Discover What You Care About

0 / 87

Discover What You Care About

A guided inquiry into your values, gifts, patterns, and deepest sense of purpose.

Adapted from Daniel Schmachtenberger’s Dharma Inquiry, with modifications and additional material by West Wind Adventure Studio.

Completely private. Your answers are never sent anywhere. They live only in this browser, and in any report or text file you choose to export. No account, no server, no one else can see what you write.
Come back anytime. Your answers save automatically in this browser as you go. Close the tab, return when you like, and pick up where you left off. One caution: browsers sometimes clear this kind of storage, especially after long gaps or a history cleanup. So when you've written something you'd hate to lose, take a moment to export.
This is intentionally long. It is intended to be a deep reflective process. Consider turning off distractions and giving yourself unhurried time.

Why this matters

What we actually care about isn’t always obvious.

We carry patterns laid down by family, culture, incentives, and the pressures to fit in. But under that film of conditioning there’s a well of enthusiasm, longing, recognition, and love.

Getting in touch with that stuff and orienting your work and energy around it turns your life into a two-way gift. A gift to yourself, because living from enthusiasm and meaning feels wonderful. And a gift to the people and systems around you, because those soul-deep energies inevitably pour out as creativity, connection, and good work.

How to use this

Think and feel into each question. Mostly feel. And then discern for what’s true. Watch out for sneaky ego, who might try to inject a more impressive answer than the true one. And be careful that a familiar narrative doesn’t take over and answer for you. You are not a story you tell yourself.

Values

What you hold sacred.

Who am I most inspired by (that I personally know or figures from history)?

What about them inspires me?

Who do I respect the most?

What is it about them that I respect?

What virtues would I most want to increase in myself?

Why those particular virtues?

What types of behaviour and people bother me the most?

Which issues in the world upset me the most?

What do I see as most deeply wrong with or “off” in the world?

What do I find the most beauty in? What am I most moved by?

If I imagine looking back at my life from my deathbed, who would I be the proudest to have been?

What news stories about the world would I be most positively moved to see?

What would I spend my time working on if I could succeed but no one would ever know that I did it?

What few qualities would I most want to increase in everyone if I could?

What would I sacrifice personal benefit for?

What is more important to me than my own life?

What is sacred to me? What does sacred mean?

What am I devoted to? What does devotion mean?

What is the basis of meaningfulness?

What am I loyal to? What does loyalty mean?

What would be an adequate reason to violate loyalty?

What do I feel shame or guilt about?

What do I feel remorse or regret about?

If all my personal desires were already met, what would I then desire or care about?

If I knew I was going to die next year, what would I do?

Then ask “why” to your answers to each of these questions, until you come to something that feels fundamental.

Propensities

Your strengths and fascinations.

Considering strengths and aptitudes more than just specific skills, what am I naturally good at?

What seems to come easy to me?

What types of activities do I feel replenished by?

What am I willing to do even if it taxes me?

What do I enjoy doing for its own sake, independent of producing results or getting acknowledgement?

What is my attention repeatedly called to?

What can I not not pay attention to?

What am I intrinsically fascinated by? Passionate about?

What would I love to study just because it’s interesting?

When have I felt the most pride / satisfaction related to something I did?

When have I felt most fully alive?

What have been the greatest difficulties / pains in my life?

What are the shadows or weaknesses associated with my greatest strengths or gifts?

What are the possible gifts associated with my greatest pains, failings, or flaws?

Capacities

If you had no constraints...

If my financial needs were already met for the rest of my life, what would I do?

If I had 100 billion dollars, what would I do with my life and resources?

If I was going to go back to school, what would I study?

If I could download skills Matrix-style, what would my top few most desired skills be?

What would I do and how would I be different…

…if I was a lot more confident / less fearful than I currently am?

…if I was meaningfully smarter than I currently am?

…if I had much better discipline?

…if I was better with people (more understanding, charismatic, empathetic, patient, etc.)?

…if I had better emotional regulation?

…if my main character deficits were resolved?

…if I had the right team and people supporting me?

…if I had already received all the love, recognition, attention, appreciation, and validation I could ever want and was no longer concerned with those things at all?

…if my life started over with a clean slate (no previous commitments, baggage, etc.)?

…if I knew I would live and be vital until I was 200?

Then ask “why” to your answers to each of these questions, until you come to something that feels fundamental.

Karma

What you've received and what you owe.

Who has helped me in my life?

What blessings have I received, without which I wouldn’t have much of what I am grateful for?

What obligation do I have to pay those gifts forward, and what might that entail?

Who have I hurt in my life? Directly or indirectly?

Where did any of my success or benefit come at anyone else’s expense (my family, romantic partners, friends, business partners or non human beings)?

What amends do I need to make for those actions?

Where amends cannot be made directly, how could I make those amends to life in general? What would that entail?

Where has my family and lineage had gifts or greatness?

How am I a part of that lineage, and how is that a part of my story?

Where has my family and lineage caused suffering?

How might I make amends for those harms, and how is that part of my story?

Who have I loved that has died?

What were the traits I loved most about them?

In what ways can I increase those traits within myself, so that they continue to live through me?

Patterns

Familiar compulsions and fears that co-opt your life.

What common behaviours feel like compulsion?

What fears and attachments keep me from fully living what is in my heart?

How do insecurity, self-doubt, and fear limit my choices?

How does ego get in the way of being the person I would respect the most?

What parts of my life would not engender the respect of those whom I respect the most?

What do I do that I wouldn’t want to be fully honest about?

Where is my success occurring at the expense of others?

Where does my life feel imbalanced?

What do I do because I’m good at it or get rewarded for it, but about which I don’t really care deeply?

Guidance

Remember your clearest knowings.

What were the most profound spiritual experiences of my life?

What did I experience?

What was clear in those moments?

When I was with people I loved who were dying, what was most important to me?

After their death, what were my reflections about life?

What were some of the epiphanies I’ve had that felt most clarifying, empowering, or liberating?

What are the moments I felt most at peace?

What would it be like to live from that place?

At which moments did I feel the sense of the sacred the most profoundly?

At which moments did I feel most in love?

What are the deepest and clearest knowings I have experienced?