Life can be a complicated thing. It’s a journey to figure out who you are, why you are, and who you want to be.
The challenge is to figure those things out and evolve with them, because those facets of yourself are likely to change as you grow older and gain more experience with the world.
Life and perspective can change quickly depending on what circumstances you encounter. It really doesn’t matter if you’re twenty or sixty.
Diving to the core of who you are, your internal compass, and what you want out of life can help you develop a distinct course of action. That self-awareness and understanding is of great help when you’re in pursuit of peace and happiness in your life.
And that is what this ultimate list of questions about life will help you with!
1. Am I able to experience happiness? When was the last time?
The interesting thing about happiness is that it is not a constant, consistent state. As an emotion, happiness can come and go. No one is happy all of the time, but never experiencing happiness or satisfaction is a problem that needs addressing.
A lack of ever feeling happy or satisfied may point to depression. Should this be the case, you should speak to your medical professional.
An overwhelming amount of stress and challenging life circumstances can make it hard to experience happiness.
2. Is there anything within my power that would make me a more content or happier person?
All too often we look past necessary changes that we need to make in our life to bring ourselves greater happiness or contentment.
It’s easy to fall into a rut when you’re grinding through the monotony of life, whether it’s keeping up with family, work, or school.
If you’re not feeling happy, is there anything within your power that you can change? Can you shake up your routine or have some new experiences?
3. What goals can I set if I am unhappy with the person that I currently am?
Goals are a strong foundation for self-improvement and developing one’s happiness.
A common method of goal setting is to choose short (daily, weekly, monthly), medium (six months to a year), and long-term goals (five years, ten years) to help plot out your life and gauge progress.
A good place to start is aiming for areas of your life that bring unhappiness or unnecessary stress.
4. Is my life unnecessarily stressful or filled with drama?
Everyone should examine the different areas of their life to see which are causing unnecessary stress and drama.
That could be toxic people that you’ve outgrown, a bad job with a difficult boss, or personal issues that need to change.
It’s impossible to live a perfectly stress-free life. Life will always have its ups and down. What is possible is to separate yourself from negative people and situations that hinder more than help.
5. Am I holding on to any anger, regret, or guilt that I can forgive and let go?
Life is challenging for everyone, though some of those challenges can be greater than others. It’s helpful to stop and examine the anger, regret, and guilt that you hold on to and consider if it is time to let it go.
These are things that can follow a person for their entire life if they do not make an active effort to process the emotions so those feelings can stop weighing heavily on their shoulders.
6. Can I practice greater kindness to the people who are around me?
The act of giving kindness is healthy for the mind and soul. It doesn’t have to be grand gestures or even far reaching. Simply offering kindness to loved ones or the people around you can help foster a feeling of personal gratitude and humility.
One may also consider doing a little hands on volunteer work or donating to a cause that they feel passionately about.
7. Are there any people around me who leave me feeling drained?
People are not always meant to be there for life. As we grow and life moves forward, friends and even family can fall away as we all follow our individual paths. Sometimes that’s just the natural progression of things.
Other times, we may be faced with an unpleasant choice because someone we care about is incessantly negative and is a drain on mental and emotional energy.
It is impossible to have a happy, healthy life when you are surrounded by people who leave you feeling drained and unhappy.
8. Do I get enough time away from electronic devices and social media?
Social media and electronic device usage are both tied to an increase in mental health issues including depression and anxiety.
It’s so important to step away from electronics regularly to ensure the mind is getting a healthy dose of the rest of life. People need face-to-face socialization, sunshine, and regular exercise to be happy and healthy.
Responsible use of electronic devices and social media can be a boon to one’s life, but excessive use can cause many problems.
9. Do I have healthy coping mechanisms for stress, grief, or trauma in my life?
Life throws us positive and negative experiences. The positive experiences are something that we can simply enjoy in the moment as we move forward. The negatives, however, can stick around and cause many problems for one’s mental health and quality of life.
Healthy coping mechanisms for navigating stress, grief, and trauma are essential for processing negative events and continuing to move forward in life. They are skills that you will use for the rest of your life.
10. Am I able to love myself with all of my positive and negative qualities?
Do you truly love yourself? All the good and bad? All of the things that make you the unique individual that you are?
