INTROSPECTION

Self-Awareness Worksheet - 1
This worksheet is a treasure trove of exercises and ideas to help you think about your self, including your
talents, qualities, values, and perceptions.

Understand your beliefs and principles

• What motivates you

• Your own emotions

• Your thinking patterns

• Your tendencies to react to certain situations

• What you want out of life

Talents
• What are your greatest talents or skills?

• Which of your talents or skills gives you the greatest sense of pride or satisfaction?

Traits/Qualities

• What are your five greatest strengths?

• What do you feel are your two biggest weaknesses?

• What qualities or traits do you most admire in others?

Values

• What are ten things that are really important to you?

• What are the three most important things to you?

• What are the values that you hold most near to your heart?

Perception
• How is the “public you” different from the “private you?”

• What do you want people to think and say about you?

• Is it more important to be liked by others or to be yourself? Why?

Accomplishments
What three things are you most proud of in your life to date?

• What do you hope to achieve in life?

• If you could accomplish only one thing during the rest of your life, what would it be?

 
Reflection

• What is something that represents you (e.g., song, animal, flower, poem, symbol, jewelry, etc.)?
Why?

• What three things would you like to change most about yourself?

Finish the Sentence

• I struggle when…

• I am comfortable when…

• I feel stress when…

• I am courageous when…

• One of the most important things I learned was…

• I missed a great opportunity when…

• One of my favorite memories is…

• My toughest decisions involve…

• Being myself is hard because…

• I can be myself when…

• I wish I were more…

• I wish I could…

• I wish I would regularly…

• I wish I had…

• I wish I knew…

• I wish I felt…

• I wish I saw…

• I wish I thought…

• Life should be about…

• I am going to make my life about…

 Self-Awareness Worksheet - 2


Now you should have plenty of insight into who you really are and what is most important to you. Use your
answers to these sections to inform your decisions about what goals you choose to strive towards, what
you would like to do in the future, and what moves to make next.

Tool 1: Persona
To create this persona, you will need to thoroughly analyze who you are, who you want to become, and
what the social expectations connected to your feelings and behaviors are like in different situations.

1 Why do I want to become [enter a characteristic important to you]? Who in my life was or is like
that?

2 Who would I made proud if I were [enter a characteristic important to you]? Why?

3 How are my feelings in certain situations connected with my actual, ideal, and ought self?

4 Am I pushing myself to be something I’m actually not?

5 Am I doing something I’m not just because others are expecting me to?

Tool 2: Empathy Map

To create your empathy map, simply draw four quadrants on a piece of paper. Each quadrant represents a
different angle of yourself:

• Seeing

• Doing

• Thinking

• Feeling

Consider a situation that evokes a specific, strong emotion in you, like having a fight with your best friend.
In each quadrant, write down the relevant aspects of each perspective.

Next to your four quadrants, create a fifth “quadrant.” Here, you will write your insights and ideas based on
your empathy map.

The following questions will help you with the self-reflection process while you’re working on your map:

• How is the situation connected to your fears and hopes? What are your fears? What are your
hopes? Which of your needs are met or not met in that situation?

• What was the environment in which you encountered the situation? What do you remember from
the environment? How did you find yourself in that environment and why? What was your sight
focused on?

• What hurts you most in the situation or makes you feel good about the situation?

• What was the feedback you gathered from your environment – other people?

• What are all the positives about the situation? What can you learn about yourself, others, and the
world by experiencing that kind of a situation?

Do your best to avoid falling prey to negative feelings while answering these questions.

Tool 3: Life Satisfaction Chart

Draw a scale from 1 (not at all satisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied) horizontally, and list the following ten
areas of life vertically:

• You
• Emotions

• Health
• Competences

• Relationships
• Fun

• Money
• Spirituality

• Career
• Technology

 

 

What is Introspection/Self-Reflection?

Introspection is both an informal reflection process and a formal experimental approach, but either process
can be undertaken by anyone with curiosity and determination.

The informal reflection process can be described as examining our own internal thoughts and feelings and
reflecting on what they mean.

