The “Soul Searching Exercise” is a tool that will help you understand your personal motivations and goals. It will make you think about how to realize these goals and start mapping your journey to achieve them.

What you need:

• pen and paper
• 20-30 minutes to focus on this and get the best out of the exercise

Take your time while answering each question and be honest with yourself. The more details you write down, the clearer your goals will be.

Let’s get started, take a comfortable seat, and write your answers down. Examples will be given for each question; however, this is a personal exercise, and you might not have the same answers.

EXAMPLES

As this is a personal exercise this is no right or wrong answers, to help as a thought starter we have included some examples for your reference with the question numbers listed to each example response;

Example for a working professional HERE

Example for a College Senior/Student HERE

MOTIVATION

We will start by looking at motivation. The first two questions are general that can relate to any aspect of your life: family, friendship, work, etc.

Question 1: What motivates you? Examples: ability to learn, security, money (honesty is key here), traveling, getting out of debt, time for myself etc.

Question 2: What demotivates you? Examples: dishonesty, lies, hypocrisy, lack of recognition, taxes, social media, etc.

Take a break, think about your answers, and see if you’d like to add anything. These can change over time. Whenever you are ready, move on to the next steps.

With this question you will be able to assess what you have the ability to change and what is out of your control.

Question 3: What can you control in each previous answer? Example of what I can control: ability to learn, travel, get out of debt, time for myself. What I cannot control: dishonesty, lies, hypocrisy, lack of recognition, taxes, social media

You will notice that what you cannot control will most likely be your demotivators. What is necessary to note is that you can control how you react to them.

Whenever you are ready to move on, we will focus now on defining your goals.

GOALS

Question 4: What are your 6 months, 1 year, 5 year goals?

Each period will have its own list. These goals need to be achievable, realistic, and simply worded.

Think about these while answering:

• where will you be?
• what will you be doing?
• what do you want to have accomplished?
• what do you want done by then?

These can also evolve with time, having clear goals can help with your motivation.

The following question might require research depending on what your goals are. That is okay, remember that the more you know the better you’ll be suited to reach your goals.

 ACTIONS

Question 5: What actions do you need to take? Also known as the mini goals to achieve your larger goals.

Think about what knowledge you would need, who can help you, what are the limitations if any and how are you going to pass them?

If you are ready for the final step, here it is: Timeline on actions.

TIMELINE

Question 6: How long will it take to achieve each action?

This will help you in keeping yourself accountable. How long will it take to accomplish the mini goals? 2 weeks or maybe more?

 Have you noticed anything that might need extra steps? Will your timeline need to be adjusted because of it? This is the moment you can take a look at what you wrote and maybe update your short and long-term goals..

 Hoping that this exercise will help you define your motivations and achieve your goals! If you would like to share any of your answers on social media, please use #EleVenSoulSearching @elevenbyvenus 

About The Author - Lilia Aghzafi