized, write about how you can add more of that feel-good energy to your daily life. You may not always be doing the things that energize you, but you can still bring some of that energy to even mundane tasks. This journal prompt helps to expand your thinking on that.
Related: How to Find Your Life Purpose in 4 Easy Steps
6. What skills or expertise do you use to help others?
Helping people is an instant confidence boost for many of us, especially when we’re helping people by using our strengths or expertise. I know I always feel more confident when I’ve helped someone have an ah-ha moment during a coaching session, or when I get emails saying, things like, “Thank you, this is exactly what I needed!”
It isn’t about the external praise or feedback you get from others, though. It’s truly about how you feel stepping into your zone of genius and helping someone else through your strengths and skills and experience. That’s one of the best ways to build confidence because you can see the result in front of you.
You’re taking action by teaching or coaching or serving someone else, and you’re seeing how that person grew as a result of your expertise. What could be more confidence-inducing?!
So for this journal prompt, get clear on the skills or expertise you use most when you’re helping people. What do people come to you for? What are you the go-to expert on? When do you receive praise or positive feedback? Then work backwards; what skills or strengths were you using to help someone? What experience helped you help someone else?
This is another great reminder of your brilliance and your unique blueprint to help you build trust in yourself!
7. What would you do if you knew you were guaranteed success?
I love this question because it helps you expand beyond your fears and limiting beliefs. Many times, we allow fear or limiting beliefs to hold us back from taking aligned action, which is one of the best ways to build confidence. If you’re not taking consistent action, you’ll start to lose momentum on the confidence you built up over time.
This question helps you envision a world where you are successful, you have achieved your goals, and you are living the life of your dreams. Without the fears, limiting beliefs, systems or other obstacles that get in your way.
Unfortunately, we do live in an inequitable world. Systems and societies perpetuate stereotypes and oppression that keep women and people of color playing small. This journal prompt helps you think beyond those structures and focus on what you can control.
Confidence comes from within. Even without those systemic barriers, you may not believe in your ability to achieve the things you want in life. This journal prompt helps you open to limitless possibilities and options. What would you do if you knew you would succeed? Is it different than what you’re doing now?
What steps would you need to take to bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to be? What can you start (or stop) doing today to get there? Staying open to new ideas or opportunities will help you build confidence by seeing that there’s more than one path to success.
The Takeaway
While I always say, “confidence comes from taking action,” journaling is a great way to build your confidence in a supportive environment. Journaling about confidence helps you build positive connections and trust in your inner wisdom, building new, empowering thought patterns that help you go after your biggest dreams.
Take action now: Choose one of these journal prompts to boost your confidence, then set aside at least ten minutes to write your response. I highly recommend putting pen to paper here, rather than typing your answers, to take advantage of the mind-body connection. Then add a comment below letting me know which journal prompt is your favorite!
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