The 10 Most Powerful Self-Discovery Questions Ever Asked!

Using The Evidence Discovery Questions (DQ)

Not all the Evidence you have collected holds the same weight, nor should it be used when discovering your Talent  DNA.

The Evidence Discovery Questions (DQ’s) enable you to look at the Evidence you have identified and test it.  You need to know how strong and reliable it is.  The more of these questions that apply to any one piece of Evidence, the stronger that Evidence is.

Forensics does not rely on one piece or one dimension of evidence, but many.  You don’t just take one test and say you know what your future looks like.  If you do you will likely spend six years getting a four year degree.  You don’t simply listen to one or two people who think you are good at something and spend $100,000.00 on a college degree based on what they say.

After identifying evidence, the next important  question you must ask is, “Is the evidence reliable?”

 When put to the test in court, will the Evidence stand up under cross-examination?

• Will the Evidence result in a conviction?

• Is the Evidence solid?

• Can I trust my life and future based on it?

 What you believe about yourself is very important. However, it may not be very accurate. Some people are “legends in their own minds,” but not in the real world, where Life must be lived.

Others have a lesser or lower view of themselves than is realistic. Either way, you need an accurate picture of your Talent DNA if you are to gain the clarity you need to chart a course for your future.  When you have well-examined Evidence for personal beliefs, they form the foundation of confidence and clarity.

The DQ,s are meant to test the reality and validity of what you think about yourself and give you good reasons for your beliefs. They help you both identify and confirm the strength of your Evidence.

If you are both honest and realistic about how you assess your Life, you will only become more confident as you put your Talents through these tests. This is a wonderful process, and as you test your Evidence using these forensic Reliability Tests, you will feel yourself becoming more and more alive! You are discovering the very essence of your Life!

NOTE!  As you go through these videos and lessons, I encourage you to get a notebook or journal.  Questions need answers.  You will be challenged to think, reflect, answer and make decisions.  Long after you have watched the videos, your mind will go back to the questions and new ideas will pop into your mind.   So go buy a journal or make sure you have something to record and reflect your responses to these 10 life changing questions. 

Your life scene is designed with 5 distinct but connected domains. We also call these Fields of Evidence.

You have seen the yellow tape.  It is everywhere.  On sidewalks, parks, playgrounds, where the police are investigating.  The tape has warnings to get our attention and to STOP or slow us down.

• CAUTION

• DO NOT ENTER

• CRIME SCENE – DO NOT CROSS

It is time to abandon any ideas, thoughts or feelings associated with that tape.  It is time because you are about to enter the SPIES ZONE – YOUR LIFE SCENE.

The process you are about to begin is called Life Scene Investigation.  Your choice to enter will lead you to identify and discover the greatest power, substance, essence and stuff of your life.  It is what connects you to others, helps you understand why you are on this planet, where you fit, what you can do to make a difference.

If you are ready, then let’s begin and we enter the SPIES Zone and discover your Talent DNA!

Talent = The capacity to repeat EXCEPTIONAL actions.

• Exceptional = unusual, uncommon, above normal, above typical, extraordinary, out of the ordinary, 51%+

• What have you done that is Exceptional?

• When you read the Talent definition, what specifically do you do that would be ranked in the top 25% of your peers?

• What awards have you won?

• What recognitions have you received for exceptional performance?

• Where do you received exceptional grades?

• Where have you been recognized by peers as behaving in an exceptional manner?

• Where have you seen exceptional actions or character today?

Think about the job interview question that was asked. “If I hire you, how will you make my company better?”  If you were asked that question in an interview, how would you answer it?  Don’t hesitate, answer!

You will thrive when you select a major and classes that fit into your Exceptional Zone.

Companies want to hire Exceptional people.  If you do not have an Exceptional Talent that a company needs to grow, thrive and make a profit, why would they want to hire you?

To become a leader in your job and career choice demands you know what your Exceptional capacities are.  You must own them. You are responsible to develop them.  You have to choose to give them to build the lives of others.

I want you to write down 25 things that you have done that are EXCEPTIONAL.  Don't stop.  When you are done write down another 25.  Think through the last year, 5 years, 10 years. 

Lastly, always be grateful for each Exceptional Talent you have been given.  Every Talent is a Gift!

