7 Journal Prompts for an Abundance Mindset
An abundance mindset is the deep belief that you are enough, you have enough, and there is enough to go around for everyone.
If you’re like most women, you might find it hard to stay in an abundance mindset. Especially if you’re struggling with self-doubt or impostor syndrome.
Over a lifetime, you’ve been conditioned to think in a negative or scarcity mindset. You’ve been conditioned to trust fear over faith, lack over abundance, and doubt over confidence.
Your thoughts create your reality. If you believe you’ll never be good enough to go after your dream job or start your own business, you’ll behave in a way that gets you that result.
On the other hand, if you believe that you have enough knowledge, wisdom, strength, and guidance to achieve your goals, you’ll feel confident enough to take powerful action.
The latter is an example of an abundance mindset; a belief that you already have everything you need to be successful.
Journaling is a great way to help you think with an abundance mindset.
You didn’t create your negative thought patterns overnight; it took 20, 30, 40, or more years to create those thought patterns! So switching to an abundance mindset won’t happen overnight.
Journaling helps you build a habit of positive, abundant thoughts. It rewires the patterns that don’t serve you and helps you build an abundance mindset over time.
The act of physically writing helps you to embody your thoughts. When you see your thoughts on paper, it’s real, it’s tangible. You can’t ignore it or make it go away with another thought.
Writing strengthens your mind-body connection. It helps you form new thought patterns and intensify your self-belief through a deep trust in yourself.
Here are 7 journal prompts for an abundance mindset:
1. Gratitude & Worthiness
If you’re just getting started with building your abundance mindset, start with gratitude. Gratitude is an affirmation or declaration of the good things you already have in your life.
A daily gratitude practice has so many powerful benefits, and it’s one of the best ways to learn to shift from scarcity to abundance.
When you focus on the things you’re grateful for, you naturally pull yourself out of the fear of lack. You can’t be afraid and happy at the same time! Gratitude is all about having appreciation for the good things in your life, or the lessons you learned along the way.
The word appreciation means to increase in value. So, when you concentrate on the good feelings you get from practicing gratitude, those positive feelings will increase. And so will the good things in your life, because you’ll start to notice them more often.
As amazing as it feels, even gratitude isn’t always enough to build a habit around an abundance mindset. You have to believe that you deserve the good things in your life. And that’s where worthiness comes in.
If you don’t believe you’re worthy of having blessings, gifts, positivity, or abundance in your life, no amount of gratitude practice will help you cultivate an abundance mindset. You’ll continue to believe that you’re not enough, reinforcing your scarcity mindset.
One way I like to overcome these thoughts and beliefs is through a journaling exercise on Gratitude and Worthiness.
Start by writing down one thing you’re grateful for in your life. Be specific – think about something personal to you, something amazing that makes you feel abundant. Something you feel is a true gift or blessing.
Then, write down how this gift makes you feel. It’s important to connect emotions to your thoughts and beliefs, as you’ll learn in the next exercise. From here, write down the mantra:
I am worthy of this gift. I am worthy of what I desire.
Write this mantra 12 times, or any number of times until you begin to believe it. Then repeat this process until you’ve written about 6 abundant gifts in your life.
You don’t have to work hard, or earn a certain amount of money, or get a certain degree to be worthy of something. You are worthy by virtue of being human. You are worthy because you’re alive. You are worthy of everything you have in your life. It just takes time to believe that.
Gratitude & Worthiness Journal Prompt:
One thing I’m grateful for is:
How I feel when I think of this gift:
Write the following mantra 12 times: I am worthy of this gift. I am worthy of what I desire.
Repeat steps 1-3 until you’ve written about 6 things you’re grateful for
Related: How a Scarcity Mindset Prevents You from Living Your Purpose
2. BE YOU Mental Model
I love teaching this model, because it’s a simple and straightforward way to shift your thoughts in any moment. The BE YOU Mental Model helps you to: In any Situation, BE Powerful, BE Confident, BE YOU.
It teaches that your Beliefs create Emotions, which create Behaviors, which create Effects, or the results you get in your life. Situations are neither positive nor negative; it’s our thoughts about them that lead us to perceive them as good or bad.
The model also teaches that the Effects we get serve to reinforce our Beliefs, positively or negatively. So if we continue to get the same results, we’ll continue to have the same beliefs. This is the thought pattern that’s been keeping you stuck, playing small, or in a scarcity mindset. This is the thought process that you’ve been using for the last 20, 30, 40+ years of your life. So it takes a conscious effort to shift to a new way of thinking.
