These are prompts from some other place besides a book that ask to examine certain aspects of yourself. I will not have created these prompts myself, so I want to pay respect that they came from somewhere.
This months’ prompts are going to be coming from this substack that I recently started following:
https://substack.com/@theebookclubx/p-180404522
December journal prompts
1. What did this year teach me about myself that I didn’t know before?
2. Which version of me am I leaving behind in 2025?
3. What am I proud of myself for, even if no one else noticed?
4. Which disappointments from this year still live in my body, and what permission do I need to release them?
5. What boundaries did I learn to set or wish I had set sooner?
6. Write about one person who made your year a little softer.
7. What small, mundane moments brought me unexpected joy?
8. What blessings arrived quietly, without fanfare?
9. What did I survive that I didn’t think I would?
10. What parts of my life feel like answered prayers?
11. What did love (romantic or otherwise) teach me this year?
12. How did I show up for the people I care about, and how did they show up for me?
13. What is one relationship I want to nurture more intentionally in the new year?
14. Which connections drained me, and why did I hold onto them?
15. What does a healthy, gentle love look like for the version of me I am becoming?
16. What habits helped me grow and which ones quietly held me back?
17. What fear dominated my decision-making this year, and how can I release it?
18. What is one truth about myself I can no longer ignore?
19. What did I learn about trusting my intuition?
20. How did I show resilience even when I doubted myself?
21. What do I want December-me one year from now to thank me for?
22. What kind of energy do I want to carry into the new year?
23. What is something I want to try, even if I’m afraid or unprepared?
24. What word or theme do I want to guide me in 2026?
25. What would a gentle, ease-filled life look like and what is one step I can take toward it?
26. What is one thing I forgave myself for this year, even quietly?
27. What old dream am I ready to revisit with a wiser, gentler heart?
28. What did this year reveal about what I truly value , beyond status, speed, or success?
29. Where did I experience unexpected beauty this year, and what did it teach me about paying attention?
30. What is one soft promise I want to make to myself as the new year begins?
What old dream am I ready to revisit with a wiser, gentler heart?
Dreams are something that I gave up on when I started trying to get to a better place in my life. I gave them up or maybe I felt like I achieved all the dreams that I had put in front of me. I had worked through school so that I would not be homeless again. I worked hard to find a good job. I worked hard to find a life worth living, but along the way I forgot to also find a life of purpose or what would happen after you achieve that set of goals or achieved those group of dreams. I left dreams behind for some reason, so I want to step back into dreaming about things.
The dream that I feel like I left behind the strongest was writing. I spoke on this in a recent other post, but I have always wanted to write a mystery novel. I have had an idea and even felt like I found ways to fine tune. I, however, gave up on it with the knowledge that I said I didn’t have enough time or the excuses that I just had too much going on to spend a few minutes on something that I love. These journal prompts have been helping me to recognize that I can find time to write about anything, if I simply stop doing other things that are not providing me with happiness. I spend so much time eating or watching television when I get home and I could change some of that time towards accomplishing this goal of writing a book. It is a dream that is achievable as well. I could do it, if I simply focused my energies there as well. It is a dream that was lost to time that should come back. I would approach it with a much gentler heart because it doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. It just has to be a written book. It just has to be something that I can put into the world. I am not looking to be Hemingway or some other important author, I would like to just have said that I accomplished this dream of publishing a book. I would like to be able to say to people that I know and have loved in this life that if I can achieve this dream, regardless of the outcome, that they can also achieve anything. Dreams are not supposed to die, they should be realized. I thought by getting stable and not homeless, that all my dreams were achieve. I just let them die away. Now, like a plant, I want to water them again and let them see the light. I want to let them grow and relisten to my heart about what it wants to achieve. It wants to publish at least one comic book. It wants to write a mystery book. It wants to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Dreams make me want to go to Dollywood. It makes me want to go to London, England. There are so many places I could go, if I remembered that dreams are possible. If I believe that there is more to life than just existing. Dreams are going to thrive in this next year, I won’t achieve all of them in one year, but dreams are going to be something that I grow instead of let die in a corner. It is time to dream again.
