The 5 Journaling Prompts Every Executive Woman Needs to Live and Lead with Purpose

Leanna Laskey McGrath  0:04  

Welcome to The Executive Coach for Moms Podcast where we support women who are attempting to find balance and joy while simultaneously leading people at work and at home. I'm your host, Leanna Laskey McGrath, former tech exec turned full time mom, recovering perfectionist and workaholic and certified executive coach. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  0:27  

Hi everyone. Welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for joining me today. I have a special episode for you that I've been thinking about a lot for a while, because one of the things that I recommend to all of my clients, really, is to start a practice of journaling. And I'm always recommending it, because personally, I find it so beneficial, and I know what a positive impact it can have. And a lot of times my clients were like, Okay, but what do I write and how do I get started? So I wanted to share with you the top five journaling prompts that I recommend to my clients and that I personally use myself, because I find that on the days where I wake up and I focus on my own thoughts for a few minutes through journaling, before picking up my phone or looking at my computer to hear kind of everybody else's thoughts or what's going on in the world, and before rushing into the day and getting started on all of the millions of things on my to do list, I just find that whenever I take that time, just a few minutes, to write down my thoughts and get clear, that I just like those days better. By the end of the day, I feel so much better about how I spent the day, less unsettled. You know, those days where you're like, oh my gosh, this day just completely got away from me. Don't know what happened, and I just feel really unsettled about it. I feel the opposite whenever I journal. I feel more grounded. I feel more intentional, more aligned, more fulfilled, and all of that from just a few minutes a day. So this is something that I want to share with all of you.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  2:21  

We are always hearing about all these amazing things that we could or should be doing, hearing about how amazing they are, journaling or meditating or doing yoga or exercising or meal planning, all these great ideas for things we should be doing. And then we're like, Yeah, that's great. But how do I find time for that in my busy week? I just feel like understanding what you're going to get out of it maybe helps to justify a little bit taking that time, and kind of helps you to understand, like, why it's so important. So for high achievers and for busy working moms, leading teams and leading households, our minds are often racing, and they're so busy, you know, there's so much happening in there, and our brain is like constantly throwing more and more stuff at us, like things we need to do and things we need to think about, and conversations we need to have, and preparing for every conversation and preparing for the worst case scenario, that of anything that might happen, and thinking about what's going on with our kids right now, and thinking about what we're going to make for dinner, and just on and on and on, and so many decisions that we have to make, so many expectations on us and of ourselves. And with all of that, that makes it so important for us to take a little bit of time to create some space between our thoughts and our actions, to get to know ourselves better, and just to get our thoughts out of our brains, because otherwise there's just like swirling around in there, and it can become really overwhelming, as you probably well know. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  4:04  

So there are a lot of research backed benefits of journaling. There are great articles out there. You can Google this if you want to check my sources. Please do. But a few of the ones that I pulled out that I think would be most exciting for us are improving memory and comprehension. Writing helps encode and organize our thoughts, boosting our self confidence. So if you're feeling like you are just not able to stay on top of everything, and you feel really kind of not confident about how you're showing up at work or how you're showing up at home, journaling can help with that, because really kind of seeing your growth and your inner strength on the page helps to reinforce your own capabilities. And the more that we bring our mind back to focusing on what we want it to focus on, the more we can intentionally lead our lives and feel more confident and in control. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  5:06  

Increase mindfulness and presence, really pulling us out of the autopilot that we tend to get into whenever we just have to go, go, go, go, go. It allows us to just like, take a minute and check in with ourselves. Support goal achievement so it helps to clarify what matters and track progress and meet those goals and then healing emotionally. Journaling has been linked to reducing stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms. So that's just like a few of the many, many research backed reasons why journaling is important. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  5:46  

