25 Journal Prompts for Noticing What Went Fine

Anxiety keeps a careful record of everything that might go wrong and no record at all of what went fine.

These prompts are for the second list.

The prompts

Pick one. One prompt answered honestly beats twenty-five answered at speed.

1. What scary thing did you do anyway this week?
2. What did you do today despite being anxious about it?
3. Which phone call did you finally make? How long had it waited?
4. What went fine that you were sure wouldn’t?
5. What would past you not believe you just did?
6. Award yourself a certificate. What is it for?
7. What did you say out loud that you would once have swallowed?
8. What did you stay for when you wanted to leave?
9. What is easier now than a year ago?
10. Who did you reply to within the hour? Frame it.
11. What did you not apologise for?
12. What did you send without rereading it?
13. Which worry did you leave until morning, and it kept?
14. What did you try in public that you weren’t good at?
15. What is the smallest brave thing you did today?
16. Which appointment did you actually go to?
17. What did you ask for, and get?
18. What have you stopped checking?
19. What did you let be “good enough”?
20. When did you last surprise yourself?
21. Which “no” are you proud of?
22. What did you do alone that you used to need company for?
23. Where did you speak up, shaking, and it was fine?
24. What did you finish that you had been circling for weeks?
25. Which worry from last year can you barely remember?

Want somewhere to write the answers?

These come from the same place as Anxiety, My Old Friend: A Journal for Things That Haven’t Happened. Its section “It Was Fine, Actually” has six prompts like these with ruled space under each, plus the scoreboard. The whole journal is a 58-page printable PDF with 60 prompts and ten activity pages.

These prompts are for writing things down and occasionally laughing at them. They are not treatment or medical advice. If anxiety is making daily life hard, please talk to your doctor or a qualified professional.

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