7 Confronting Questions You've Probably Never Asked Yourself

Sometimes the hardest person to talk to is ourselves. We’re forever escaping from our own Being by seeking others or sedating ourselves with social media. It’s time we stop to ask ourselves some confronting, but worthwhile, questions.

#1. “Am I honestly happy with the person I am right now?”

Chances are the answer to this will be ‘no’. I recall asking myself this question over and over again until I understood why. I wasn’t happy with how I didn’t follow through on things, how lonely I felt because I was working too much, or for failing to maintain my friendships.

Ask yourself this question. Be honest. You can’t get better unless you’re radically honest with how you feel about yourself.

#2. “What’s the one thing I’d drop everything and do if I knew I was going to die in a year?”

This is an interesting one. It reveals a lot of repressed desires, and most importantly, forces you to remove the bullsh^t excuses for not doing things.

Ever wanted to go on that trip? Now’s your ‘reason’ to do it. What about that person who you really can’t get off your mind for some reason, romantic or otherwise? Time to get in contact with them if you so desire.

What you begin to realise is that you didn’t really need death to compel you to do these things. You just needed someone, or something, to remove all the rubbish in your head that is holding you back.

#3. “What if I did the opposite of what I’m doing for the next 48 hours?”

This is also an interesting thought experiment. Once again, you start to realise that there is more than one way of living your life. The possibilities are endless. All you need to do is open yourself up to life and let things start working for you.

Your life isn’t as formulaic as you think it is. You just haven’t imagined a different life… yet.

#4. “Am I working myself to the bone because I love working all the time or because I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I had so much free time?”

I must confess this question sent me running to stash my head under my blankets. I felt so embarrassed when I realised that my propensity to work all the time in multiple jobs or to feel constant guilt for not being ‘productive’ all the damn time is what the medical community would refer to as an A-D-D-I-C-T-I-O-N.

Yes, I was addicted to work. I used it as something to fill the void of free time and to run away from myself. I didn’t like working all the time; I just did it because I didn’t know what else to do with myself.

This is not to say that hard work isn’t important; it’s simply to question the belief that you must be working all the time. Like anything, balance is key, and work is no different.

#5. “Do I have to be exceptional at everything to have a good life?”

Sometimes we’re told we need to be the very best to succeed in life. While this may be true in some contexts, it certainly isn’t true in most. You can get along quite nicely just fine without the title of ‘CEO’, without the passive income, without the Lamborghini and without the big house. Sometimes less really is more.

On the subject of big houses: Just remember that big houses = More things to clean. Wink wink.

#6. “People are walking all over me…. Am I just useless at setting boundaries?”

For me the answer was a resounding yes.

I could have sat back and wallowed in my own self pity by shifting the blame for my misfortunes on other people. OR I can simply come to the realisation that sometimes people suck and that boundaries are my personal armour against the world of people suckery.

Learn to set boundaries right now or else you’ll be in for a hard life. Human nature is the only constant. Cultivate the tools to deal with it all.

#7. “Why do I hold onto toxic people in my life?”

Often the answer to this one is because ‘anybody’ is better than ‘nobody’, hence why we hang onto the friends that do us over and the relationships that have irreconcilable differences.

All this stifles growth. By letting go of one friend, you invite space for another friend, a better friend, to enter your life. Realise deeply that you don’t need to hold onto every single person you meet to fill your social bucket; you just need to hold onto the right people.