49 Life Questions To Ask Yourself

I used to ask these types of ques­tions to my stu­dents. I call them “Ms. Uni­verse” ques­tions. They’re ques­tions that make us pause and think about life. They make us laugh and cry and stop and think more deeply. They make us eval­u­ate where life has gone, where it is at present and where it is head­ing. They are the ques­tions that really matter.

Pick up a jour­nal, set aside a few hours, and spend time with your­self answer­ing these ques­tions. Make it fun: treat your­self to a nice lunch or din­ner at a restau­rant you like, and write as you eat. By the time the check arrives, you’ll have more than a few new ideas about how to change your life or busi­ness for the better.

This is by JOSH KAUFMAN of the PERSONAL MBA.

Good ques­tions prime your brain to look at the world in a dif­fer­ent way. By sim­ply hold­ing a ques­tion in your mind and pon­der­ing poten­tial answers, you can find unex­pected paths to get from where you are now to where you want to be.

The intent of this list was to help us fig­ure out what we can do to improve life, both as a per­son and as a pro­fes­sional. This list will hope­fully help us fig­ure out who we are and what we want.

Do I use my body optimally?

• What is the qual­ity of my cur­rent diet?
• Do I get enough sleep?
• Am I man­ag­ing my energy well each day?
• How do I man­age daily stress?
• Do I have good pos­ture and poise?
• What can I do to improve my abil­ity to observe the world around me?
• Do I know what I want?

• What achieve­ments would make me really excited?
• What “states of being” do I want to expe­ri­ence each day?
• Are my pri­or­i­ties and val­ues clearly defined?
• Am I capa­ble of mak­ing deci­sions quickly and confidently?
• Do I con­sis­tently focus my atten­tion on what I want vs. what I don’t want?
• What am I afraid of?

• Have I cre­ated an hon­est and com­plete list of the fears I’m hold­ing on to?
• Have I con­fronted each fear to imag­ine how I would han­dle it if it came to pass?
• Am I capa­ble of rec­og­niz­ing and cor­rect­ing self-limitation?
• Am I appro­pri­ately push­ing my own limits?
• Is my mind clear and focused?

Do I sys­tem­at­i­cally exter­nal­ize (write or record) what I think about?

• Am I mak­ing it easy to cap­ture my thoughts quickly, as I have them?
• What has my atten­tion right now?
• Am I reg­u­larly ask­ing myself appro­pri­ate guid­ing questions?
• Do I spend most of my time focus­ing on a sin­gle task, or con­stantly flip­ping between mul­ti­ple tasks?
• Do I spend enough time actively reflect­ing on my goals, projects, and progress?
• Am I con­fi­dent, relaxed, and productive?

Have I found a plan­ning method that works for me?

• Am I “just orga­nized enough”?
• Do I have an up-to-date list of my projects and active tasks?
• Do I review all of my com­mit­ments on a reg­u­lar basis?
• Do I take reg­u­lar, gen­uine breaks from my work?
• Am I con­sciously cre­at­ing pos­i­tive habits?
• Am I work­ing to shed non-productive habits?
• Am I com­fort­able with telling other peo­ple “no”?
• How do I per­form best?

• What do I par­tic­u­larly enjoy?
• What am I par­tic­u­larly good at doing?
• What envi­ron­ment do I find most con­ducive to doing good work?
• How do I tend to learn most effectively?
• How do I pre­fer to work with and com­mu­ni­cate with others?
• What is cur­rently hold­ing me back?
• What do I really need to be happy and fulfilled?

• How am I cur­rently defin­ing “success”?
• Is there another way of defin­ing “suc­cess” that I may find more fulfilling?
• How often do I com­pare myself to my per­cep­tions of other people?
• Am I cur­rently liv­ing below my means?
• If I could only own 100 things, what would they be?
• Am I capa­ble of sep­a­rat­ing neces­sity and luxury?
• What do I feel grate­ful for in my life and work?