31 Personal Growth Journal Prompts

Writing Ideas for Personal Growth — Personal development isn’t just for adults and self-help gurus—it can also be an incredibly powerful practice to share with kids. People of all ages can benefit from understanding how to improve themselves, and your students are no exception. Having the ability to assess, reflect, and make positive changes in themselves will serve them well as they move on to each new phase of their lives, and there’s no better time to learn than the present.

Journaling is especially conducive to personal growth, as the practice encourages students to examine themselves carefully. As they write, students find a safe space on the page to think critically about their best traits and to consider some of the areas where they might be able to improve.

With these prompts, young writers can also set goals and look to the future—and most importantly, they’ll have the opportunity to fully evaluate what they’ll need to do in order to accomplish their dreams.

Use these all-new journal prompts on personal growth to help your children learn about the value of self-development—and how they can begin to improve themselves this year!

Personal Growth Journal Prompts for Kids

How do you define personal growth? After defining the word, write about why it is important for people to strive to improve themselves.
Write about a time when you were unhappy with the way you responded to a particular situation. Then, explain what you would do now if you encountered a similar situation.
Think about something big you’ve accomplished in the past year—and write about how you managed to do it.
How can you tell when a person has grown? Write about the qualities that people who demonstrate great personal growth show on a regular basis.
What is one area of your life that you would like to improve in? What can you do to better yourself?
What is one area of your life that you think you already excel in? Write about why you are so good at that one particular thing and how you can continue to succeed in that area of your life.
Write about someone you know who has shown great personal growth in an area of his or her life. How did that person achieve growth?
Why is personal growth so important?
Is it possible to help someone else with his or her own personal growth, or can people only grow on their own? Why or why not?
What is your best habit? Why?
What is your worst habit? Why?
If you could improve any single skill or talent you have, which would you choose? Why?
Have you ever helped someone else to get better at something in his or her life? How did you encourage that person?
Think about one way that you have grown over the past year. How did you accomplish growth?
What is one thing you can do to improve yourself today? Write about what you will do and then write a second reflection tomorrow about your experience.
What is one thing you can do to improve yourself in the next month? Create a plan for what you will do each week for the next month, taking care to think about the steps you will need to meet to reach your goal.
What is one thing you can do to improve yourself in the next year? Think about what you would like to have accomplished one year from now and then consider the one action that would truly make the biggest difference.
Write about a time when someone complimented you for showing personal growth. How did their recognition make you feel?
When you are working on improving yourself, it’s especially important to recognize your achievements. Write a congratulatory letter to yourself about one thing you’ve been doing really well lately.
It’s also important to take care of yourself when you are focusing heavily on self-improvement. Write about one thing you can do to help yourself relax and have fun after working hard.
As a way of growing personally, many people like to focus on growing and developing the relationships in their life. Choose a friend or family member and write about how you could improve your connection with him or her.
What is the best way to form good habits? What can you do to make good habits more likely to stick?
Make a list of 10 things that make you happy. How can you experience these things more frequently?
What is your greatest talent? How can you use it to help others?
Do you think personal growth is difficult? Why or why not?
What is the most difficult aspect of personal growth? What could you do to make that aspect less challenging?
Think about the part of your life that you are trying to improve right now. As you get older, how do you think your focus will change? What other ways will you try to grow?
In what area of your life have you grown the most over the past three years? What do you think helped you change?
Imagine that you are talking to your younger self. What accomplishment would your younger self be most proud to see that you’ve achieved?
Think about the experiences you’ve had while working to improve yourself. What is the greatest lesson you’ve learned in relation to personal growth? Why was it so important to you?
What is your life philosophy? What can you do to ensure that you are living it every day?