How to know yourself better

1. 01Write down your emotional weather, dailyThree lines at the end of the day: what lifted me, what stung, what I avoided. Patterns take about two weeks to appear and are almost never what we'd have predicted.
2. 02Interrogate your envyEnvy is a clumsy but honest messenger. Whoever you envy is holding a piece of your ideal life. Name the specific ingredient — the autonomy, the audience, the calm — not the whole person.
3. 03Trace your overreactionsWhen a response is out of proportion to the event, the event isn't the cause. Ask: when did I first feel exactly this? The answer is usually much older than today.
4. 04Map what you were praised and punished forChildhood rewards become adult compulsions. If you were loved for being useful, rest will feel like danger. Naming the trade makes it optional.
5. 05Ask three people what you're like in a crisisChoose people who've seen you at your worst, not your best. Ask for one thing you do that you probably can't see. Listen without defending — you can evaluate it later.
6. 06Write your own obituary at 90Not achievements — qualities. What kind of person do you want to have been? Then compare it to how you spent last week. The gap is your actual to-do list.

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