Meet Yourself
This might be the most important thing I have ever done.
Forty-eight questions. I sat with each one and answered honestly.
Here is how to do it.
Sit down. Spend real time with each question. Write your answers. Log them somewhere private.
You cannot improve what you do not understand. You cannot fix what you cannot see. You cannot move toward a place you cannot define.
Revisit them next year. And the year after. Every year.
Do not edit your old answers. Not a month later. Not ever. Create a new entry instead.
The point is to watch yourself change. Priorities. Mindset. Fears. Values.
Six months in, you may notice you have already shifted without realizing it.
Most people never ask themselves these questions. Not once.
Clarity first. Focus follows. The destination becomes inevitable.
Here they are.
- What is your most marked characteristic?
- What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
- What do you most dislike about your appearance?
- If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
- Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
- What do people frequently misunderstand about you?
- What is your greatest fear?
- What do you consider the lowest depth of misery?
- On what occasion do you lie?
- What was your greatest waste of time?
- What do you most dislike?
- What is your idea of perfect happiness?
- When and where were you happiest?
- Why do you get out of bed in the morning?
- What is your favorite occupation?
- What makes you hopeful?
- What do you find painful but worth doing?
- What is the trait you most deplore in others?
- What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
- What is your greatest extravagance?
- What is your motto?
- What is the quality you most like in a man?
- What is the quality you most like in a woman?
- What do you most value in your friends?
- Who is your best friend?
- Who or what is the greatest love of your life?
- Which living person do you most admire?
- Which living person do you most despise?
- Who are your heroes in real life?
- Who is your hero of fiction?
- Which historical figure do you most identify with?
- Who are your favorite writers?
- What is your most treasured possession?
- Where would you most like to live?
- What are your favorite names?
- What do you consider your greatest achievement?
- What is your greatest regret?
- What is the best compliment you ever received?
- What is the luckiest thing that ever happened to you?
- Which talent would you most like to have?
- If you could give everyone in the world one gift, what would it be?
- What would you do if you had six months to live?
- What would you do if you had a billion dollars?
- What advice would you give yourself ten years ago?
- What do you hope will be the same ten years from now?
- What do you hope will be different ten years from now?
- If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
- How would you like to die?
These questions were formulated using the questionnaires of Steph Ango, CEO of Obsidian, and French writer Marcel Proust.