FLOW is a psychological state that is described with the following elements being present:

1. Feeling Strong

2. Feeling Alert

3. Feeling in Effortless Control

4. A Sense of Performing at Peek Performance

5. A Sense that Times Flies

6. A Place Where Emotional Problems Disappear

7. An Inner Conviction of Being Born to Do This

Other phrases that describe FLOW

• Engagement – Work

• Etat de grace – State of Grace

• Pleasure of God (Chariots of Fire – Movie)

• In the Zone – Sports

The FLOW Formula

Low Talent + High Challenge = Anxiety   (LT + HC = Anxiety)
There are certain classes, subjects, activities, situations that because you simply do not have the innate Talent to do them well, will always make you anxious.  What you do not have does not make you a bad person or weak.  The most important focus of your life is to discover your Talents.  Your greatest potential for growth development and happiness is to discover, develop and give your Talents to others.  Understanding you will never be Exceptional at certain actions or pave the same motivational drivers as others is a way to gain great freedom to live who you really are!  Gallup have a wonderful saying.  “When you Maximize Strengths you Minimize Weaknesses”.

High Talent + Low Challenge = Boredom   (HT + LC = Boredom)
Have you ever thought why you just don’t care?  Have you been in a situation, class, on the field in a group and it doesn’t seem to matter.   There are also times when we make stupid mistakes and they are stupid because what we are doing is easy.  Often it is because your Talent is an 84% level and the challenge, test, material level, teacher’s ability is below a 50% level.  When Talent is not met with an equal of greater Challenge than your Talent capacity, it often means you need to find a better team, harder classes and a greater Challenge.

High Talent + High Challenge = FLOW    (HT + HC = FLOW)
Discovering Talent using the SPIES model means that you can and will experience FLOW when engaged in actions and activities where you possess unique individual Talent.  Some people can experience FLOW doing Algebra equations and others while on stage in acting class.  Some while helping another students navigate the campus and others on the basketball court.  Identifying FLOW is a powerful indication that you have the evidence of Talent in that area of your life.
Remember, for you to find a career and job that you love and will ultimately make you flourish in life, demands you identify where you experience FLOW and make deliberate choices fill your life with Talent challenging options and actions.

Think through this past week.  Where did you experience FLOW?  When you think of different SPIES Zones where have you experienced FLOW?  Take some time to write about those experiences.  Journal each time you experience FLOW?

Impact definition = come into forcible contact with another object, positively affects, positively influences, has a positive effect on, make a positive impression on, moves in a positive direction, deeply touches, positively changes/alters/modifies/transforms/shapes.

Impact Evidence is the result of your Talent connecting with a person, group, organization, idea, movement, situation and the results are positive and long lasting.

Impact Evidence has your Talent uniquely imprinted on it.

What have you done that has had a long lasting effect on someone and positively changed the direction or quality of their life in a positive way?

One way to quantify Impact, your Impact, is to ask the questions:

• How or what is different because I was involved in that situation?

• What is bigger and better because I used my Talent in that situation?

• Whose life is more because I was involved?

Now ask the big question, “What does using my Talent to Impact a situation or a life tell me about me?”  The big answer, “I can make an Impact when I choose to give my Talent in this way…..”

The ability to predict great success in the future means you identify Impact today.  You take those capacities to Impact and make deliberate choices to select classes, find mentors and discover opportunities to develop them.  That will help you create a highly likely pathway to a great job, career and future!

Natural – the capacity to do something over and over again because it is innate to the design.

Talent – the capacity to repeat exceptional actions.

Talents are those patterns of behavior, thinking and motivation that we repeat over and over again because they are part of who we are, our Natural pathway.

A Forensic “Signature” is a way of identifying someone because of their consistent mode of operation.  They repeat behaviors because it is part of their nature.

What have others said you are a Natural at?

What have you always done well that requires little to no thought, training or motivation?

Think about working in a job or career.  What would it be like to be given the opportunity to do what you do best each day?  The opportunity to Repeat your best self!

Witness – a person who gives evidence of what they have seen.

What have you done that has been witnessed by your friends, family, class-mates, work associate, team-mates or others that would be judged to be Exceptional?

Personal, Peer and Eye Witnesses are people who are likely to see us:

• Regularly

• At various times

• Up close and personal

The weight and credibility of Personal, Peer and Eye Witnesses must be assessed by asking about:

• Their relationship to the person they give evidence for or on behalf of.

• The purpose they are giving evidence for.

• Their objectivity because of their relationship.

