HOW TO BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF 10 Questions for Improving Your Quality of Life

09 Mar HOW TO BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF 10 Questions for Improving Your Quality of Life

Posted at 20:37h in Blog by

© 2026 by Ruth Schimel PhD, Career & Life Management Consultant, Author

www.ruthschimel.com  ruth@ruthschimel.com  202.659.1772

Though these questions are not a walk in the park, your responses can empower you to improve your quality of life. Start by choosing one or two to consider and address. As you wish, restate them to suit your situation more closely. To ease your commitments to action, start with manageable small steps. As possible, create ways to integrate your actions.

Infuse as much fun and pleasure in those processes to promote even glacial progress and success from your specific tactics and strategies. Identify opportunities to celebrate yourself and others. To make space in your life for the good stuff, get into a rhythm of asking yourself what is useful or important to let go.

Be alert to related emotions which can thwart as well as motivate your action. Name and tame the limiting ones and benefit from, as you enjoy, the positive ones. ***   Think about how you can use kind humor to nudge yourself out of a funk or block (“There I go again!”)

Perhaps engage in conversations and mutual assistance with a few individuals you like, respect and trust. Finally, reward yourself in accessible and meaningful ways for any improvements as well as hold yourself accountable for stasis or backsliding.

  1. What one significant habit will I modify that conflicts with my values or goals.
  2. When will I stop avoiding addressing issues and concerns with people who can do something about them.
  3. What behavior and choices am I permitting from significant others that I would never accept from anyone I respect?
  4. Where or to whom am I giving far more than I’m getting and why am I permitting such imbalance?
  5. What assumption is creating a logjam in my progress?
  6. What is the major fear or anxiety that gets in my way? How will I address it?
  7. How do my expectations distort my own behavior and/or lead to disappointment or rejection?
  8. How can I find a balance between play and work or, even better, combine the two?
  9. What few ideas, people and/or sources of pleasure will I integrate now or further into my life? Specify how and when I’ll do that.
  10. What one or two approaches to daily life will I benefit from unlearning?
  11. Add your own useful questions here:

 

Being true to yourself/authenticity has been a theme of centuries https://tinyurl.com/muejv4v4
To access your own capacity for courage, explore Ruth’s user-friendly books based on her dissertation: https://www.ruthschimel.com/books/
***  On creative hangovers: https://hyperallergic.com/suffering-from-creative-hangover-youre-not-alone/?utm_source=colossalnews&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Thu+Mar+05+2026&utm_campaign=Big+Tuskers

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