Consideration of Questions – Finding True North

The first things that we want to try to identify are the common themes that we see across the different answers. Sometimes it can look like things may be unrelated, but if you look at what each answer represents at its core, then commonalities may arise from that perspective. For example, if someone has identified that they would like to spend their days interacting with children, and they wanted to become a nurse when they were younger, and they identify that they have good interpersonal skills, then we can find the common element in these, even though it looks like nursing and perhaps being a nursery school teacher are completely different professions. At its core, both professions have the elements of wanting to interact with others, which is also confirmed through one of their strengths which they have identified as being their interpersonal skills. Also, at their cores, both professions are ones where you want to be of value to others; where you are of assistance to others; where you make an impact on others’ lives. In other words, you want to be an uplifter to others. And by identifying that, you know something of who you are at your core, and how other professions and what you currently do, match that, or perhaps not.

Spend some time reviewing the answers that you have written down and see what the most common elements are that you can identify across your answers, and write down the insights gained from these activities. This will assist in getting a better understanding of who you are and what you are passionate about, which we will use further on to see how we can align life better with the elements that you have identified here. Especially if you want to consider ways in which you can bring more of something that you love into your life and you wonder how you can take that to the world, then understanding what the things are that you are passionate about as well as the things that you are naturally good at, can be of great value in understanding the possibilities that lie ahead of you.

But most of all, I hope that through this exercise you obtain a better understanding of the thing or things that you are passionate about, as those are the things that you want to expand on as part of living a fulfilling life.

The reason we consider how you would be spending your days if money or obligations were no object is to get an understanding of the things that you would really like to do, and what you are passionate about without adding the resistance that so often comes with a question of what you should be doing with your days or how you should be earning an income. These are often the subject of many of the beliefs that we inherit from those around us, and we often have a preconceived idea of what success looks like and therefore we do not always allow ourselves to daydream and be honest about what it is that we do like. Therefore, take note of the things mentioned here as these are items which fill your heart and which you want to bring more of into you your life if you have not already.

If you have any notes that you wish to make based on the reason for the question, feel free to note this in the box below. The main thing here is it to become aware of what fills your heart.

When asking about your dreams as a child, the question is another way to understand the potential things that you may be passionate about and love at your core, as we typically have less conditioning and socialisation earlier on. So when considering what you wanted to be as a kid, it is good to understand whether the answer is one that is purely from the heart and whether it was already subject to some conditioning, such as trying to do something to gain the approval of the society, your friends or your parents.

Furthermore, the occupation needs to be looked at at its core, and what it represented for you at the time. For example, if you wanted to become a pilot, it may at its core have represented freedom, autonomy and adventure. So it’s important to understand the feelings that it invoked to understand what it meant to you. It may be that the profession is something in and of itself that you are still passionate about today, but for a lot of people it is about what it represented at its core.

If there were multiple things that you considered as a child, it can be good to view each through this lens to understand what characteristics were (and most probably still are today) important to you.

Add your notes below or on the workbook of what these represented to you and whether there are common characteristics between them.

The natural things that you are drawn to and which you wrote down can also be indicative of the types of things that fill your heart, but you need to discern between those things that are heart-fillers and those things that are time-fillers. Heart-fillers are those things that you like to do and put you in resonance with your Inner Peace, meaning that you feel happy, at ease, clear-minded and peaceful doing those things, and therefore someone it typically very present during these activities. Time-fillers are things that you do more just to pass the time, without finding these to be fulfilling to you and therefore there isn’t a high level of presence or awareness during these activities. Of course, the same activity can at one point be a heart-filler and at another point it can be a time-filler. For now, just think about your current relationship with the activity.

Here it is helpful to review the answers that you’ve put down and to classify those things as heart-fillers ortime-fillers. And specifically relating to the heart-fillers you would want to understand the meaning that it has for you. For example, if you love watching videos about carpentry, is this something that you would want to pursue further physically or do you watch it to appreciate the skill and art that is woodworking? Or is it perhaps both? Is this indicative of a hobby (Creation project) or passion that you wish to pursue, or is it indicative of an appreciation? Would you feel more bliss by physically pursuing carpentry yourself or do you find it more therapeutic to watch the creation process? In other words, think about how it adds to your life experience.

Note in what way you think you can bring more of these heart-fillers into your life, and to what extent.

In considering the things that you are naturally good at, the impact of these can be quite broad. And as we alluded to in the question section, just because we are good at something does not necessarily mean that we are passionate about that very thing, although they often do coincide. What is helpful here is to review the answer you provided earlier and to distinguish between the things that you are good at and like to do and the things that you are good at but don’t particularly like. Looking at the things that you are good at and like to do, those can be seen as things that you want to continue doing and even expand on. We will also consider these together with the things identified from the other questions to build a repository of the things that we wish to further in our lives. For the things that you are good at, and do not enjoy doing, see if you can identify the essence of the skill, as that may reveal an underlying enjoyable element of it, and/or how you can apply it toward the things that you are passionate about. For example, let’s say that you are good at bookkeeping, but you do not enjoy the activity. What are the underlying elements to it? You can say that you are logical, you can focus with precision, you can bring order to things, you can create structure, you can apply knowledge well, you can work well with numbers etc. And you may realise that you enjoy some of the elements and that your skill can be applied in ways to further the things that you love doing. So let’s say that you also enjoy helping others. Now you may see how your logical and structured skills can be applied in helping others. For example, you may decide that you want to tutor students, or you may design a wonderful calendar to help busy people manage their lives. It really depends on what the other things are that you love, and on you holistically considering how your unique combination of skills and passions can be applied in your life to be fulfilling.

For now, though, separate the things that you like to do and those that you do not like to do and try to break these down into their characteristics or elements to see commonalities and how those can be combined with our insights from the previous questions to build a recipe going forward.