Since the dawn of time, humanity has always asked itself questions .

We have often asked ourselves the how and why of an infinite number of things, which have been able to deal with the how and why of certain phenomena (why it rains or thunders, or why it gets dark when night comes) as well as the meaning or origin of our own being.

While some of them have already been answered, many have always been a source of debate and reflection. That is why, in order to invite and favour the capacity for introspection and to give rise to debate and the deepening of our most personal beliefs, throughout this article we are going to propose 50 profound questions to reflect on life .

About fifty deep questions for reflection and thought

We leave you with about fifty questions that will allow us to reflect deeply on what we value and the meaning we give to different aspects of life.

  • And also: “156 uncomfortable questions (for your friends or your partner)”

1. Who are you?

A seemingly simple question, but one that can be very difficult to answer. It is not enough to answer with our name, but it is necessary to reflect and try to discover what is our essence and our role in the world.

Why are you here?

To ask oneself why we are alive, why we came into the world, basically means thinking about what our deepest goals and objectives are.

3. Where are you headed?

This question allows us to evaluate the repercussions of our actions and the long-term consequences of our way of life, that is to say, towards which future we are heading what we do.

4. Where would you like to go?

It may seem redundant with respect to the previous one, but the truth is that one thing is the path we are taking and another is the path we would like to take. Reflecting on what our goals are and the distance between them can help us to fight to get as far as possible on the road to our dreams.

5. How much do you value others?

We often underestimate the importance of others in our lives. That is why it is worth reflecting on how relevant our interactions and relationships are to our loved ones, and the value we place on them.

6. If you were to die tomorrow, how would you live today?

This question, although relatively frequent, allows us to reflect on what we really value and what actions, motivations and activities we would really like to carry out.

7. Do you believe in yourself?

One of the main keys to achieving what we set out to do is to believe that we are capable of it. And in many cases, the truth is that we may not know or take into account what we think of our own capabilities. That is why it is worth asking ourselves whether we believe in ourselves, why we believe in the answer and if not, what we should do to achieve it.

8. What are your “musts” or self demands?

We often meet people who continually demand to be perfect or to be the best, something that can cause great suffering. However, each and every one of us has our own self-demands or “musts”, which can be more or less realistic and/or rigid. Taking them into account is a good way to know ourselves and what our way of seeing our own life is.

9. What makes you vibrate?

It is necessary to reflect on what we really like and try to implement it or introduce it in our lives, otherwise we could be living a routine, anodyne and lack of emotion. If we don’t have an answer, maybe we should start experimenting with different types of activities until we find something that really motivates us.

9. Is happiness something you seek or something you find?

Many people constantly seek happiness, in a compulsive way and as if it were something that must be pursued in order to achieve it. However, it is worth reflecting on whether we are really looking for something or if it is really something that comes up when we are enjoying the little things of everyday life.

10. What are you most afraid of?

Reflecting on what motivates us and what we want is fundamental to learning and understanding many aspects of our own lives. But also what we are afraid of is very revealing, being able to learn from ourselves and to face and prepare strategies to avoid what we fear or to learn to face it in an adaptive way.

11. Is there anything you’d like to do but don’t dare?

They say that what we regret most is what we want to do but don’t do. In this sense, we have to take into account what things we would love to do, assess why we are reluctant to do it and try to overcome the obstacles or readjust our expectations or intentions in case it is really impossible.

12. What mark do you want to leave on this world?

A deeper question than it seems, since it makes us reflect on our role and actions in the world and what we would like to contribute with the limited time we have in it.

13. What is important to you?

Our values and beliefs are a fundamental part of our way of seeing the world. We must not neglect what we value, no matter how much responsibility and day-to-day life make contact with it difficult.

14. To what extent do other people’s expectations influence your behavior?

Our family, our society and even our culture have certain expectations of us. Many of the things that we consider desirable and even demand of ourselves are imposed from outside. But is it really about what we want?

15. Do you prefer to innovate or follow the established path?

Throughout our lives we acquire a great number of learnings, coming from our experiences and from what others have done or discovered before. For many of the activities that we carry out on a daily basis there are numerous steps and procedures that dictate how we do them. However, sometimes we can create and innovate, proposing new ways to achieve the same goals. It is worth reflecting on whether each of us has a tendency to follow the pre-established steps or prefer to try to generate a new way or procedure, both options being equally valid.

16. Are you satisfied with yourself?

Do I like myself? An important question that speaks to our self-concept and self-esteem, whose answer can sometimes make us uncomfortable and lead us to think about why we are or are not satisfied and what to do about it.

17. If you could change one thing about reality, what would you change?

The world and the reality in which we live contain more than one mystery and phenomena that we cannot understand, and some of them may be unbearable for us. Reflecting on the answer to this question helps us to understand what aspects of reality and our lives concern us.

18. What would you like them to say about you at your funeral?

Someday we’ll all die. And even if it’s not something we used to think about, we’d all like our passage through life to have some value. Those around us, who have surrounded us or will surround us in the future, what will they be able to say about us? Will they miss us and remember us as something positive? What would we have to do to make them consider us in the way we would like them to?

19. If you could go back in time, would you change anything or would you leave everything as it is?

We all have a past, in which there can be good things but also bad things and full of pain. However, everything we have lived through, even the hardest experiences, have brought us to the present moment. Would we change the past or would we choose to accept it and try to live with what we have been through?

20. To what extent do you control the course of your life?

This question pushes us to evaluate if we really have the reins of our own life, and if we are doing or at least heading towards the goals we have chosen ourselves.

21. What is love?

They say that love is one of the greatest forces moving the world. Yet… what is it to us? How do we live it? Do we believe in it?

22. Is there a written destiny or do we create it with our actions?

Our future may be unknown to us, but throughout history many people have debated whether the future is something that is already determined or if, on the contrary, it is we who decide and create it from our actions and our will.

