Character Sheet — Journalling Prompts
Optional prompts for going deeper. Upload this file to your Claude project alongside instructions.md and Claude will draw on these in guided mode.
No need to work through these in order — use them when a session feels flat or you want to go somewhere specific.
Getting oriented
- What’s actually on your mind right now — not what you think you should be thinking about?
- What happened recently that you haven’t fully processed yet?
- Where are you putting most of your energy? Is that where you’d choose to put it?
- What’s the one thing you keep not doing, and what do you think that’s about?
- What would you most like to avoid talking about today?
Main quest and side quests
- If everything external stayed the same and you could only change one thing, what would it be?
- What does “done” actually look like — specifically, not theoretically?
- What would you be doing if you weren’t afraid of it not working?
- Which of your current goals is genuinely yours, and which did you inherit?
- What’s the next smallest possible step — the one you could do today?
- What are you tolerating that you’ve stopped even noticing?
- Where are you waiting for permission that you could give yourself?
The four elements
Air — awareness
- What has your inner voice been saying most often lately? Is it accurate?
- When do you feel most in your head? What’s usually happening just before?
- What are you avoiding noticing?
- When did you last feel genuinely present?
- What do you keep misreading in yourself or others that keeps costing you?
- What pattern is so familiar you’ve stopped questioning it?
Fire — drive and direction
- What made you feel most alive recently? What drained you most?
- Are you doing things because you want to, or because you’re supposed to?
- What would you work on if no one would ever know?
- Where is your energy going that isn’t giving anything back?
- When you’re overextending, what are you trying to prove — and to whom?
- What would you stop doing tomorrow if you had full permission?
Water — aliveness and desire
- What do you actually enjoy — not what you think you should?
- When do you lose track of time?
- What have you been denying yourself, and why?
- What does rest actually feel like for you — and when did you last have it?
- What are you chasing that you think will finally make you feel okay?
- What would you do more of if you stopped feeling guilty about wanting it?
Earth — beliefs and groundedness
- What story are you telling yourself about this situation? Is it true?
- Where are you being harder on yourself than the evidence warrants?
- What would you tell a close friend in your exact position?
- What belief would you have to give up to move forward?
- What do you believe about yourself that you’ve never seriously questioned?
- Finish this honestly: “People like me don’t…”
- Where did that belief come from — and does the source still deserve your trust?
Values and needs
- What matters most to you based on how you actually spend your time — not in theory?
- Where do you feel most like yourself?
- What do you consistently sacrifice, and is it worth it?
- What need are you currently meeting in ways that cost you more than they give?
- When you’re at your most difficult, what are you usually not getting enough of?
- What are you mistaking for a want that is actually a need?
- What would you need to feel genuinely okay — not successful, just okay?
Relationships and allies
- Who do you feel safest with — where you don’t have to manage yourself?
- Who drains you most consistently? What’s the pattern?
- Where do you perform rather than just exist?
- What relationship needs something from you that you haven’t given it?
- Who would you be more yourself around if you stopped worrying about their reaction?
- What do you find it hardest to ask for, and who do you find it hardest to ask?
Enemies and patterns
- What pattern keeps showing up across different areas of your life?
- What do you do when you feel threatened or uncertain? What does that protect?
- When do you procrastinate — what are you actually avoiding?
- What’s the story you tell yourself to justify staying stuck?
- If your most self-destructive habit had a job, what would it be protecting you from?
- What behaviour of yours would you be embarrassed if someone named out loud?
- What do you keep doing even though you know it doesn’t help?
History and origin
- What did you learn early on about what you had to do to be safe, loved, or valued?
- What role did you play in your family growing up — and are you still playing it?
- What did the most influential person in your early life model about how to handle difficulty?
- What do you wish someone had told you when you were younger?
- What are you still trying to prove to someone who may not be watching anymore?
- Where did your relationship with your own worth come from?
Beliefs
- What would you need to believe to take the next step?
- What evidence are you ignoring because it contradicts the story?
- What belief, if it turned out to be false, would most change how you live?
- What would the most honest version of you say about the story you’re currently telling?
Perspective and inversion
- What would make 85-year-old you as miserable and regretful as possible? What does that tell you?
- What objects or people are you mistaking for your actual needs? What do they represent?
- How could you make this feel more like play and less like work?
- What would you do with this challenge if you optimised for curiosity instead of performance?
- What systems or structures would remove the need for willpower here?
- What would the most energised version of you do right now?
Wins and achievements
- What have you done recently that deserves more credit than you gave it?
- When did you act against your own fear or resistance?
- What would past-you be impressed by about where you are now?
- What belief or identity has shifted in you permanently — where there’s a real before and after?
- What have you let go of that you used to grip tightly?
End of session
- What’s the one thing from this conversation you most want to remember?
- What’s the one thing you’re going to do differently before the next session?
- What are you still not saying?
- What question are you hoping I don’t ask?