Here’s an example: If you believe you’re not good enough or don’t know enough to live your purpose, you might feel hopeless, depressed, or frustrated. If you feel like that, you won’t take action, or do anything to change your situation. The effect? You’re stuck in a job you don’t love or you continue to yearn for a better life. And because you’re still in the same place, this reinforces the belief that you’re not good enough or don’t know enough to live your purpose.
By using the BE YOU Mental Model with an abundance mindset, you can shift your thought patterns over time, increasing your persistence in taking powerful action. It starts with changing your Belief.
If you believe you are worthy of finding or living your purpose, you might feel excited, hopeful, optimistic, or brave. If you feel those emotions, you’ll be more likely to take an action like enrolling in a certification program or updating your resume or researching financing options for a storefront. The effect this time? You’re one step closer to living your purpose. And this effect reinforces your belief that you are worthy of finding your purpose.
To use this in a journaling exercise, think about a situation you’re struggling with in your life. One that contributes to your scarcity mindset. Start by identifying your belief about the situation. Then, write down the emotions you’re feeling, the behaviors you’re acting on, and the effects you’re getting. Write down how those effects then reinforce your beliefs.
Then, consciously choose a new belief about the situation. How can you look at things differently? Can you choose a new belief or thought? Repeat these steps with this new belief and soak in the good-feeling emotions you experience. Doesn’t it feel better to think more abundantly?
BE YOU Mental Model Journal Prompt:
The Situation I’m struggling with:
My Belief about the Situation:
The Emotions I’m feeling:
The Behaviors I’m acting on:
The Effects I’m getting:
How these Effects reinforce my Beliefs:
Then repeat steps 1-6 with a positive Belief
3. Accomplishments & Celebration
Part of sustaining an abundance mindset is also expressing gratitude to yourself for your accomplishments. No matter where you are in your career journey, you’ve accomplished something in your life. In fact, you’ve likely accomplished more than you know.
There are two ways to do this in a journaling exercise. In one version, you can go through the months of the year and write down all of your accomplishments from each time period, big or small. For each accomplishment, identify what skills, strengths, or values helped you achieve that accomplishment. Then, write how each accomplishment improved something in your life. This way, you have a clear picture of patterns or themes in your accomplishments, and you can see how achievements built on each other to get you to where you are today.
The second version is to make a list of accomplishments every single day. This one is hardest for most women. We tend to think that accomplishment has to be something big and something amazing that we did, but an accomplishment can be something small. It could be “I made it through the day.” No judgement, it’s whatever YOU think an accomplishment is, no matter how small or how ordinary it may seem. I’m all about celebrating the little things every day!
When you start to write these things down, you can categorize and start to notice the things that you’re doing well every single day, making a mental note and giving yourself evidence that you do have accomplishments and you do have success.
This helps you build on the sense of self-worth mentioned earlier. Remember: an abundance mindset is all about believing you are enough. Focusing on your accomplishments is a great way to show yourself how much you’ve achieved, what skills and abilities it took to achieve it, and how this accomplishment improved something in your life.
Monthly Accomplishment Journal Prompt:
For each month (you can start this one month at a time, or do a year in review), list any accomplishments or anything you’re proud of
For each accomplishment, list the skills, knowledge, strengths, values, or experiences that helped you achieve it
For each accomplishment, write about how the accomplishment improved something in your life
Daily Celebrations Journal Prompt:
At the end of each day, take 10 minutes to write down everything you want to celebrate for the day
When you’re finished making your list, write the following mantra: I am abundant because I have so much to celebrate in my life today.
Take a deep breath and sit with the feelings you get from writing down your celebrations
Related: How to Shift from a Scarcity Mindset to an Abundance Mindset
4. Wouldn’t It Be Nice If…
Freeing your mind with a brainstorming exercise is a great way to build your abundance mindset. A scarcity mindset keeps you stuck in fear and lack, thinking only about what you don’t have or what’s wrong in your life currently.
Free-writing exercises help you to expand your thinking, explore new possibilities, and consider alternatives and options. Journaling in this way helps you gain clarity on what you already have (strengths, knowledge, resources) that could lead you to pursue a new opportunity.
In this journaling exercise, start by writing at the top of the page, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…” Then, open your mind to consider the things you want in life. You could use bullets or write longer paragraphs. For example, “wouldn’t it be nice if I magically received a check for $10,000,” or “wouldn’t it be nice if I landed my dream job.”
Write down any thought as it comes to your mind. It doesn’t have to follow any pattern or theme – this is your opportunity to put it all out there into the Universe. What do you want? What do you wish you had more of? What would you love to magically appear?