The journey of self-love is long and winding, but it brings with it peace, happiness, and confidence once you’re able to accept all of your pieces.
People like to bury their negative and avoid it so that it cannot hurt them, but in doing so they avoid the growth and love that comes from healing.
11. Is spirituality an important part of my life?
What role does spirituality play in your life? Is it an active one? A passive one? Have you fallen away from your spiritual beliefs? Would you be happier or feel more content by getting back in tune with what you believe?
Perhaps you’re not spiritual at all, but instead identify with a code of ethics or philosophy that has served as a guiding light.
Either way, getting in tune with one’s beliefs and walking toward them can provide guidance when one is feeling lost and unhappy.
And even if you’re not a spiritual person, getting back in tune with one’s internal moral code can provide similar benefits.
12. Should I be incorporating more of my beliefs into my life?
Many belief systems, whether they are spiritual or philosophical, feature a large number of different facets. Sometimes they are relevant to your life, sometimes they aren’t.
It’s worth spending some time reacquainting oneself with those beliefs and ideas to see if there is anything new that can be incorporated.
Humankind has spent thousands of years in pursuit of happiness and fulfillment. These aren’t trails we need blaze on our own.
13. Why do I believe and feel the things that I do?
“Why?” is such a powerful question. Why helps us to determine why we believe, think, and act in the ways that we do. The more you examine the why of what you believe, the greater understanding you develop over your thoughts and feelings.
Understanding why can help you see problems before they develop, giving you greater control over your life, peace of mind, happiness, and well-being.
14. Do my beliefs bring me greater peace or conflict?
As we grow in life, we may find that the old beliefs we carried are not serving us positively any longer. Take the time to consider what benefit your beliefs are contributing to your life.
Do they bring you peace? Comfort? Positivity? Or are they contributing negatively to your life? Making you feel bad? Closing off your perceptions? Pushing you away from the people you love and care about?
15. Is it important for me to play a role in the journey of humanity?
Not everyone needs to be a trailblazer. There are a lot of people who advocate speaking up and standing for your truth, which isn’t a bad message in general, but may not be a message that is right for you.
Not everyone can be a trailblazer. Not everyone needs to be a leader. Sometimes it’s better to find your own peace or walk behind people who are already blazing trails.
16. What role should I be playing in that journey? If any?
If you do want to play a role, then the next step is to try to identify your niche. People are often formed and guided by their life experiences. It’s a good place to start looking to see if there is some trajectory that makes sense for you and your life.
Many people don’t know their destination before they set off on their life path. That’s normal. In fact, they may not know that their destination is even an option until they start moving in the appropriate direction.
17. Do I feel a calling to do something that I’m not doing?
Intuition plays a large role in how we conduct our lives, even if we don’t necessarily acknowledge or understand it.
Sometimes we just have a feeling that something is right or wrong for us. Other times it can be a pull toward something we feel passionately about.
Do you feel a calling to be doing something that you’re not doing? Answering a call that you’re ignoring may help guide you on your path to happiness and fulfillment.
18. Am I working toward being the best version of the person that I can be?
Self-improvement is about crafting yourself into an ideal version of you. There are a lot of self-help gurus and books out there that want people to subscribe to their way of thinking, to be more like them.
Though you can use other materials as guidance, each person needs to figure out what it means to be the best version of themselves.
That may mean working on physical and mental health, it may mean working to improve one’s personal or professional life. The answer to that question is as unique as you are!
19. Am I settling in areas of my life where I should be reaching for more?
There are a lot of people who confuse not experiencing anything bad with being good. That neutral, flat experience of nothing bad but nothing good is a sure way to grow bored and restless.
People who have had a lot of bad in their life often confuse a lack of good or bad as a positive thing, but it’s not. That neutral space does not provide something that every person needs – fulfillment.
Does that mean everyone should just up and flee their leaves for potentially greener fields? No. What it does mean is that we should take stock and ensure that what we have in our life provides a positive benefit; that we aren’t stagnating in neutrality.
20. Do I have a roadmap for my personal and professional development?
Advancement in one’s personal and professional life is going to require a roadmap to find the destination.
