7 questions to ask yourself when you’re not sure who you’re becoming.

1. What am I freakishly good at?

Is it: scoring those quintuple-word-scores in Scrabble? Training unruly puppies? Cooking without a recipe? Nodding calmly in the midst of hysteria? Crafting unforgettable puns?

What are the things that comes so naturally to me, they don’t even register as legitimate ‘talents’?

2. What do I geek out about?

For real: what am I secretly researching, ogling & fantasizing about when I’m ‘supposed’ to be ‘working’? What gets me breathless & bug-eyed? What causes my voice to escalate, ten decibels? What do I long to (Jedi) master?

3. If I was a horrifically superficial & shallow person, what would I really want?

(FAME and MAD RESPECT and A JACUZZI WITH MOOD LIGHTING is a perfectly acceptable answer.)

4. What do I want to be known for?

I think I already know, but I’ll: consider my ideal job title or position, and then pop an (imaginary) hallucinogenic. So, like, NOW what?

5. If I had a full year off, and a stipend of {insert ‘how DARE you?!’ amount of money here}, how would I spend it?

The time, that is? And then the money?

6. What’s going to be carved on my hypothetical tombstone?

Or: if that’s too grim to contemplate — what’s on my future résumé?

7. If my parents / my grandma / God / whoever holds my sense of personal propriety in check was GONE (poof!) and there was no one to offend, upset, or disappoint … who would I become?

What unspeakably dark (or exquisitely light) truth would I tell? What would I (finally!) allow myself to write, publish, announce or create? What kind of closet would I come out of? What would I completely, at last, and fully … forgive?

(Self)knowledge is power.

More power to you.