Wouldn’t It Be Nice If… Journal Prompt:
At the top of your page, write “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”
Free write bullets, short sentences, or paragraphs about the things you want in your life or things you wish would happen. Write whatever comes to mind – there are no wrong answers!
When you’re finished with this exercise, end the page with, “And so it is. Thank you Universe.” (or God, Spirit, your preferred word for the Divine).
5. A Day in the Life
A second free-writing exercise I love is “A Day in the Life.” In this journaling exercise, you envision yourself one year from now, living your most abundant life.
Think about who you’re with, how you’re spending your time, where you’re living or working. Write down how you feel, what accomplishments you’re celebrating, what successes you’ve achieved. Allow yourself to visualize your future self in all her abundant glory.
Then, go deeper. What career or job do you have? What salary do you make, and what does that salary allow you to do? What kinds of projects are you working on? How are you giving back? Who are you serving? How do you feel when you wake up in the morning?
Write down anything that comes to mind. Don’t think about how you’ll achieve those goals or how you’ll land that dream job or buy your dream home. But do think about how you’ll feel when you’ve achieved your goals. How will it feel to be truly abundant? Capture those feelings and sit with them.
As you read back over your words, allow images to come to your mind. Use this visualization to motivate you and energize you to take action toward your goals. This is also a great prompt to come back to any time you’re feeling down or need an inspiration boost!
A Day in the Life Journal Prompt:
Write about your abundant life, one year in the future. Use the following questions as a guide:
How are you spending your time?
Who are you spending your time with?
Where are you living? Working?
Who are you serving?
How does it feel to wake up in the morning?
What salary are you making? What does this salary allow you to do?
How are you changing the world?
6. Giving Back
Many people think that to be abundant, that means someone else misses out. That if you have everything you need, someone else has less.
This belief implies that some people are worth more than others. That some people are more deserving of things than other people. And if that were true, then it means that some people are better than other people. Which is simply not true.
Instead, shift your thoughts to believe that everyone is worthy. Everyone is deserving of everything in the world simply because they exist. There is more than enough to go around.
If you live in abundance, think about what that means for those around you. For your family, friends, coworkers, the people you want to serve. When you believe you have enough, you can freely share your abundance with others.
An abundance mindset allows you to do more, serve more, and give more. Try these journal prompts to think through the ways you can give back:
Giving Back Journal Prompts:
When I am my most abundant self, I can…
Thanks to abundance…
Abundance allows me to…
What abundance has done for me this year:
How I will use my abundance to serve others:
How I will use my abundance to make an impact:
How my abundance changes the world:
7. Affirmations for Abundance
One of the best ways to start to build an abundance mindset is through written affirmations. Affirmations are short but powerful expressions you can use to consciously shift your thoughts. They work by automatically bringing mental images to your mind, which can serve to inspire and motivate you to take action toward your goals.
Affirmations give you the opportunity to choose words that help create or eliminate something in our lives, such as creating success or confidence or abundance, and eliminating low self-esteem, destructive behaviors or fear.
Related: 30 Affirmations for Confidence
Affirmations help you retrain your thinking and speaking into positive patterns so you can truly transform your mindset and your life. You can get more of what you want and less of what you don’t.
To use affirmations as a journal prompt, I recommend choosing one affirmation at a time, then writing that affirmation several times in your journal. I typically write my affirmations 12 times because 12 has always been my lucky number, but you can choose a number that feels good to you! The more you write, the more tangible and real those thoughts will feel.
You can take this practice a step further by reading your affirmations aloud, and spending a few minutes visualizing the images your affirmations bring up.
Here are a few affirmations you can use for an abundance mindset:
I am worthy of what I desire
I deserve the wonderful things in my life
I am enough (or I know enough, I am smart enough, etc.)
I am powerful and confident
I deserve to take up space
There is enough room for me
There is more than enough to go around
Success comes easily and naturally to me
Money flows to me with ease
I am a money magnet
The Takeaway
You didn’t form your negative thought patterns overnight, so you won’t shift to an abundance mindset overnight. Journaling helps you build a new habit around thinking with an abundance mindset. Over time, you’ll rewire your brain into thinking positive, abundant thoughts more naturally.
Take action now: Choose one of these journal prompts to start with. Then, work through the other prompts, one per day, for the next seven days. Practice writing from your heart and get your thoughts onto the paper. It doesn’t have to be perfect; this is just for you.
…
Sign up for the free masterclass, Thrive Beyond the 9-5, where you’ll learn how to turn your strengths and passions into a thriving business. You’ll learn how to leverage your strengths, skills, and career experience to start a business that aligns with who you are, so you can get paid for what you already know – at double (or triple!) your current rates. Click here to sign up for instant access to the free training!
