50 Helpful Career Journal Prompts to Find Your Purpose
Career journal prompts can be incredibly helpful when you’re feeling lost about your career. They can help you gain clarity when you’re confused about what to do with your life.
It’s easy to feel the societal pressure to find your purpose and ideal career niche early in life. Or to “discover your passion” so you can have happiness and success.
The path to self-discovery can take a while. You may not have it all figured out by age 25. Sometimes, it takes longer to find your purpose and ideal career, and that’s perfectly ok. In fact, it may even turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
No way! you might be thinking. All this career confusion is the worst! Why can’t I find a job I love?
The answer to this question can be super elusive. I know because I’ve been there too. But I believe with intention and deep self-reflection, you can find your purpose career-wise.
These journal prompts to find your purpose will help you sort out what kind of career to have. Free PDF printable career journal prompts are included at the end, with no email required.
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Let’s dive right into these career journal prompts, and then go over some more questions about career journaling.
50 Career journal prompts to find your purpose
- What were your hobbies as a child and teen? List all your favorite hobbies and activities, no matter how insignificant they may seem.
- Brainstorm 10 ways each hobby could become a career. (Believe me, I never thought the fact that I loved journaling meant anything!)
- How did you feel about working with others as a child and as a teen? Did you like being a leader, working alone, working with small or large groups? What role did you take? What role did you want to take?
- How does competition make you feel? Do you believe you must be competitive to win? Write about your feelings about competition.
- Write how you feel about working these different ways: with your hands, with your mind/imagination, and with your whole body. What do you prefer?
- What are the ideal hours of your ideal job and how many hours per week would you work?
- What is your desired income level? Journal what your income could provide for you both emotionally and in terms of actual stuff.
- Describe what you wear to your dream workplace. (Your ideal fashion style.)
- What is the physical environment like? (Inside, outside, sunny, dark, office, castle, boat, ocean views, city, country, etc.)
- Who are your ideal co-workers? Describe their personalities, levels of expertise, do they bring in snacks, etc.
- Do you think your ideal career is out of reach or impossible? Write 10 reasons why. Then dispute each reason playing devil’s advocate to look for holes in your “can’t do it” theory.
- What did your social conditioning from your family and community tell you about what to do and where to go in life?
- What past traumas may be clouding your concept of your career path?
- Journal what day-to-day stress is keeping you stuck.
- Describe any lifestyle stressors such as physical illness, mental health, disabilities, or living environment which are affecting you finding happy work.
- What about current or past relationship stress holding you back from fulfilling employment?
- Any financial stress such as poverty or debt stopping you? How does this stress make you feel?
- List 10 affirmations of self-love and encouragement to yourself for every major stressor identified.
- What jobs that you’ve held have you liked and disliked most? List 5 reasons why you’ve liked and disliked each job.
- Journal 10 possible ways to push out of your comfort zone related to work. This could be taking a class, asking for a new position within your company, networking, etc. Which way/s seems easiest? Hardest?
- Make a list of 50 potential new skills to learn. It could be anything, from tying a knot to frosting a cake. Get creative and only list what actually interests you or may potentially interest you.
- Journal a 1-week plan to learn one new skill.
- Journal a 6-week plan to learn 6 new skills.
- Find 5 books or websites about things you’re interested in, and journal 5 top bits about each site/author/expert (ie the goal of the site, how it earns money, what products or services it offers, related products/people, etc.)
- List 5 favorite career quotes that inspire you.
- Journal 10 crazy ideas for jobs you’d love that don’t yet exist. Could these jobs exist in the future? Are there any related fields you could explore?
- Journal 10 work environments you’d love to experience. IE, An office way up high in a skyscraper with amazing views. Or a giant art studio where you’d paint every day.
- Now 10 work environments you would hate, just to be clear.
- Journal your ideal company motto or company statement.
- What do you want to give people the most? To share of yourself?
- What do you need to be given to you? Or what do you need back from the world? IE Recognition, love, fame, freedom, a simple “thank you.”
- What would your future best self from 10 years in the future say to you now? How would your higher self/future self advise you?
- What are the exact negative phrases your mind is telling you about finding your passion? For example, do you keep telling yourself that you’re lost? A total loser? Journal the origin of those phrases.
- Journal forgiveness to anyone and anything that has ever made you feel lost and confused.
- Then journal forgiveness to yourself.
- Write a list of 10 self-care activities to love yourself.
- Journal 100 sources of inspiration. Be super-specific. IE- Paintings by Mark Rothko, fancy chocolate, inspirational quotes, art journaling.
- Write down 3 actions you can take each day toward discovering your passion.
- Journal your 11 highest highs/ happiest moments in your life.
- How are the people closest to you helping or not helping you with your personal growth and development related to your career?
- Who do you wish you had a career like? Is there anyone who you’re jealous of their career?
- You are free and have free will. Journal all the ways and reasons why you’re free to discover your passion, to show yourself you’re not as trapped as you may think.