 
What is the Importance of Introspection?
We have over 50,000 thoughts per day, over half of which are negative and over 90% of which are just
repeats from the day before. If you don’t make the time and effort to focus your mind in a positive direction,
you won’t give yourself the opportunity to grow and develop.

Enhancing our ability to understand ourselves and our motivations and learn more about our own values
helps us take the power away from the distractions of our modern, fast-paced life, and bring our focus back
where it belongs

 
10 questions are great ways to get you self-reflecting.
1. Am I using my time wisely?

2. Am I taking anything for granted?

3. Am I employing a healthy perspective?

4. Am I living true to myself?

5. Am I waking up in the morning ready to take on the day?

6. Am I thinking negative thoughts before I fall asleep?

7. Am I putting enough effort into my relationships?

8. Am I taking care of myself physically?

9. Am I letting matters that are out of control stress me out?

10. Am I achieving the goals that I’ve set for myself?

30 questions are questions you can ask yourself every day to get to know you better.

1. Who am I really?

2. What worries me most about the future?

3. If this were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?

4. What am I really scared of?

5. Am I holding on to something I need to let go of?

6. If not now, then when?

7. What matters most in my life?

8. What am I doing about the things that matter most in my life?

9. What do I matter?

10. Have I done anything lately worth remembering?

11. Have I made someone smile today?

12. What have I given up on?

13. When did I last push the boundaries of my comfort zone?

14. If I had to instill one piece of advice in a newborn baby’s mind, what advice would I give?

15. What small act of kindness was I once shown that I will never forget?

16. How shall I live, knowing I will die?

17. What do I need to change about myself?

18. Is it more important to love or be loved?

19. How many of my friends would I trust with my life?

20. Who has had the greatest impact on my life?

21. Would I break the law to save a loved one?

22. Would I steal to feed a starving child?

23. What do I want most in life?

24. What is life calling of me?

25. Which is worse: failing or never trying?

26. If I try to fail, and succeed, what have I done?

27. What’s the one thing I’d like others to remember about me at the end of my life?

28. Does it really matter what others think about me?

29. To what degree have I actually controlled the course my life has taken?

30. When it’s all said and done, what will I have said more than I’ve done?

Finally, the following 30 prompts and questions are great ways to put your journal to use

1. My favorite way to spend the day is…

2. If I could talk to my teenage self, the one thing I would say is…

3. The two moments I’ll never forget in my life are… Describe them in great detail, and what makes them
so unforgettable.

4. Make a list of 30 things that make you smile.

5. “Write about a moment experienced through your body. Making breakfast, going to a party, having a
fight, an experience you’ve had or you imagine for your character. Leave out thought and emotion, and
let all information be conveyed through the body and senses.”

6. The words I’d like to live by are…

7. I couldn’t imagine living without…

8. When I’m in pain — physical or emotional — the kindest thing I can do for myself is…

9. Make a list of the people in your life who genuinely support you, and who you can genuinely trust. (Then
make time to hang out with them.)

10. What does unconditional love look like for you?

11. What would you do if you loved yourself unconditionally? How can you act on these things whether you
do or don’t?

12. I really wish others knew this about me…

13. Name what is enough for you.

14. If my body could talk, it would say…

15. Name a compassionate way you’ve supported a friend recently. Then write down how you can do the
same for yourself.

16. What do you love about life?

17. What always brings tears to your eyes? (As Paulo Coelho has said, “Tears are words that need to be
written.”)

18. “Write about a time when work felt real to you, necessary and satisfying. Paid or unpaid, professional or
domestic, physical or mental.”

19. Write about your first love — whether a person, place or thing.

20. Using 10 words, describe yourself.

21. What’s surprised you the most about your life or life in general?

22. What can you learn from your biggest mistakes?

23. I feel most energized when…

24. “Write a list of questions to which you urgently need answers.” (This is probably my favorite prompt
from Abercrombie’s book.)

25. Make a list of everything that inspires you — from books to websites to quotes to people to paintings to
stores to the stars.

26. What’s one topic you need to learn more about to help you live a more fulfilling life? (Then learn about
it.)

27. I feel happiest in my skin when…

28. Make a list of everything you’d like to say no to.

29. Make a list of everything you’d like to say yes to.

30. Write the words you need to hear.