Can a list of questions make you feel less lost? Here's what you should know

Pics/iStock

I have reached a slightly annoying stage in my career. I know my strongest skills, but I am not always sure if I need to change tactics. My biggest self-improvement challenge right now is to take the ideas that I find myself returning to and actually do something with them.

That includes unlearning some patterns I know I don't want anymore. The problem is that all of this exists as a pile of thoughts rather than anything resembling a plan on paper.

My Instagram algorithm kept feeding me an exercise that felt more like social media therapy than something genuinely useful. I scrolled away, and it kept coming back. So I tried this five-day map for feeling less lost and followed it.

Monday
Each day came with a set of questions. Monday began with the easiest place: What don't you want?

I wrote down the obvious things - work that leaves me exhausted, constantly reacting to other people's priorities, and working but feeling that it's not building something tangible.

It was useful, if only because writing something down makes it harder to dismiss. My feelings were scribbled in ink on paper.

Tuesday
Tuesday asked a more uncomfortable question: What are you good at?

This was harder than expected. It is easy to just list your job description. It is harder to identify the things you are naturally good at. For me, the list included writing, finding stories, thinking about content, and connecting seemingly unrelated dots.

Wednesday
Wednesday was my favourite: What do you secretly want?

Some answers were practical. Others were things I have mentally filed under "maybe someday" a thousand times. The interesting part was that these weren't new ambitions. They were recurring ones.

Thursday
Thursday asked me to put the answers together and brainstorm possibilities.

This was where the exercise became less about self-discovery and more about pattern recognition.
My skills, interests and frustrations started pointing in a few similar directions. I could see why certain ideas kept coming back.

Friday
By Friday, the instruction was deliberately unambitious: Choose one possibility and take one tiny step towards it. Spend
15 minutes researching it. Send an email. Sign up for something. Make an account.

I liked that the exercise stopped before the inevitable Internet advice about building a five-year plan.

Takeaway?
Did I figure out my life in five days? No. I still have no grand revelation about exactly where I want to be.

But I did get something more useful. The questions made me realise that I actually had quite a few directions. I simply lacked a way to sort them. I know what to do next.

Perhaps this exercise is good for forcing the thoughts that are floating around in your head into separate boxes. And sometimes, that is enough to figure out which one you want to open first.

Our tip for each day

Day 1
What makes you unhappy?
What don't you want to keep doing? What kind of work or lifestyle drains you? Where
would you hate living?

Day 2
What you're good at
What do people come to you for? What advice do you enjoy giving? What can you do even when you're tired? What can you focus on for hours?

Day 3
Map what you secretly want
If money didn't matter, what would you choose? What would you try if nobody knew? What do you see others doing and think, "I wish I could do that?"

Day 4
Brainstorm possibilities
Look for overlaps between your skills, interests and answers. What could you combine? What could you adapt? What sounds exciting, even if it feels unrealistic?

Day 5
Take one small step
Pick the idea that interests you most. Spend 15 minutes researching it and identify one action you can take today. Keep it small: an email, application, class, account or conversation. The point is to have an idea, even if it is vague, about how to turn these realisations into something you can actually work with.