So I think about journaling as a conversation with the wisest version of ourselves, the one who isn't caught up in all of the chaos, the one who isn't concerned about getting everything done, but like that inner, wise person that we all have inside of us. Let me tell you my favorite five journaling prompts, and I'm sure there are lots more, but these are the ones that I find myself returning to most often, and also that I find myself recommending to clients most often, the first one a morning check in and asking yourself, Who do I want to be today? So I really recommend this one for everyone, but especially if you're feeling out of control about your day, like if you're feeling like I just have no control over my day, it just gets away from me all the time, and I'm not really spending my days or my time in the way I want to, this helps to bring you back into intention and shift you out of autopilot. So the questions you want to ask yourself, and I do recommend this one, as soon as you wake up, before you look at your phone, before you talk to anybody just you want to check in with yourself and ask yourself, How am I feeling today, and just notice, without judgment, where you're at today. And then maybe ask, What do I need? So maybe if you're feeling depleted, or maybe if you're feeling nervous, you know, check in with yourself about that. It's really just to give us some data so that we can get to know ourselves better and understand what's present today.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  7:27  

The next question you want to ask is, who do I want to be today? So as you're looking at your day, maybe you know, you're thinking about what you've got on your calendar for the day, and the question you want to ask yourself is, how do I want to show up to these things? How do I want to show up to this meeting with my kids, with my partner, who is the person that I am being today? This is the idea of who before how. There's a whole book on this you can read, if you want. But the idea is that we know what we have to do, right, and we are very capable of figuring out how we're going to get it all done. But how much time do we spend really deciding who we want to be as we approach those different tasks or meetings or interactions? Do we want to be a frantic, stressed out, rushing through kind of version of ourselves? Do we want to approach our day with the calm, confident version of ourselves? How do you want to show up? How do you want to show up to that board meeting? Not just what are you going to say and what are your slides look like, and how strong is your data, but who do you want to be while you're delivering the information and the presentation? What kind of energy do you want to bring? You get to decide how you want to greet the day. And I think it's so important to decide this upfront and to really think about it upfront, because then there's more of a chance that you're going to show up the way you want to. And I also think this is important with our kids too. Who do I want to be this morning, in this time where we're getting ready to get out the door? What kind of parent do I want to be? What version of myself do I want to bring to this? This is also, I think, why the first part of this is so important, the check in, like, how am I feeling today? Because maybe if I'm feeling extremely depleted, then how I want to show up and how I'm feeling right now is not going to be realistic. Maybe I'm not able to show up as like, that best mom version of myself, or that best colleague version of myself. So it's helpful to understand where am I at today, and what do I need? And also, who do I want to be, and how do I want to show up? How am I going to greet this day? 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  9:52  

So I love to do this one in the morning. Your brain is going to tell you that there's not time to do it. Your brain is going to tell you you need to jump right into your day. You need to start on that to do list. You need to look at your email and see if you missed anything important while you were sleeping. But I'm just going to tell you that at the end of the day, when you make this a regular practice, you're going to start to feel more aligned and more in control, even when you've got a million things on your to do list every day. If you would like some additional proof of that, I actually interviewed one of my clients for a podcast episode. It was episode number 99 so if you haven't listened to that one, I would go back and listen to it. It's called How executive coaching helped me rebuild confidence and redefine success after motherhood, and in that episode, Angela talks about how her journaling practice has helped her to show up more confidently, to really enjoy both work and motherhood so much more, because she's deciding every day who she wants to be and how She wants to show up. Okay, so that's the first one. I love that one to make just a regular practice for everybody. I wish everybody in the world did this. We would have such an amazing world if everyone did that one. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  11:12  