- Journal your favorite books to read. What books or music inspires you?
- Make a list of all the people in this world who inspire you.
- Journal 111 single words that inspire you. IE Passion, purpose, inspiration, success.
- List 11 ways you can raise your vibration to manifest your ideal career. IE Meditation, better self-care, gratitude.
- Speaking of gratitude, journal 10 lessons you’re grateful to have learned so far about career fulfillment. In other words, what has life taught you thus far that will serve you well in finding a job that makes you happy?
- List your top 10 companies to work for if you could work for anyone.
- Write where your ideal career would lead you, IE into entrepreneurship, to meeting the love of your life, or around the world traveling.
- Journal 10 positive lessons you’d like to share with others about finding your passion.
Free career journal prompts to find your purpose PDF
Download your free printable career journal prompts right here:
Career journal prompts to find your purpose PDF printable.
I hope these help you find a career you love!
How career journaling can help you find your purpose
Career journaling is a highly effective self-discovery tool.
Through journal writing, you can learn more about yourself and your preferences. Writing can help you clarify your thoughts and achieve deeper self-knowledge. And the more you come to know about yourself, the better able you are to find a career niche you love.
Here are some more specific ways that journaling about your career can help you figure out what to do with your life as far as work goes.
1. Journal prompts can help with emotional clarity
Journal writing can help release pent-up emotions. You may not realize you have all the emotions you do until you start investigating them in a journal.
Left unchecked, emotions such as anxiety, anger, or stress can create brain fog. This fog can block you from discovering your ideal career. Old feelings, trauma, and social conditioning can keep you stuck. Writing in a journal helps you unblock and process these feelings in a safe environment.
Related: 50 Journal Prompts for Anxiety and Depression {Plus Free Printable Journal Prompts!}
2. Journal prompts can aid in self-discovery
Self-discovery is a great benefit of journaling and is all about knowing who you are at your core.
Journaling can reveal your authentic self, along with your preferences. By this I mean your hidden likes, dislikes, dreams, and aspirations. Journaling can help you understand what you need to be happy in your career.
3. Journal prompts can help you make a career plan
You can use your journal to organize your thoughts around what career you want to experience. Then you can plan actionable steps toward obtaining your ideal career.
Related: 12 Weekly T0-Do List Printables: Free PDFs to Stay on Task
4. Journal prompts can be a tool to manifest your ideal career
You can work to manifest your career dreams by writing out all the specific aspects of your ideal career.
Writing about specific career aspects allows you to get crystal clear on what you want. That way, you can more mindfully take the actions necessary to discover your purpose and dream job. Because journaling helps clear stagnant emotions, it can also help you get on the fresh new energy level needed to manifest your ideal career.
5. Journal prompts are a way to get revolutionary career ideas.
So many people have amazing careers that aren’t “9-5”.
I happily work whenever and wherever I want as a writer and an artist. I didn’t get there overnight, and in fact, I didn’t discover my ideal career nor find the opportunity to pursue it until my 30s.
And maybe your ideal career doesn’t conform to traditional ways, either. You may dream of being a painter, musician, writer, or entrepreneur who works odd hours. Or, maybe you’re totally clueless! No shame my friend! There is nothing wrong with you at all if you’re feeling lost in your career.
Related: 5 Home Business Ideas Online With No Experience Needed
How to do career journaling
To do career journaling, simply grab a notebook, and a pen, and find a spot to write. Make sure you are free from distractions.
Then, start writing using the career journaling prompts, or just write whatever comes to mind. Don’t censor yourself, and don’t judge what comes up.
There is no right or wrong way to journal writing. You can be neat, messy, misspell, doodle, make lists, or write stream-of-consciousness. Whatever way you journal, allow yourself to be completely free. The most important thing is to make it beneficial for yourself and enjoy the process.
You deserve career happiness
Just the fact that you’ve read this far proves you care deeply. So, you must find your ideal career because career happiness matters to you. You may even have a mission on this planet that you don’t know about yet.
To be honest, journaling has been an amazing tool to help me heal emotions over my past career “failures.” Like hating almost every job I’ve ever had and getting fired multiple times. I used to wonder what was wrong with me for not finding my passion in my 20s. I’ve been through dozens of jobs and I have some crazy stories…Is this you, too?
It was through journaling that I came to find my purpose. In retrospect, I can see why I always had such a tough time fitting in as an employee and always felt so painfully unhappy. Now I couldn’t be happier blogging, selling art prints on Etsy, and exploring more creative entrepreneurial ideas.
I’m telling you all of this for one reason: Never give up. The joy of finding your purpose and your ideal career is worth it.
Final Thoughts
I hope these 50 career journal prompts have helped you find your purpose and discover your ideal career. You must believe that your perfect career is out there. Don’t listen to the nay-sayers. You may wind up taking the road less traveled, and if so, then cheers.
Please let me know what you think in the comments, and have a lovely day!
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