Are You Introspective? 3 Important Questions to Ask Yourself

Most of us crave personal improvement, and we do the best we can to achieve that.

We read books, consume material, and spend time with people who help us become the best version of ourselves and lead more fulfilling lives.

As we do so, at some point we have to stop and look back to see how far we have come.

We have to see if we are making progress. This way, we know whether to continue doing what we are doing or to try something new. Moreover, we also have to think of what we want to achieve and how we can achieve it.

This is an example of being introspective.

The Benefits of Being Introspective

So what, exactly is introspection?

Introspection is the examination of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology, the process of introspection relies on the observation of one’s mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one’s soul. – Wikipedia

Being introspective is an arm of self-awareness. While self-reflection lets you process things you have observed about yourself of your behavior, introspection is the step before that – the stepping back in order to try and understand yourself.

Some of the benefits of introspection include:

Improved problem-solving
Increased happiness
Improved decision making
Improved ability to overcome or confront fear
Increased self-awareness
Improved self-compassion
Improved future planning
Increased self-confidence

Most of you know that it’s a good idea to do it, but in some cases, we just don’t know where to start.

“The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.” — Pema Chödrön

Here are some of the questions we should all ask ourselves as a starting point for introspection.

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3 Questions to Ask Yourself to Be More Introspective

“What are my values?”

These are the principles that are supposed to guide us in all aspects.

They are the anchors of the decisions we make, and there to keep us grounded. Oftentimes, life gets going, and we have to move through on cruise control. It becomes easy to forget our values and just go with the flow.

The people around us, society, and social media can influence us into accepting or doing things that would be otherwise against our values.

Asking ourselves this question when introspecting helps us go back to our ‘roots’ to remember the principles that are supposed to guide us.

It will also allow us to think about why we have these values.

Are they our own values or were they passed down to us so they don’t hold much significance in our lives?

If it is the latter, we might need to go a step further and think about what our values are. Moreover, as we get older, we learn and unlearn, so it is also okay for our values to change.

“What does being successful mean to me?”

This is probably my most favorite question to consider.

That’s because success means different things for different people at different stages of life.

At some point, for me, success was passing my final school exams. That is not the case anymore.

Success can mean:

being able to afford the basics of life such as food and housing
finding a fulfilling job
improving your cardio and fitness
being able to afford to travel to your favorite destination

There is no right or wrong answer to this question. Our definition of success must be ours, not one forced on us by social media trends.

And also, our definition of success can change. When we achieve certain levels of success, the bar goes up and we start aiming for something else.

Once we determine what success means, the next step would be to plan how to achieve that success.

“How am I using my time?”

Time is a fundamental element of our existence.

Everything we are capable of doing is limited by time. We all get the same 24 hours, but at the end of the day we have achieved or completed different things.

Considering the importance of time, it is important for us to pay close attention to how we spend it, because ideally, we should spend most of it doing things that enrich us and help us move closer to our success.

I used to be amazed by how much some people on social media are able to accomplish in a day.

I had a love-hate relationship with those ‘lives in a day of…’ videos. That was because they pushed me to look within and see what I was spending my time on. I got the shock of my life when I looked at my phone use report.

That week, I had an average of 6 hours of phone use per day. That is almost double the amount of time spent on the phone by an average person. It was a wake-up call I didn’t realize I needed.

I became more conscious of how I spend my time and started actively working towards reducing the time I spend on my phone, while increasing the time I spend doing other things like my hobbies and things that help me improve myself.

When you’re not tracking your time, it is easy to assume that you don’t have time to do the important things when, in reality, you are not prioritizing the things you should be.

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Final Thoughts

Introspection is undoubtedly one of the most valuable tools we can use to attain self-awareness, and personal wellness, and improvement.

It allows us to look back and think of areas we would normally ignore. The above three questions are a good starting point when figuring out your current state and planning what you want for the future.

Remember, introspection is not something we do once and then forget about. We have to constantly do it. The more we do it, the more we learn about ourselves and also, the more we get answers regarding why we are the way we are.

When starting to do some introspection, it might feel a bit uncomfortable, and in some cases, you’re not sure if you’re doing the right thing. The trick is to keep going! Remember,