Powerful Questions Podcast: What are you learning about yourself?

Who is this person you are looking at in the mirror? What are their values? What are their beliefs about themselves and the world? What are their passions and interests? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are their triggers?

Do you think you know evetything there is to know about this person? After all, you have spent your whole life with them!

Well, as Dan Gilbert once said: “Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished.” As you live your life, new situations and new problems present themselves to you. You overcome new challenges which can open up new sides of your personality. You change an grow and develop. What you believed about yourself 10 years ago might not be true anymore – but sometimes you still believe it, just out of habit.

That is why learning about yourself is a continuous journey. And it is really crucial to live the life that you want right now, not the one you wanted in the past or never wanted at all.

So to keep getting to know yourself and who you are, I want you to keep asking youself this one question "What are you learning about yourself?".

• Ask it after a challenging discussion you had with a friend.

• Ask it after a project completed at work.

• Ask it after a conflict situaion with your partner.

• Ask it after going to a job interview.

• Ask it after a difficult day, and ask it after a good day.

This way, you will keep learning. Be open to what might come up that is new and surprising. Give yourself permission to change, to be a different person.

If you want to go even a step further on a journey of self-discovery, try doing something new. Something that you have never tried but might have just dismissed as "not your thing". Experiment, maybe you will like it, maybe you will not. In any case, you will learn something new about yourself. It can be anything, something small or something big. Try singing. Try some new food you have never eaten before. Try smiling at a stranger on a train. Try saing something when you normally would have held your toungue. And ask yourself: what are you learning about yourself?

My other favorite way to really get out of my own frame of mind and discover something new about myself is to ask others. Ask several people: What are the 3 words that come to mind when you think about me? What do you think are my strengths? What do you think are my weaknesses? Ask anything else that you find interesting.

By having several answers you can really discover certain trends. You will have a more complete picture of how you are perceived by others – which is not necessarily how you are, but might still be a great insight.

Now, answer this question: What are your learning about yourself today?