The second one is around visioning, and so I highly recommend this one whenever you are maybe feeling stuck or maybe you're not super ecstatic about where you are right now in your life or in your career. This will help you reconnect to possibility. What you want to do when you're you're doing this one is to spend some time visioning and imagining where you'd like to be and what you'd like to create, what you'd like to be different. Write it down. What would you like to be different? Who are you in a more ideal version of your life? Paint the picture and see what you notice. And as you make that vision more and more clear, and as you connect with it more regularly. So if you're doing this visioning on a regular basis, then you can start noticing what are the things that you're doing in this vision that you have, and maybe they're little, tiny things, but you can start bringing aspects of it into your present. So for example, maybe you notice that in your ideal life vision, that every night you're reading before bed, you just like read for fun, not only business books, but you're also reading fun books as well. But currently, maybe you feel so exhausted and just drained by the end of the day that that doesn't even feel possible. So as you notice that that's something that you would like to create, then maybe you can start doing that on a small basis. So maybe you could start setting aside one night a week for 15 minutes to read before bed, and then, you know, whenever you feel ready, doing two nights a week, etc. But what we want to do is just start making tiny, incremental changes in the direction of that vision. But you can only do that whenever you get crystal clear on what that vision is, and whenever you go and visit that vision regularly, and whenever you have it down on paper, so that you can kind of see what keeps coming up. Maybe every time you write, you find themes and you realize that's not something that I have to wait for, that's not something that, you know, is on the other side of making a major life change. That's actually something I could bring in right now and then as you start to bring in more and more little pieces of your ideal life vision, you start living it. You start getting closer and closer to that, and you start to set up things that will support you in maybe making a bigger change that you might need to make. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  13:57  

The third one is what's called a thought download, or a brain dump, and this one is best for when your mind is spinning, when it's going a million miles a minute. I really like to use this one when I have some free time and I don't know what to do with myself. You know, when you have like, 30 minutes free and you're like, oh my gosh, what should I do? Should I relax for this 30 minutes? I can't relax. I have so much to do. Maybe I should start working on that project for work that I'm a little bit behind on. Or, oh my god, the laundry is piling up. I need to go and do that. Oh, there are dishes in the sink. Let me take care of that. Oh, I haven't exercised yet this week. I need to go and do a workout. The pantry needs organized. Maybe I should go and organize the pantry. I forgot to sign the kids up for that activity. Let me just go ahead and do that. Oh, I keep hearing that I should probably meditate. So maybe I should do that right now, or actually we have upcoming vacation, so I'm going to research where we should go. It's like our brain just spins with all the millions of things that we could be doing during that little bit of time. And then what happens for me is that I get so overwhelmed that I end up either just scrolling on my phone because it's too much, or I end up doing something that's just not the most impactful thing. It's not a great use of that time. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  15:29  

So what do you do for this type of journaling, for a thought download? What you want to do is you just want to start writing. Start writing everything in your brain. It doesn't have to be organized, it doesn't have to be pretty, just write it all down, because what's happening is that your mind is going so so fast, and our goal here is to slow it down. What I like to do is just to keep writing until I know what to do. I don't know how to explain what happens here, but usually if I write for a few minutes, maybe five minutes or so, then I end up figuring out how I want to spend that time. So I spent five minutes planning it, essentially organizing it, and then I have 25 minutes to actually do the thing, which is so much better than spinning out the whole time. And by the end of it, I feel like I've accomplished something which is so much better than spending 30 minutes spinning out and then feeling crappy at the end of it because I just wasted the one free 30 minutes I have for a while. Or the other thing that happens is that I end up journaling the whole time, and I think that's a great use of time as well, because I am going to feel so much more clear when I come out of there. I'm going to feel like my brain is so much more organized than whenever I started writing and whenever I was spinning. So really, the goal here is to slow it down and to get it out on paper. And I can't explain the magic that happens here, but you will know what to do. You will know what not to do. You will know to lay on the couch, if that's where you end up figuring out that you need to spend that time. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  17:19  

