Skip to Content

New Year’s Journal Prompts: 55 Activities to Help Reflect on the Past Year and Set Goals for the New Year

Start your New Year the right way by recording your goals and remembering your resolutions. Get inspiration for your New Year’s resolutions with these 55 New Year journaling prompts.

Each journal prompt is an inspirational question that will help you set goals and think about the things that are important to you.

55 Bullet Journal Prompts for Reflection and Resolution

Journal writing prompts are a great way to reflect on the past and set resolutions for the future. Use these journal prompts as a starting point for your bullet journal in the New Year.

Year in Review

  1. Choose a word that describes how you want to feel in the new year: inspired, energized, hopeful?
  2. What negative aspects of your life will you leave behind this past year?
  3. What is your favorite memory about this past year?
  4. What do you wish you’d done more of this past year?
  5. Where have you been this previous year that you’ve never been before?
  6. What was your most crucial reflection this previous year?
  7. What was the best book you read this previous year?
  8. What’re you most excited or nervous about right now?
  9. What is the biggest challenge in your life right now?
  10. What would you like to do more of?
  11. How are you enjoying the new year so far?
  12. What major life events, milestones, or changes have you experienced this year?
  13. What advice would you give yourself if you could go back a year in the past?
  14. What do you wish someone had told you on January 1st of the previous year? And why?
  15. If you could relive last year, what would you change and why?
  16. What places have you never been to but would like to go?
  17. Why do you think it’s essential to have goals?

Achieving Your Aspirations

  1. What are your top 3 goals for the coming year?
  2. Write down the first big goal you want to achieve this year.
  3. What’s stopping you from living your dream life and achieving your goals?
  4. How are you going to achieve those goals?
  5. What steps will you take?
  6. Who can help you along the way?
  7. What collections, habit trackers, or page layouts will you add to help you achieve your goals in the new year?
  8. What’ll you do differently in the coming year?
  9. What was your biggest mistake this year, and how can you avoid it in the coming year?
  10. What was your biggest success this year? How do you feel about it now?
  11. What’re some good daily habits you want to incorporate into your life in the new year?
  12. What do you want to focus your attention, time and energy on in the new year?
  13. What health and wellness practices do you want to implement in the new year?
  14. What would it be if you could spend more time on one activity in the coming year?
  15. What part of your personal development do you need to focus on to grow?
  16. What’s your plan to maintain accountability for your personal growth?
  17. What’s your plan to begin developing into a healthier you this month?
  18. What changes could you make next year to help you feel fulfilled in your work?
  19. What would it be if you could create one thing for the rest of your life?
  20. What can you do in the new year to be grateful to your friend(s), family, and loved one(s)?
  21. How can you show more kindness to others this year than you did last year?

Embracing Growth and Change

  1. What three skills or qualities about yourself would you like to improve or strengthen in the coming year?
  2. What are 3 ways you can challenge yourself out of your comfort zone this year?
  3. Where would you go if you could celebrate the New Year anywhere in the world?
  4. What’s something you need to let go of in order to move forward in the coming year?
  5. What’ll be different this year than last year?
  6. What do you want to do less in the coming year?
  7. What do you want to stop doing in the coming year?
  8. Where do you want to travel in the coming year?
  9. How will you be more organized in the coming year?
  10. How will it feel when you’ve achieved or implemented your resolutions?
  11. Who do you need to forgive so you can make peace with yourself?
  12. How can you love yourself and others better in the coming year?
  13. List three things that make your life worth living and why they mean so much to you.
  14. What’re your hopes and dreams for the future?
  15. What do you want for the world in the coming year?
  16. How can you help make your hopes come true?
  17. How can you become a better person?

These prompts are designed to help you gear up for the upcoming year. For a more in-depth self-exploration through journaling, consider exploring our collection of “365 Journal Prompts” which offers a comprehensive approach to daily self-reflection.

Journal Writing Prompts for the New Year

Setting goals for the new year is a great way to motivate yourself. But following through on those goals is even harder. The best way to stay motivated and ensure you achieve your goals is to write down what you want to do in a journal.

Writing down your goals daily will help you stay focused and committed to achieving them. You can use any type of notebook to do this, from store-bought paper to laptops or tablets to habit tracker apps on your phone if that works best for you. Just choose what works for you.

New Year’s journaling prompts are an opportunity to reflect on the past year and make resolutions for the year ahead. There’s no right or wrong approach, but taking the time to pause and reflect on what went well, where the biggest challenge is, and how you can leverage your strengths in the coming year is reassuring and can give you clarity on your goals.

You can also use these journal entries when you’re away from home, on vacation, or on a double date when you want to talk about important topics but don’t know what to talk about. Starting a new year is like setting out on a new adventure; it can be scary and exciting at the same time.

Review Your New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s resolutions are a great way to motivate and start fresh. But if you haven’t stuck to your goals, now is a good time to review them.

If you made a resolution, it’s probably something you feel strongly about. Maybe you wanted to lose weight, quit smoking, or save more money. These are good resolutions, but they can be difficult to keep. If you’re having trouble keeping your resolutions, here are some tips to help you get back on track:

Set Realistic Goals

Your goal should be something you can realistically achieve within the year. If you set an impossible goal, like losing 20 pounds in two weeks or quitting smoking, you’ll probably give up before you accomplish anything.

Instead of setting yourself up for failure, try making small changes that will lead to big results over time (e.g., don’t quit smoking immediately, but reduce it gradually until you eventually don’t need cigarettes anymore).

Reward Yourself

Reward yourself for achieving something related to your resolution by doing something good for yourself (e.g., treat yourself to a SPA day). If you don’t reach your goal in time, don’t punish yourself by giving up, but try again until you reach your goal and feel proud of what you’ve accomplished so far!

Related Post

February Journal Prompts: 40 Creative Writing Ideas to Help You Reflect, Relax, and Organize Your Thoughts