5 Thought-Provoking Questions To Ask Yourself If You Desire A Better Quality Of Life
It’s all about self-discovery and fulfilling your purpose…
Our future is formed by our decisions.
You may have clearly-defined goals and can envision what your future should look like. However, do you sometimes clarify if your daily actions align with your lifetime goals?
Albert Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, then I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask.”
Are you asking yourself the right questions?
Self-reflection is important if we want to get a clearer picture of what life should be. With self-reflection comes clarity and definitiveness of purpose.
Here are some life-changing questions you need to ask yourself every day:
1. Where do I see myself in the next 5 years?
A lot can happen in five years.
I was once asked this question and at the time, I had no definite plan for myself. I knew I wanted to have the best job ever, be an author of several books while touring the world and living my best life.
Guess what, it’s five years later and that scenario hasn’t exactly played out as precisely as I envisaged.
However, in spite of all that, I am here thinking about what to expect in the next 5 years.
Now here’s my answer to any who asks where I see myself 5 years from now: Let’s see where my plans, vision and ambition will take me if I keep up with my present pace!
Truly, your current efforts and plans will take you to where you need to be!
Ask Yourself if what you are doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.
The future might turn out to be what you never expected and that’s why you should have a plan now.
In her book “10–10–10: A Life- Transforming Idea”, Suzy Welsh explains that “Reflection is important when you need to make any decision and that you should start by asking yourself: how will this decision impact my life in 10 years, 10 months and 10 minutes?”
Timing matters!
If you already know what you want out of life, career, relationships and other personal goals, good for you.
If you do not, now is the best time to identify your goals,
Losing sight of one’s purpose is a terrible thing. A plan gives you a sense of direction on what to do.
Now the question is: Are you doing those things that will mold you into becoming who you wish to be in the next five years?
You will have a clear path the moment you know what you want out of life.
Plan for the future because that’s where you will spend the rest of your life- Mark Twain
By having a plan, you will be able to know what milestones to hit before reaching your main target.
If you are job hunting, changing career path or starting a new business, make a viable plan and stick to it.
2. If I wasn’t afraid, what would I do?
We all face different fears.
Fear is what stops us from getting that high paying job, living our dreams or finding better people who are deserving of our love. We fear that we may not get something better, so we persist in mediocrity.
Fear cripples the mind.
Being afraid is something which comes to the human mind based on life experiences: our actions and inactions. However, fear becomes a huge problem when it starts holding us back from doing great things.
What are your worst fears and how often do you catch yourself thinking about them?
Are you that person who contemplates that the worst could happen and you find yourself backing down from doing great things because of your fears?
The truth is, most life-changing decisions come from a place of discomfort.
The best decisions I have made are those that I did while afraid.
Life is full of endless possibilities, but if you allow fear rule, it stops you from taking risks and makes you run away from opportunities.
A mistake most people make is that they restrict themselves to an inside-the-box style of thinking. Doing this makes them unable to see the bigger picture
Fear comes with uncertainty; we can eliminate the fear within us when we know ourselves better- Bruce Lee
There is so much you can do, if only you weren’t afraid.
What’s that thing you would love to do if you weren’t afraid? Speak your truth? Ask for help? Get what you deserve? Start something new?
Do it already.
We can easily get overwhelmed when we are afraid. It’s a feeling that prevents us from being the best version of ourselves.
The decision to not take risks, to run away from opportunities, to sabotage relationships or to have a different perception of reality is usually caused by fear.
Our confidence suffers when we avoid courageous action.
The moment we start thinking about everything else that could go wrong, then we are far from achieving whatever it is we are contemplating. Many people are afraid of rejection, change, success, suffering, failure, defeat and even new experiences.
Fear prevents us from growing as individuals. Our confidence suffers when we avoid courageous actions.
One trick that helps me overcome fear is:
- Visualizing my goals.
2. Writing down the things I want to see and making plans to actualize them.
3. Staying determined not to make excuses for why I can’t do something
3. What are the things I am grateful for?
Every week, I make a list of things I am grateful for.
During the course of the week, I include more things as they come to mind.
Practicing gratitude is one habit we should exercise daily.
“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson
No matter how unpredictable life may seem, there is always something to be grateful for.
It’s very easy to pick negative things than to show gratitude for positive things.
I try to be as specific as possible when practicing gratitude.
Gratitude teaches you that life isn’t as bad as you think it is.
Here is a list of things you can be grateful for:
- Good health
- Life
3. A place to live
4. Love
5. Water
6. Sleep
8. Food
9. Friends and Family
Apart from the above, we should also be grateful for unconventional things like- the internet, nature, music, laughter, knowledge and random acts of kindness from strangers we don’t know.
Be grateful for setbacks that have made you stronger!
Gratitude opens your eyes to see that what you have is enough
As Melody Beattie once wrote: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.”
Now, the question is: What are you feeling grateful for?
4. What would happen if today was my last day?
Steve Jobs once said: “Remembering that I will be dead soon is the most important tool I have ever encountered to help me make big choices in life.”
Many think of death and the thought of it instantly gets them afraid.
Death comes to us all. It’s an inevitable aspect of life. We just don’t know when.
If today was your last day, would you be willing to do more than you are currently doing?
The uncertainty of life makes it more impossible for the human mind to determine what it would do when confronted with unpredictable circumstances.
In the words of Ernest Hemingway, “Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”
5. Do my friends have a positive influence on me?
Friendship is an important aspect of our lives.
The people we call our friends often have a strong influence on our outlook to life.
To have a better quality of life, choose your friends wisely.
Remember that age-old saying “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.
The people we spend our time with are a reflection of who we are.
Unconsciously or consciously, we tend to pick ideas from the company we keep.
Call it peer pressure.
As Amber Gaffney, a social psychologist from Humboldt University State says; “The more of your identity you draw from a group, even when you’re not around that group, the more likely you are to uphold those values.”
“A true friend is the best possession.”- Benjamin Franklin
Mitchell’s Pritchard, a clinical psychologist at mind right also advises that one of the ways of getting the best out of friendship is to make friends with goal-oriented and positive people.
Moving with the right crowd can help you be the best version of yourself .
Final Thoughts
Introspective thinking helps us appreciate life better.
Not only should we ask ourselves these questions, we should also be ready to set things in motion. We can only succeed in life if we take action.
Life is easier to live when we are fully aware of our purpose.
Now, what are you willing to do differently?