Hellllllo my friends!

Thank you to all of my new “journaling recipe testers,” the brave souls who are going to try out my journal prompts and give me feedback as I try to create a physical journal (Sept 2025, baby!) to help you dig deep, find clarity, and inhabit your inner peace! Even if you’re not in the official group, I would still LOVE your feedback. Which prompts worked for you? Which were duds? Please let me know in the comments!

Journaling Tool: Spot the Win

Ever feel so overwhelmed by your job and your life that you think to yourself, “Wow, I am not doing enough.” Or, ever feel super self-critical, almost mindlessly beating yourself up for something you “messed up” (whatever that means because aren’t your mistakes usually the source of your growth, thus not mistakes at all? Hm?). Ever want to establish a new habit that you KNOW will be good for you but you just can’t muster the energy and motivation to take it on? 

Well, of course, you have been through all of these scenarios because human. And luckily, I have a great tool for us.

What is Spot The Win

“Spot the Win” is a journaling technique developed by Rachel Goldsmith PhD in her excellent book The Self-Talk Workout:  Six Science-Backed Strategies to Dissolve Self-Criticism and Transform the Voice in Your Head*. 

In this technique, you note your successes from the day no matter how small or seemingly insignificant in order to see reality. Because if you’re stuck on how much you suck and how much more you have to do, then, I love you very much, but you aren’t seeing the full picture. You’re only seeing a tiny sliver. To open the aperture to your life you have to accept that some stuff is…well, going well! 

Potential Resistance to Spot The Win:

You say: “I don’t want to do this because it sounds like I’m blowing smoke up you know where.”

I say: But you’re not writing “I’M WONDERFUL!” Even tho I bet you are. You’re just noting a fact. You DID, in fact, get out of bed this morning on time, or at all. Win! You’re also not putting anyone else down or trying to make yourself look important. 

You say: “But this is dumb and silly and won’t work for me because it’s just not in my personality to celebrate myself.” 

I say: Have you ever found that you were wrong about yourself? Like the time you thought it was IMPOSSIBLE for you to state your needs but you surprised yourself and did it? Or the time you thought you were never going to be athletic but then little by little learned to use your human body to the extent that now you’re the “athletic friend” in your friend circle? Okay, that’s about me - admittedly weird flex. But the point is, there’s no need to limit who you are. Why not just experiment and see?

Why this seemingly small prompt works so well:

• Combats our negativity bias

• Re-directs our attention to reality and pops the weird, negative bubble, we are currently in

• This is a small technique which, over time, will help you validate yourself as opposed to relying on external sources

• We don’t credit ourselves for the unpaid work we do for our well-being like exercising, writing in our journal, or meditating. Or the unpleasant work like doing the dishes after an exhausting day. Or the emotionally wrenching work we do like listening to our best friend vent about how hard it’s been juggling work and her newborn. And yet, aren’t all these actions valuable? It’s time we stopped considering paid work the only work that matters.

Le Prompts

Monday

You can do this morning or night. I do this at night before I go to bed PLUS I journal in the morning. #ShowOff

• Write a list of ten wins from yesterday (if writing in the am and reflecting back), or from today (if writing in the pm).

• Yes, ten things. Not five, not eleven, ten.

Tuesday

• Write a list of ten things you contributed to that went well.* 

• You might get stuck between “Helped with a work project that went well,” and “Organized a group gift.” So look for the really small things. Holding a door for someone, texting someone who needs support, picking up a piece of trash in your apartment building’s shared hallway, these all contribute to the greater good. And if you need one or two more…well…now’s a pretty good time to go and get ‘em.

Wednesday

• Write a list of ten WINS and/or contributions.

WARNING: Might have the unintended consequence of you winning more because now that you notice your wins, you notice they feel good, and you want to win more. You might even do something extra so it makes the list.

I’ll be back Wednesday with the rest of your prompts for the week! I’m breaking them up to make these letters to you shorter and more digestible.