As you keep up with everything going on in your life – the responsibilities, the obligations, even the distractions – there will be times when you’ll look in the mirror and struggle to recognize yourself. “Where did I go? How can I understand myself better?” you’ll ask, wondering how you’ve ended up where you are. “How did my plans for the future end up so… screwed up?”
When you don’t take the time to understand yourself and who you are, your sense of individuality weakens. You become easily influenced and pushed into a lifestyle that doesn’t represent who you are. The good news is you can gradually transition into the life you want by periodically “checking in” with yourself – the better you understand yourself, the easier it will be to steer your life in the right direction.
Here are 25 questions to get you started. Each answer will shed light on your individuality and unlock your potential:
1. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
Make sure you’re really an extrovert and not an introvert in an extrovert’s clothing.
2. What are the top five words that describe your personality?
Highlight your key personality traits and stay true to who you are.
3. Are you comfortable or uncomfortable in a disorganized environment?
Define the ideal work/home environments you’re known to thrive in.
4. Are you comfortable with taking risks?
Decide how you feel about uncertainty and how you’ll use it to create your ideal lifestyle.
5. Do you work better alone or in a busy environment?
When you know what your most productive work environment consists of, it will help you find (or create) a job that best suits your preferences.
6. What are your strengths?
Define what your strengths are and how you’re going to use them to your advantage.
7. What are your weaknesses?
Acknowledge what you struggle with and how you want to improve.
8. What sets you apart from everyone else?
Know your quirks and charm your ass off with them.
9. Are you motivated by competition?
Define what your ideal competition/collaboration formula is for optimal productivity.
10. What are your favorite movies/shows/books?
Disregard what’s trending and define the types of movies/shows/books you’ll always enjoy. It speaks volumes of your personality.
11. What’s more important to you – having a career or a family?
Even though you’ll try to have both, we all teeter towards a favorite. Knowing this will help you decide which priority will receive a bigger piece of the pie.
12. Do you embrace rules or rebel against them?
This is a huge determining factor in the type of lifestyle you’ll create for yourself – structured or adventurous? Remember: there are no wrong answers.
13. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Know your energy peaks and valleys for when you’re setting goals.
14. What’s more important to you – saving time or saving money?
This will help you as you’re planning your goals – you’ll know what to outsource and what to take on yourself.
15. What do you lie about and why?
There are certain aspects of ourselves we don’t want anyone else to know about. Knowing why will help you to work through what makes you self-conscious.
16. Do you say yes (or no) too much?
Saying yes to everything gives you little time for what you truly want to do, while saying no to everything may cause you to miss out on amazing experiences.
17. If money didn’t exist, what would you be doing with your time?
We lose sight of what’s important to us when the bills come due – regain control of what you enjoy doing the most.
18. Are you patient or impatient?
Define whether or not it gets in the way of your goals and what you’re going to do about it.
19. Who makes you feel energized/inspired and exhausted/depleted?
There could be select family members or friends who are holding you back. Decide how you’re going to set boundaries in your relationships.
20. If your home was on fire, what are the three things you’d leave with?
Answering this question will help you let go of the concept that material items will make you feel better as a person.
21. Do you take responsibility for your mistakes?
Blaming others for where your life is will get you nowhere – if anything, it will make you feel stuck. Take responsibility, learn from them, and forgive yourself.
22. What has to happen before your “real” life starts?
You might think that when you reach a certain goal you’ll feel completely different, but such is not the case – you’ll simply set a new goal and wait for it to happen, and so on, and end up missing out on amazing experiences.
23. What are you avoiding?
We all have certain responsibilities we procrastinate on, but you have to face them eventually. You’ll feel a lot better once you do, and you can move onto the things you actually do care about.
24. Do you easily feel guilty?
You might be feeling stuck because of your years of people-pleasing; meanwhile, the only person you should worry about disappointing is yourself.
25. What do you think you have to lose?
Clearly there’s something holding you back from creating the life you want. Work with it instead of pretending it’s not there.
These questions can inspire you to reflect on yourself. Check in with yourself often and you will be amazed by the true potential you actually have.
