The 8 Questions We Need to Evaluate Ourselves

Technology has spoiled us. At the touch of our fingertips, we can access information with relative ease. We can order food, books, household supplies and get traffic advice for the shortest routes. We no longer need to evaluate whether the information is correct — we know the accuracy of our apps is undeniable.

But this lack of review creeps into our daily lives. We tend to take things for granted, assume we are on the right track career wise with the work we perform each day. But how can we make substantial progress without any measurements? How can we ever lose weight if we never weigh ourselves? We think we are cutting down on food intake, our clothes feel looser, but do we know for sure?

In 2015, a pair of Navy Seals, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, wrote “Extreme Ownership” a book that would eventually become a New York Times bestseller. It details how to take ownership of everything we attempt, how not to allow our ego to destroy our perspective, and, most of all, how to be honest in our self-evaluation. Willink and Babin want us to ask ourselves regularly, “Where can I do better?” “How can I raise my level of performance”?

Before summer turns into fall, let’s stop and take a complete self-evaluation of everything we have done. Let’s make this a weekly habit to sit down and take stock of our career, our personal life, and most of all, our performance. How do we “measure up” to what we want to achieve? Let’s start by having a self-evaluation notebook that we record entries in once a week. Answering these 8 questions with great honesty will allow us to improve our self-esteem and our self-growth.

1. Who are you, really?

2. What makes you happy?

3. Do you love what you do for a living? Love it?

4. What is the meaning and purpose of your life, personally and professionally?

5. Are all of your skills being properly utilized?

6. What one area in your personal and professional life do you need to improve this week?

7. Where do you want to be six months from now? Six years?

8. What one word defines your life?

If we honestly answer these questions weekly and set new goals to improve, the quality of our life and work will significantly improve.

For more from Jocko Wilinik and how ‘Leadership Is Everyone’, our friends at Modern Mentor recently sat down with him for a podcast on owning your success.

Check it out and give it a listen!

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