20 Journal Prompts for Finding Something to Look Forward To

Most of us notice what is coming that we dread far faster than what is coming that we are glad about. The meeting, the deadline and the appointment arrive in detail. The good things on the calendar tend to stay vague.

That is not a character flaw. Attention is built to spot a threat early. The trouble is that a week can feel like a run of obligations even when it holds several things you would be glad of, simply because nobody named them.

Why looking forward needs practice

Anticipation is not a mood that either arrives or does not. It is partly a habit of attention. If you never say what is ahead, there is nothing for the day to lean towards, and the good things arrive without having been enjoyed in advance.

This is not about manufacturing excitement. A narrower question is easier to answer truthfully: what, specifically, is coming that I am glad about? It can be as small as a drink later today. You only have to name it, and be accurate.

20 journal prompts for finding something to look forward to

These twenty are taken word for word from the daily questions printed in The Thing I Am Looking Forward To. The journal has a different question on each of its 48 daily pages, and these are chosen from across the eight weeks. Choose one prompt and write for five minutes, in plain words. Small and specific beats large and general: “the quiet hour on Sunday” says more than “the weekend”. If a prompt does not fit your day, skip it and take another.

1. What is one thing, in the next few days, that you are quietly glad is coming?
2. Whom will you see or speak to soon that you are glad about?
3. What is coming this weekend, or in your next free hour, that you are glad about?
4. What trip, event or season, further off than a month, are you glad is on its way?
5. Whom might you see, a long way from now, whom you are already looking forward to?
6. What milestone ahead would you like to be there for, with a clear head?
7. What small thing, a drink, a walk, a song, are you looking forward to later today?
8. What small treat could you look forward to this week, and plan on purpose?
9. What tiny ritual are you glad will happen again soon?
10. What are you actively building, planning or arranging that you will be glad to have done?
11. What are you working towards that is still a little uncertain, but worth it?
12. What date can you put on something you are looking forward to, so that it becomes real?
13. What are you waiting to hear about, and glad to be waiting for?
14. What are you looking forward to even though you cannot be sure it will happen?
15. What good thing happens every week, and do you look forward to it?
16. What routine at the end of your day do you look forward to?
17. What hope have you kept quiet in case saying it aloud would spoil it?
18. Whom would you tell first, if you decided to tell someone?
19. What is the next thing you are looking forward to today, however small?
20. What are you looking forward to that you have not mentioned to anyone?

A small exercise for today

Tonight, write down three things coming up: one within a day, one within a month and one further away. Next to each, write one word for how you feel about it. If you cannot find a third, write what you would like to have there.

Do not judge the size of anything. A small thing you are glad about counts as much as a trip. Repeat tomorrow with different items.

This is the idea behind The Thing I Am Looking Forward To: eight weeks of short daily entries, each week looking at a different kind of anticipation, with a review at the end of each week and a log for when something you named arrives. It is a reflection tool, not a promise of results, and the pace is yours.