But I also think that if your brain is spinning so so fast, we do want to slow it down. And I always love pen and paper for really slowing things down, but sometimes you got to meet it where it's at. So sometimes this is a great time to type if you're a fast typer, because sometimes, for me, at least whenever I'm doing a thought download, my brain's moving so so fast that I can't keep up with writing. You can choose to write in your journal. You can choose to type it on your phone or on your computer. It doesn't matter. The idea is really just that you're getting it all out there, and then you might find some patterns. If you're writing, you might start mapping some things. It's just like an organization exercise. So sometimes it's just that you get it out and that's enough, and sometimes it's that you end up really organizing your thoughts. Either way, the only goal is just to slow it down a bit.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  18:16  

All right, and then number four is gratitude journaling. So I'm sure we've all heard that we should have a gratitude journal and start a regular gratitude practice. And there are a lot of science based benefits of practicing gratitude, like reducing depression symptoms, having a higher satisfaction with life, increasing resilience and enhancing relationships, to name a few. I like focusing here on gratitude when I'm feeling kind of like depressed or distant or just disconnected from other people in life in general, just kind of like funky when I'm feeling like that. I think it can really help to shift my energy when I want to shift it. And I just want to be clear that notice that I'm saying when I want to shift it, because sometimes I might be in a shitty mood and I just kind of want to stay there for a minute. And that's okay. We don't have to force ourselves into a positive space all the time. Sometimes we just need to sit in it, but when I'm ready to get out of it, and I can't seem to figure out how, this is one way I do it. Another way I do it is to move, exercise. But for the gratitude prompts a couple of things that that you can think about are what am I grateful for today? Just as simple as that, maybe you want to do five things I'm grateful for and go into detail about why, why am I grateful for them? Or you can do 20 things I'm grateful for. It doesn't matter. It's not about getting it perfect. It's not about a specific way. These are just a few things to maybe help to get your mind going about what you might want to write about, even maybe as simple as like, something that really made me smile. What's something that really made me laugh recently? 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  20:08  

The important thing here is that you are really feeling the gratitude in your body. This one is not just an intellectual exercise, but you really want to sit with the feelings that it brings up, because that is what can really help to shift you from feeling kind of funky and down to feeling more connected. So I also just kind of want to caveat this one, because I think for me at least, and I'm sure others as well. Sometimes it does bring up some shame or guilt that maybe we've been taking things for granted. And so I just want to say that that's normal, and I think it's helpful to notice it. Maybe it's a helpful reminder that you want to do things differently, or a helpful awareness that you want to make a change in how you're doing things, but we don't need to turn it into a shame spiral that's not going to be helpful for anyone. Of course, if repairs are needed with people we love or care about, then you can do that, of course. And what's important here in the journaling practice is looking at present and future. How do you want to think about things now, with this new awareness, now that you see things maybe a little bit differently, because it can really have a big shift in your mindset, then what do you want to do? Maybe you want to do something differently from here and sure, while it would have been great to have recognized that earlier, next best time is right now, because now you can make changes,

Leanna Laskey McGrath  21:51  

And then the fifth and final one is a Strengths reflection. So I really like to use this one when I'm feeling kind of low in confidence, which we all feel sometimes, no matter how self confident we are. I also like to use this before going into a situation where it would really benefit me to feel confident. So some examples might be a negotiation, asking for a salary increase or a promotion, a networking event. I always recommend it to my career coaching clients before they go into an interview, or even before they write their cover letter, because what this does is it really helps you to get into a headspace of focusing on your strengths and what you bring to the table. You know, whenever you're feeling like, on top of the world, like, really confident, you show up much differently than when you're feeling like, am I enough? I don't know if I'm bringing enough to the table, kind of a thing. So this really helps you to redirect your brain. Remember, our brains are just like a toddler, so we want to redirect our brain to focusing on why we're so amazing. So here are a few prompts for that. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  23:08  

