Journaling Prompts for February: Desire
What you actually want—underneath the goals, the shoulds, and the safe bets
January’s prompts were about architecture. Building, committing, and designing the structures that hold your life together. But structures are just containers. This month, we’re asking what’s supposed to go inside them.
Desire is a word we’ve made small. We’ve reduced it to romance, cravings, and other things we should probably resist. But desire in its fuller sense is just: what do you want? What are you actually reaching for? What would you build toward if you weren’t trying to be realistic, responsible, or palatable?
Most people don’t know what they want. Not really. They know what they’re supposed to want, what would make sense given their circumstances, what would impress the right people, what would keep them safe. But underneath all of that—the actual want, the thing that would light them up, the life they’d design if no one was watching—that’s blurrier. We don’t let ourselves look at it too directly because wanting things is dangerous. Wanting things means you might not get them, you might have to admit that what you have isn’t enough.
So we edit. We shrink the desire into something more manageable. We call it “being practical,” we tell ourselves we’re past that, over it, too mature for it. And then we wonder why everything feels a little… muted.
February is short and cold and often feels like waiting. Which makes it a good month to ask what you’re waiting for. Not your goals—those are external, measurable, often inherited. Your desires. The wants underneath the plans.
So here are 28 prompts for February. One for each day, or whenever you need to remember what you’re actually hungry for. As always, take what serves you, leave what doesn’t, and write as honestly as you can. x
Prompts for whatever season of life you’re currently in:
September, October, November, December, January
Unsure how to begin? Try building a journaling foundation
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Before you can want something fully, you have to admit you want it at all.
The hardest part of desire isn’t the wanting, it’s the naming. Saying it plainly, without hedging, without immediately listing all the reasons it probably won’t happen or explaining why it’s not that serious. Just: I want this.
We resist naming because naming creates stakes. A vague longing is safe, but a specific desire can be thwarted, judged, or—worst of all—pursued and failed. So we keep it fuzzy and say things like “it would be nice if” instead of “I want.” We say “someday” instead of “now.” We talk around the thing instead of just saying it.
This week is about saying the thing. Not defending it, not justifying it, not planning for it. Just naming what’s true.
What do you want right now—today, this month, this season—that you haven’t said out loud?
What’s something you used to let yourself want that you’ve quietly given up on?
If you knew you wouldn’t fail, what would you be pursuing?
What do you want that you’ve told yourself is too selfish, too unrealistic, or too late?
What do you want more of in your daily life—not eventually, but right now?
What desire have you disguised as something more acceptable? (Ambition as “just staying busy,” loneliness as “independence,” etc.)
Finish this sentence honestly, without editing: “What I really want is...”
Much like our beliefs, not everything you want is yours. Some of it was handed to you.