23. What is the greatest achievement of your life?

An easy question to ask but not so easy to answer. It is a question of thinking and looking for what it is, among all that we have done in our life, that really seems most relevant and meritorious to us.

24. What is your biggest mistake?

Just as important as knowing how to recognize achievements is knowing how to recognize failures and mistakes. This allows us to grow and accept that we are not perfect, that we can make mistakes and have defects and that we are just as valid in spite of (and partly because of) them.

25. What have you learned from your mistakes?

Although few people like to make mistakes, the truth is that these are opportunities to learn and modify our behavior and thinking.

26. If you could start from scratch, what would you do?

Our decisions and actions are part of our lives and their consequences can affect us both for good and ill. However, it is relevant to reflect on what we would do or what kind of life we would lead if we started over.

27. Who is the first person you would ask for advice on a matter of life and death?

A question that allows us to focus and realize who we consider trustworthy, as well as the kind of person who seems really wise to us.

28. Do you live or survive?

Do I lead a full existence or do I just subsist and stay alive? In the second case, what should I do to make my life full?

29. Would you live forever if you could?

For centuries, immortality has been something that much of humanity has desired. It is logical not to want to die and in fact very few people really want to die. Now, would we accept to live an endless life even if everything and everyone that was once important to us were to disappear?

30. What is the meaning of life?

Perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions in debates about existence is the meaning of existence. This is a very difficult question to answer, and the truth is that there is no right or wrong answer. The answer depends solely and exclusively on each person’s vision and the direction in which he or she orients his or her life.

31. What does the concept of freedom imply?

Freedom is a right that we should all have. However, although it seems to be a general concept that we all use frequently, the truth is that for each of us it has particular nuances and implications. Reflecting on what this concept means for one’s self means reflecting on one of the values most cherished by humanity.

32. What would you be capable of in a borderline situation?

This question cannot be answered lightly, but it is a reflection that can be interesting to make in order to know ourselves better and to take into account the strength of our values and beliefs.

33. Is there anything you would never be able to do?

Similar to the previous one, in this case it is a matter of reflecting on what our limits are and what lines we would never cross, based on our circumstances, beliefs and values.

34. What is life?

The great question, which can only be answered on the basis of the subjectivity of each one of us, is what is living? What can we consider a living being?

35. Are you afraid of dying? What is your attitude towards death?

Death is a mysterious concept. It signifies the end of all that is known, and no one knows if anything beyond that really exists. It is natural that uncertainty and the coming of the end can generate fear and dread. But it is also true that other people see it as a part of life that they should not worry about until it comes.

36. What would it hurt the most to lose?

A question that makes us reflect on what we value in life, something we sometimes do not have since we sometimes take it for granted.

37. Are you out of your comfort zone?

We all have a number of habits and environments in which we feel more comfortable and safe. However, we cannot stay in it continuously or we will stagnate and not be able to develop. So do we get out of it enough?

38. What do you feel most grateful for in life?

Reflecting on our existence sometimes includes recognizing those aspects for which we are most grateful. This says a lot about ourselves and our perspective on life.

39. What do the concepts of honor and honesty mean to you?

Although in recent times part of society seems to see them as something outdated, unadaptive and typical of past times, honour and honesty have been considered great virtues for centuries and to this day they continue to deserve respect for many. The meaning that each one gives to them can vary greatly, and reflecting on it can lead to thinking about values both of one’s own and of our environment and culture.

40. How important is our past?

The experiences that we have lived throughout our lives have brought us to this moment and have had some effect on us. It is useful to value and learn from our past. But does this past limit us to being or acting in a certain way in the present or is it only our starting point?

41. How do you see your future?

Projecting oneself in time is a way of reflecting on what we want to achieve in life or what we think we will end up having, in such a way that it allows us to reflect on the possible steps that can lead to it.

42. Is there anything about yourself that you would change?

It is relatively easy for most people to locate some aspects of our person that we find tremendously unsatisfactory and that we would like to change if we could. It may be something physical or, more often, a personality trait that causes us difficulties.

43. What is your best quality?

Reflecting on one’s own strengths and virtues allows us to work to empower ourselves and optimize our qualities.

44. Would you like to be perfect?

Many people live their lives trying to be the best and achieve personal and professional perfection, something impossible. However, it should be noted that if they truly achieve such perfection, there would be no merit or motivation to strive to do things. Furthermore, imperfection is what makes us human, and it can be unnatural, boring, and unattractive to be perfect.

45. Who would you like to be the last person you see before you die?

The most significant people for us are those we would like to have by our side in the worst moments. Perhaps our partner, our parents or siblings or our children are some of the most common responses, but it will depend on each person.

46. Do you do and live according to what you consider to be right?

Although the concept of correctness varies from person to person, it is often very important for us to act according to our convictions, otherwise we will enter into a cognitive dissonance that will cause us suffering and discomfort.

47. What moment in your life has marked you the most?

There are moments that can change our lives, marking us forever. Reflecting on this is useful to identify those situations that caused us great changes, whether positive or negative, in order to enhance or combat the effects they may have had on us.

48. Who do you admire?

This question may seem simple and shallow, but in reality answering it involves a reflection on what aspects or elements of this person we value and to what degree we identify with them, these aspects being relevant in our conception of life.

49. Is your conscience clear?

A reflection on this very fundamental question helps us to assess whether we are at peace with ourselves, have outstanding accounts or reproach ourselves for something we have done or provoked. It is also possible that we are attributing to ourselves responsibilities that do not correspond to us, or that we are maximizing or minimizing their importance.

50. What makes us who we are?

Regardless of how we are or how we see ourselves or the world, recognizing and identifying what makes us who we are is a much more complex task than it appears.