Monday Motivational Prompts: Taking control of your life

When you’re stuck in a rut, it can be hard to get out. You may feel as though life keeps throwing you hard balls, or you may just have no motivation. If you’re looking to take back control of your life, reach for your pen and paper and start journaling. Doing so will help you get your life back on track, and it’ll give you a physical record of the progress you make. Read on for prompts to get your mind, and life, in order.

1. Control

Many of the stresses in life can come from feeling a lack of control. You may feel like situations keep coming your way that you can’t deal with. Or, you may feel like when you do have control of the situation, you don’t make the right choices. A lot of the feelings of stress you have about a lack of control may come from your misunderstanding about what you are capable of changing. So, once a week, make a list of all of the situations in your life that are causing you stress. Then, break down which elements you can change, and which you cannot. Got a big presentation at work coming up? Well, maybe you can’t control that you’re nervous. However, you can control how much you prepare, how much sleep you get the night before, and the pep-talk you can give yourself right before the presentation begins. Being aware of what is uncontrollable in life can help you focus more on the things you can do, which will align you with a positive mindset. 

2. Focus

It can be hard to tackle everything in life at once. This is why it’s important to be in the moment when you approach each battle. At the beginning of each week, pick a main focus for the week. This should be something unrelated to the tasks that must be done each week, such as going to work, taking out the trash, or cooking dinner each night. Rather, pick something that you’ve been wanting to get done, but doesn’t always get priority. If your house could use some decluttering or reorganizing, choose a specific task to focus on to ensure the overarching goal doesn’t seem to daunting. Maybe one week, you focus on clearing out the storage space in the garage, and the next, you focus on shampooing all of the carpet in your home. This will make your goals far more manageable, and also won’t take up too much time in your busy week. 

3. Challenges

Once you make your way through a tough situation, you may be tempted to leave the memory behind and move on. However, you should make a conscious effort to reflect on challenges as you work through them. What went well? What could have gone better? What will this teach you for the next time you work through a challenge? Life is all about learning from your mistakes, and growing from your successes. By recognizing how you approach tough situations, you can learn a lot about yourself along the way, too.


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