First, an important thing to do is check in, so on a scale of zero to 10, how confident am I feeling right now? And notice where you're at right now, and if it's about something specific, then make it about that. How confident am I feeling about this interview, how confident am I feeling about this negotiation, this presentation, whatever it might be. Then I want you to start remembering so write about a time where you did something really well. What are you most proud of? What top five strengths do you bring to the table? What do you feel really good about that you've done in your life or career or whatever related to this thing that you're preparing for? How have you positively impacted something or someone? Reconnect to those stories and those moments where you felt really good about what you were doing. It can be really general, or it can be specific. I'm making it more general here, but feel free to tweak them, to help with your specific situation and helping you to feel confident and to get reconnected to your strengths and why you're amazing and why you bring so much to the table, and that will help you go into whatever it is that you're about to go into with a much different energy than if you hadn't taken the time to do this. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  24:31  

Those are the five prompts I just want to throw it out there that you do not have to be a perfect journaler. As a recovering perfectionist myself, I of course would love it if I journaled every day of my life, but I don't, because I'm a human and I'm not perfect. And so I know sometimes we hear about these practices and we think, when in the world am I going to have time to do that? And then if I do it, I have to do it perfectly. It has to be every day. No, it does not have to be every day. I would aim for five to 10 minutes a day, a few times a week to start. And if you want to do it every day, that's great, but it would be better to do it three times a week for a year than every day for two weeks and burnout, because I know we have a tendency to do that sometimes. I do love I mean, you can certainly do kind of like a journaling challenge where maybe you say, for the next month, I'm going to journal every morning before I pick up my phone. I've done that, and that's fine, but you know, then you want to continue that practice, whether it's daily or weekly or a few times a week. But we're not aiming for perfection here. It does not have to be perfect. We want it to be consistent, meaning that we continue it even whenever we don't do it every day and don't do it perfectly. Also, you don't need like a fancy journal. I certainly love having one. My favorite journals are actually at TJ Maxx. You can go and just grab a journal there, but you can order your fanciest journal if you want you live your best life. You can also just use a notepad that's laying around. You can use a napkin. You can use the Notes app on your phone or computer. You can open up a blank Word doc or Google Doc. It doesn't matter how you do it. The important thing is, is that you are doing it, that you're getting the words out of your brain, because our brains have so many 1000s of thoughts every day, and we just need to get them out. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  26:39  

Also, just a reminder that, in addition to all of the amazing benefits that research studies have found, it's just going to make you feel better and it's going to give you time back, because we spend so much time where our mind is just like spinning and spinning and spinning, and that is energy draining, and so this really helps to not have that energy suck anymore, and also for us to just get some time back, because we're going to be living more intentionally. So I just invite you to try it and see. It's really not about what you write. It doesn't matter. It's just that you made space for yourself to pause and to listen.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  27:24  

So I'm going to invite you to try this out. Just try one of the prompts this week. See what happens. See what you like. I personally like all of them for different situations. So I would love to hear how it impacts you if you decide to try it out. I would love to hear if you end up loving journaling as much as I do, but I think this practice is so important and so beneficial. Honestly, if you feel like you don't have time for journaling, then you definitely need to journal, because if your life feels full like it always does, I think, for busy working moms, then your mind likely feels really full too, and journaling gives you space to think, feel and be. So I hope this has been helpful for you. I hope you go out and journal and let me know how it goes. All right. Thanks so much, everybody. I hope you have a great week. Bye, bye. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  28:17  

If you're loving what you're learning on this podcast, I want to invite you to come join me for the executive mom reset. We offer both one on one and group coaching formats, and our next group is starting in October 2025. I created the executive mom reset to help high achieving moms feel less anxious, more competent and more in control of their lives. Instead of feeling like you're being pulled in 100 different directions, you'll learn how to pause, reset and approach challenges with clarity and confidence. You'll stop running on autopilot, stop second guessing yourself all the time, and stop letting stress, guilt and overwhelm dictate your day. You'll walk away with the tools and the confidence that you can use every day to feel stronger, more empowered and more in alignment with the life you want to be living. Head on over to coachleanna.com to learn more and to get signed up. I really hope to see you there.