Ever feel like you’re sleepwalking through a life that doesn’t quite fit? That nagging sense that you were meant for “more,” yet you’re frozen by the question: What am I supposed to do next? If you’re feeling stuck in your career or questioning your true identity, you aren’t alone—but you don’t have to stay there. The clarity you’re seeking isn’t hidden behind a complex strategy; it’s hidden in you. In this post, we’re exploring a simple yet transformative pen-and-paper exercise designed to bypass your inner critic, tap into your unconscious mind, and reveal exactly what you want. It’s time to stop living by someone else’s rules and start choosing yourself.
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Feel Stuck? Do This To Understand Who You Are & What You Want
The Power Of The “I” Sentence Writing Exercise
I am so glad you’re here. If you ever found yourself stuck not knowing what you want or maybe even who you are. In that place where you know that you want more or you know that you want to do more. You know that something is just bothering you or niggling at you. You just want to know, “What am I supposed to do next,” but you feel like you can’t get there. I have an exercise that I love and this is such a good process for figuring this out.
It helps you leverage your unconscious mind as well so that you can get past the things that you tell yourself, you’ve always been told, and you think are the ways that you should do things. I need you to sit down with a pen and a piece of paper or pencil, if you’re a pencil person. This works better if you hand it than if you do it by typing. What you’re going to do is write 100 sentences starting with I. That’s it. It can be, I am, I want, I have, I hate, I don’t want or I love. It doesn’t matter. It starts with I.
How To Reach Your Unconscious Mind By Passing The Fifty-Sentence Mark
You’re going to notice that the first 10 to 20 of them are going to come pretty quickly. Those things are pretty much the masks that we wear. They’re the things that you’ve been told to be or the things that we’ve just said over and over. As you keep going, the writing is going to slow a little bit. It might even start to feel dangerous. That’s a good thing because it means that you’re starting to make progress into what you’re trying to find out. You’re starting to write the things that you don’t say out loud.
Ask yourself one question: What are three ways I can start choosing my own life—intentionally and freely—instead of living someone else’s? Share on XNow, after 50, your mind usually gets tired of lying and this is where the real you comes in and comes out raw, unpolished and genuine. This is the stuff you’re looking for. Finish it out. After you get the full 100, go and look back at what repeated. What you’re going to notice is you’re going to have themes. They’re going to show up all over the page. For example, they’re all going to be some version of, I want freedom or some version of should or happy. Those first ten again are pretty much what you think you should say. The last 50 are the things you’ve been hiding for yourself about what you should do, what you want, and who you really are.
Analyzing Themes To Choose Your Own Life
I’ll give you some examples of ways that different clients have answered. Someone had, “I want a divorce,” showed up over nine times. Something that she had never set out loud. Someone else said, “I want a different career,” and said it in a bunch of different ways. Not even the same sentence. It’s just different ways of saying I want a different career but have been so successful in the career that they were in before or up until that point that they were afraid to say it out loud. I remember one guy. There was something about the ocean over twenty things.
Do this exercise. See what theme shows up and then ask yourself one question. What are three ways that I’m going to start choosing my life and myself in a real, chosen and a freeway instead of someone else’s life? Which is familiar but feels safe. It could feel hollow. This will get you past this point of feeling stuck in an amazing way. It requires no one’s input but your own. Who better to figure out what’s right for you than you? Here’s to your success.
