239. Journal With Me: When Your Life Looks Nothing Like You Expected
You thought your life would look different by now. Different relationships. Different pace. Different version of you.
And instead, you’re here. Trying to make sense of a reality you didn’t plan for, while part of you keeps going back to how it was supposed to be. This is where you either stay stuck in comparison… or gently start meeting your life as it is.
This journaling practice walks you through both. The version of life you expected and the one you’re actually living. What it feels like. What you’re making it mean. And how to begin moving forward without forcing yourself to rush past anything.
If life hasn’t gone the way you thought it would, this gives you a way to process it and start finding your footing again.
Journal Prompts
- What did you expect your life to look like right now? Think about relationships, finances, health, hobbies, goals, or anything else that comes up
- What does your life actually look like right now? In those same areas and anything you didn’t expect
- How does your current life feel compared to what you imagined? What are you making that mean about you and where you are?
- What shifts when you stop comparing and focus on your life as it is? The people, the moments, what you’re creating
- How is this version of your life better than you expected? Even in small ways, moments, or lessons
- What do you want your life to look like going forward? Based on who you are today
- What proof can you find that you’re on the right path? What is one small step you can take today to move forward
You don’t need to have it all figured out to take the next step. Sometimes it starts with being honest about where you are and letting that be enough to move forward.
Resources mentioned:
- Episode 186: How to grieve the life you expected with alyssa rose
- Episode 154: How to find purpose and mourn the life you planned with andrea smith
- Episode 30: "How to Use Memories to Heal"
Work with me:
- Breakthrough Intensive - You already know you should slow down, delegate more, stop overcommitting & be emotionally present. So why can't you? That's what we figure out in 90 minutes + integration call 1 week later. Book your Breakthrough
- Exhale: Private Coaching - For women ready to do this work until it sticks and you can't revert back. 3 open spots: Work with me
Transcript
Welcome to Beyond Awareness. After Tuesday's episode where I talked all about my 38th birthday and how I'm feeling and what my intentions are for the year, I thought it would be fitting to journal today through what to do, how to proceed when your life is nothing like what you thought it would be. I love this topic. I love coaching my clients through it. I love
making podcast episodes about I love it because it's so, I think it's something that happens to more of us than we think. And it's something that often doesn't get talked about. So I want to quickly reference other episodes that I've done because I have talked about this before. This episode is going to be different. This is like the episode to strategically journal through it so that you come out on the other side.
Feeling like you have a game plan and you're feeling good and like this happened quote-unquote for a reason All in like a really strategic way. However episode 186 Was called how to grieve the life you expected with a guest elisa rose And she talks about how to how her process of actually grieving through it Which is very beneficial to actually grieve allowing yourself to grieve episode
154 was also with a guest, Andrea Smith, and it's how to find purpose and mourn the life you planned. I like talking also about how when your life doesn't go as planned, again, we just try to sweep it under the rug, or maybe you stay stuck in that of my life should have been different, or we fast forward and we just don't think about it, but it's important.
in the day, I think it's from:Maybe they sting a little bit. It's easy to let those memories, again, either ignore them or and like stuff them way down, or it's easy to let those memories get stuck in our brains and we kind of replay them and we feel deeply all over again. Every time we think of them. I don't think either one of those are productive. And so that episode is where I teach you my process of how I use memories to grow, heal, or even get closure. And it's just.
two prompts, essentially. So I will link all of that in the show notes if any of that is of interest to you. But again, today we are doing some strategic journaling. Heads up, I've got seven prompts for you. So as you listen to them, feel free to just kind of breeze through them honestly and just quickly jot down what comes up for you first.
But some of you might hear these and really want to release something or find closure in something today. And if that's you, then I encourage you to maybe pause further in between each of the prompts to allow yourself more time to go and answer each one of these thoughtfully and give yourself that time for more things to bubble up for you. Or these prompts will be in the show notes. So come back to these prompts.
anytime if you want to go deeper on the same exact situation that you're going through, similar memories, or if something happens in the future and you just want to revisit them. All right, let's dive in.
Prompt one. What did you expect your life to look like right now? Maybe that's by this age or this point in your life. Think relationships, financial, health, hobbies, goals, or anything else that comes up for you.
What is your life actually like right now compared to those same categories and anything new that you didn't account for, potentially like solo parenting?
Prompt three, how does your current life feel in comparison to how you thought it was going to be? And what are you making that mean about you and where you are in life right now? This is a deep one. Again, maybe click the show notes to review that. But again, how does it feel in comparison to how you thought? And what do you think that means about you and where you are in life?
Prompt four, how does it feel when you stop comparing and focus on the present? Everything that you currently have, all of the people around you and everything that you're creating.
Prompt five, how is this new version of your life actually better than what you expected? Even if it's a small moment that you experienced, a person that you met, something you were introduced to, a lesson that you learned about yourself, or something that's small, that's actually better than what you expected or didn't expect at all in your life.
prompt six. What do you want your life to look like going forward based on who you are today?
Prompt 7, knowing that we can't change our past and that we can create our future with every action, what proof can you find that you are on the right path and what is one tiny thing you can do today to inch closer to living that out and feeling that vibrant life?
Amazing job.
I hope these prompts gave you exactly what you needed. And I think that they did, especially if you had an open mind while journaling. I know that it can be tough to see things from a different perspective, especially when what you are journaling about feels so fresh and raw, and the memories and the feelings are so big and so deep and so strong. So hopefully today you
maybe got closure, maybe relief, or even excitement about what's to come. Thank you for journaling today. I'm really proud of you. Come back to these prompts anytime, and I will see you next time.
