Self-actualisation, the tippy-top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, is often misunderstood or viewed as some lofty, unattainable goal like Enlightenment.

But at its core, it's about something deeply personal and profoundly important: knowing what you want to be and becoming it.

Let’s get started

What do you want to be?

Who are you?

Knowing what you want to be and becoming it might sound childishly simple.

It sounds like we are kids dreaming of being astronauts or firefighters.

But as adults, it's far more complex. We're not just aiming to be a millionaire, an educator, a parent, or a caregiver - we're often trying to be all of these things and more, simultaneously.

Self-actualisation is about recognising and nurturing these multiple roles, finding balance, and acknowledging the different parts of ourselves.

And hell, maybe becoming an astronaut too because it’s cool. You do you.

Understanding what we truly want to be is crucial, and in the age of AI, it's becoming even more critical.

More than your job

For decades, we've defined ourselves largely by our professions. The common icebreaker at parties isn't "Who are you?" but "What do you do?" We tend to equate our identity with our job title.

But AI is reshaping the job landscape rapidly. Imagine being a lawyer for 30 years, and then suddenly finding that a significant portion of your role has been automated. (This is just an example - it could apply to numerous professions.)

Such a shift could be devastating to your sense of self if your entire identity is wrapped up in that professional role.

I think we’re going to see a lot of this in the next few years. Identity rug pulls with someone knowing their place and how they fit in and then suddenly losing that sense of self.

This potential upheaval makes it doubly important to identify and acknowledge ALL our roles - not just our professional ones.

We need to recognise what we want to be and who we want to be beyond our job titles.

Here’s a (chunky) prompt to help you with this

You are an insightful personal development coach specialising in self-discovery and identity exploration. 

Your task is to help me uncover the various facets of my identity and aspirations beyond my job title. To do this, you will use a series of sentence stems that prompt reflection on different aspects of my life, values, aspirations, and self-perception.

Please present these sentence stems to me one at a time, waiting for my response before moving to the next one. The stems should cover areas such as my roles in relationships and community, my aspirations for making a positive impact, my personal strengths, my core values, and my definition of success and fulfillment.

Use approximately 15 different sentence stems, ensuring they encourage deep reflection and cover a wide range of life aspects. After I've completed all the stems, analyze my responses and provide a summary of the key themes, aspirations, and facets of my identity that emerged from this exercise.

In your analysis, highlight any patterns or recurring ideas, and suggest how these insights might guide my journey towards self-actualisation. The goal is to help me gain a comprehensive understanding of who I am beyond the confines of my professional identity. 

This prompt uses a technique called sentence stems. Basically you’ll be shown the beginning of a sentence like:

“I consider myself to be an excellent…”

And your job is to write the first thing that pops in your head.

Don’t think. Don’t analyse. Just give the first answer. This is the power of the technique - it’s a way to get the true unconscious answer rather than a well thought out over-rationalised response.

Moving ahead

This will help you work out how you currently view yourself.

Let’s extend this for future planning.

Use this prompt below the previous work. This will allow for the present vs. future comparison.

You are a visionary life coach specializing in future self-actualization and personal development. Your task is to guide me through an exploration of who I want to become, helping me articulate my aspirations and ideal future self.

Use a series of future-oriented sentence stems to prompt reflection on different aspects of the person I aim to be. These stems should encourage me to think beyond my current circumstances and envision my ideal future self in various life domains.

Present these sentence stems to me one at a time, waiting for my response before moving to the next one. The stems should cover areas such as my future roles in relationships and community, my aspirations for personal growth and positive impact, the qualities I want to embody, my vision for my life's work, and my definition of future success and fulfillment.

Create approximately 15 different sentence stems, ensuring they encourage imaginative yet realistic future thinking across a wide range of life aspects. All stems should be framed in the future tense, focusing on who I want to be rather than who I currently am.

After I've completed all the stems, analyse my responses and provide a summary of the key themes, aspirations, and facets of my envisioned future self that emerged from this exercise.

In your analysis, highlight any patterns or recurring ideas, and suggest potential paths or steps I might consider to bridge the gap between my current self and my aspired future self. The goal is to help me gain a comprehensive understanding of who I want to become and to start charting a course towards that vision

This prompt will run you through another sentence completion exercise about your future self.

It will then compare the present and future visions of yourself and offer up suggestions about how to bridge the gap between the two.

This is allowing for the fact that we are always changing. And who we are today will be different from who we will be. These exercises can help us to i) identify who we are now ii) where we want to go and iii) how to get there.

Take your time

We’ve covered an awful lot in this Playbook.

It’s important work and it doesn’t need to be rushed.

I’d advise taking your time and working with each prompt for a good period of time. This is a “you” process as much as it is an AI process.

Keep prompting,

Kyle