A roadmap is not about setting goals. It’s about planning the actual steps that it will take to get to where you want to be and what the time frame for arrival should look like. A roadmap can work for fitness, career, social, and personal planning.
Research into how to accomplish goals can also help with doubt and anxiety, as you have a tangible plan in hand for reaching your goals that you can return to when you’re in doubt.
21. What’s stopping me from setting and working toward my goals?
The biggest hurdle most people will face is their own mind. The brain likes to retain all of the hardships, the failures, and the words of negative people that tried to tear us down. It’s difficult to shut down those negative thoughts and push past them toward success.
Sometimes it’s more than that. Maybe you don’t have access to the necessary resources or you lack the knowledge of how to proceed.
One must stop to ask what is preventing them from making progress so they can find a solution to that problem and move forward.
22. What am I avoiding in my life right now?
Avoidance is a waster and killer of the most valuable resource you have – time. You only get twenty-four hours in each of your days, and only so many days in your life. Once they pass, they’re gone.
People waste so much time avoiding responsibility and confrontation because it’s uncomfortable for them. The problem is that meaningful progress is accomplished in a place of discomfort.
One must strive to confront and make an active effort to overcome their challenges instead of avoiding them.
23. Do I have a mental image of my future self?
Who do you want to be in the future? Where do you want to be in the future? A strong mental image of your future self can help you plan the appropriate route to success.
Even if you can’t define a clear image of the far future, you can aim within the next couple of years to get you moving on your path.
24. Am I doing what I truly want to be doing with myself and my life?
People often find themselves pushed by the expectations of their friends, family, and society. That doesn’t necessarily coincide with what is actually right for you. No one other than you can decide what is best for your life.
One should stop and periodically take stock of their personal goals, life, and direction to make sure that these things are in line with what they actually want for themselves.
You can’t live the dreams and aspirations of someone else and expect to feel happy, accomplished, and content.
25. What would help me feel happy with my life?
An assessment of what one feels they are missing in life is a good way to start building a plan for greater joy and happiness.
That may include a career change, developing relationships with other people, moving out of a stressful situation, addressing health issues, travel, or just a change in the way one lives their life.
26. Am I living true to myself, my beliefs and values?
People are often influenced by those around them. It can cause them to grow distant from who they actually are, what they believe in, what they hold to be true. This can cause discomfort and unhappiness.
Grow too distant from your core values and you may find that you are leaving an important part of yourself behind.
27. Do people see me differently than I see myself?
Though it is bad to shape yourself to meet the expectations of other people, it is worth examining if there are any discrepancies in one’s personal view of themselves versus how others perceive you.
The reason is that healthy relationships are typically based on trust and communication. If there is a discrepancy, it likely indicates that there is some problem with trust or communication.
Perhaps the person doesn’t feel comfortable being their authentic self. Perhaps one or the other is not clearly communicating who they are and their expectations.
It doesn’t mean you need to change to meet expectations, but it may help establish greater trust and rapport which will provide a positive benefit in your life.
28. Am I saying the things that need to be said?
There are times to be and not be silent. Avoiding conversations that need to happen is a fast track to failed relationships and unhappiness.
A lot of people avoid uncomfortable conversations because they don’t want to rock the boat or be seen as the bad guy.
Sometimes you have to risk it. Sometimes there needs to be an argument to get to the bottom of the truth and work out a reasonable solution.
29. Do I have strong enough boundaries to stay healthy and pursue my goals?
People can be complicated. They are rough and abrasive, sometimes without compassion and unkind.
At times, they are also people we call friends and family members. Perhaps they don’t offer the kind of support or kindness that we would hope they’d offer.
While it would be nice if people would strive to be kinder or more understanding, it’s not something we should expect. Personal development of one’s boundaries makes it much easier to shrug off the negativity, preserve one’s mental health, and keep moving forward.
30. Would I be happy and content with my life if the world ended tomorrow?
Are you happy and satisfied with how you’ve lived your life? Is it something you can look back on with pride and joy?
Life is difficult and we all make painful, sometimes foolish mistakes. But it’s never too late to start living a better life and leave a positive mark on the world!
Don’t let your past define your future. We can all be better, happier, and kinder!