None of these issues disqualify a Personal, Peer or Eye Witness.  They are very important in identifying and collecting evidence and what they say matters.  They are likely to know us better than anyone else and love us more as well.

What is the greatest action of Talent or Character someone has ever witnessed in you?

What did they say?

How did it impact your life?

Expert Witness – a person who because of experience, education or mastery, can give testimony to the truth of Exceptional Talent.

What have you done that has been witnessed by an Expert that would be judged as Exceptional?

Expert Witnesses are likely to see us:

• In class – a teacher or professor

• At work – a manager, boss or executive

• In a performance venue – sports field, stage, event

The weight and credibility of Expert Witnesses must be assessed by asking about:

• Their credentials in the specific field they are giving evidence of Talent

• Their academic credentials – degrees, schools, etc

• Their performance credentials – length of time with experience in the specific area of Talent

• Their awards and standing in the specific area of Talent assessment

Their relationship to the person they give evidence for or on behalf of is not  personal but primarily  professional.

What Experts have made statements about your SPIES Talent?

How has a statement from an Expert impacted or even changed the direction of your career or college choice?

When did someone you admire say something about your talent that helped you make an important decision about your future?

When did an expert make you change your view of yourself for the positive?

What were the most powerful words and expert ever said about you?

Many Talents have their origin when we are young.  They are simply genetic, in our DNA and are gifts .  We are good or better than average from the first time we attempt them.

Spontaneous (v)  “Coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned: 

What specific activities were you just good, very good or exceptional at the first time you attempted them?

Many experts believe that Talent and Character elements can be observed from the early age of three years old.  They believe specific characteristics about you can be clearly seen when you are very young.

The origination of Talent is often the result of spontaneous action.  We just did it because we just could.

Trace your Talents back and give a date to when you first recognized you were Exceptional.

Ask your parents or siblings about things you did that you were very good at when you were very young.  Make a list of them.  Trace them through your life and see how they have been a part of your history.

Ask friends from kindergarten, pre-school, elementary school what you were good at.  You might be very surprised to discover what they saw in you and how it could open your eyes to more of your amazing Talents and what mattered to you.

What we do when we have the choice and when we are not required to by anyone – identifies traces of Talent.

What we do with our choice of our time – identifies traces of Talent

Look at your: hobbies, recreational activities, books, websites, groups, bookmarks, favorites, places you go and ask what they tell you about your Talents?

Where do you spend most of your free/choice time?

Who do you spend most of your free/choice time with?

Which of your innate Talents or combination of, do you use most in your free/choice time?

• Spiritual/Character?

• Physical?

• Intellectual?

• Emotional?

• Social?

What are the three activities that take up most of your “Choice” time

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both.” James A. Michener 

What SPIES actions produce Positive Emotions in you?

Talent when identified, used and given to others will always generate Positive Emotion.

They result in:

• Feeling Alive

• Joy

• Satisfaction

• Gratitude

• Connectedness

• Community

• Awed

What specific emotions have you experienced this week from using your Talents?  Identify them.

When you think about choices of classes, majors, possible careers and jobs, knowing what Talent actions produce Positive Emotions creates a predictable pathway to a happy life.

When you think about what you do at work, in your close relationships, your activities, clubs, groups, etc.  Where and what is it you do that is exceptional that makes you alive?

There are things we just know.  The evidence doesn’t show us.  The evidence can sometimes point in another direction from what we deeply sense.

Many great discoveries and cases have been solved because of someone following their Intuition.

There are different expressions we use:

• Gut sense

• Intuition

• God’s leading – God’s Spirit

• Shadow – Positive Unconscious

• Inner Voice

Which of these phrases would you best identify “Intuition” in your personal experience?

Intuition is a deep sense of knowing.  It is NOT a simple feeling that comes and goes.

Intuition can be a shadow of Talent that has yet to be lived, attempted or experienced.  Maybe we have always believed we could do something Exceptional but have never been given the opportunity or had the courage to attempt it.

When has your Intuition proved to be accurate?  When have you followed your gut sense and it resulted in a positive outcome?

Who is responsible for your life and future?  Who is the one person you know who can make the choice to move in the direction of fulfilling your dreams?

Don’t wait to identify what it is.  Put words to it.  Maybe taking The StrengthsFinder helped you give words to a Talent you have always known.  You must take the steps of courage to identify and attempt it or live an undiscovered life.