Unlock your potential and achieve success by asking yourself these three questions.
Written by Stacey Greer | May 2022
In the last post, you were introduced to the STRETCH Model™ and the seven steps it takes you through. Today, let’s focus on the first step, Stimulate (Self) Curiosity. This curiosity about yourself increases your self-awareness, and with that awareness change becomes possible.
Stimulate (Self) Curiosity
Being curious about yourself and who you are at your core starts with making a commitment to learning about who you are. What are your core values? What makes you happy? What stresses you out? This is important knowledge to discover because it allows you to live a more authentic life, personally and professionally, based on your own values and not those of others. Be patient with the self-discovery process as it takes time and effort to get to know yourself well. Don’t give up! You will eventually gain a better understanding of who you are and what makes you happy. So how do you do this? Let’s dive in!
Self-Discovery
Self-discovery is a process. The meaning of life is found on the path, not in some treasure at the end. Discovering ourselves entails figuring things out along the way by being curious and asking ourselves questions and truly listening to the answers. Think of it like a detective on a crime show, following one clue to the next to solve the crime. When they find one clue, new questions come up that help them find new answers that eventually lead to the truth. There are many similarities between this detective work and self-discovery, however, there is one major difference. Detectives collect their evidence from the outside while we must look inside ourselves for the clues we need.
Three Essential Questions to Ask Yourself
So how do you start collecting this information for yourself? Start with these three questions and see what answers and potential further questions you unlock. These questions are vital because they will help you to focus on what is important to you, who you need to become to achieve your goals, and the areas of yourself that you need to work on in order to get what you want. These questions can be asked at any time and they can be applied to any area of your life.
Question One: What do I want?
The first step is to get clear on what it is that you want. This may seem like a simple task but it can be quite difficult. So, what do you want? How do you want to live your life?
Question Two: Who do I need to be to have the experiences I want?
The second step is to get clear on who you need to be in order to achieve your goals. You need to find out what is necessary for you to do and then cultivate those qualities within yourself.
Question Three: What do I need to overcome to be the person I want to be?
The third step is to identify the areas of yourself that you need to work on in order to achieve your goals. This involves overcoming your old habits and patterns if you want to get what you want in your future. Remember, what got you to where you are today likely won’t get you to where you want to be tomorrow.
Be Curious and Uncover Your Truth
When you reflect on who you need to be, you tap into the power that already exists within YOU. Anything is possible once you do this! When you change how you are showing up internally, you will change how things show up in your life externally. So be curious and allow yourself some grace as you go through this process. The deeper you can dig in, the more levels of truth you will uncover on your journey of self-discovery.
If you want to learn more about these three questions, stay tuned for my upcoming online course, "What Do I Want?"