The Top 30 Personal Development Questions For Women's Growth

Here’s a list of timeless questions for personal development that’ll make you thrive as a woman, becoming your best self.

In this guide you will find:

- quizzes and tests to know yourself better
- practical exercises for self-discovery
- questions to ask your family and friends to increase self-awareness
- questions to ask yourself to reflect and develop your mindset

Once you start a personal growth journey, you never want to stop. You realize that self development has no limit. And the more you know about yourself, the more you can glow up.

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Tips for answering the questions for personal development

Sometimes, challenging yourself can be overwhelming. You might not want to answer all the questions at once.

Everyone has their own rhythm for self growth. It all depends on where you are in your journey, whether you’re healing or just trying to raise your self awareness.

The first thing I suggest you’d do before starting is get into the right mindset. Self development doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. Time to learn, to understand, to practise.

You don’t wake up one day living up to everything you learned. It’s a process, and you’ll make mistakes.

So be indulgent with yourself. And take all the time you need.

Some of the questions for personal development here require some preparation. And every time you are annoyed with yourself for learning so slowly… remember that you can’t heal years of trauma in a only few days. Sometimes it takes months, and even year!

You might also like this post:

> Why is it Important to Know Yourself Better to Be Happy

What you will find in this personal development guide

That post is not just list of questions for personal development. It’s a list of the questions AND activities for personal development that can really move the needle in your self growth journey.

These are the best exercises I did myself in my healing and self improvement journey. The ones that I learned the most from and that made a real difference.

Whenever I feel lost and I need guidance, I can come back to it.

This guide is a holistic approach to get to know yourself better and see how you are perceive from an outside perspective.

What this guide consists of:

- quizzes and tests
- practical exercises
- questions to ask your family and friends
- questions to ask yourself

What topics it covers:

- your needs
- your values
- your personal style
- your attachment style
- your purpose

What it will help you do:

- understand yourself (self awareness)
- understand how your are perceived
- understand your patterns
- discover your preferences

The long term results you’ll get if you’re willing to do the work:

- Discover your passion and purpose
- Increase self confidence
- Be happier
- Breaking your patterns
- Be happier

How to make the most of the questions for personal development

First, I really suggest you don’t answer the questions all at once.

The questions require deep reflection. Give yourself time to understand the true meaning of each question. Give yourself time to answer.

Journal about it. Highlight what you want to remember. Journal about it again.

Some questions have sub-questions. These are only here to help you understand the true meaning of the main question. They act as a guidance. Feel free to journal about every one of them, but make sure to answer the bigger question.

So, ready? Let’s jump right into it!

Are you new to journaling? You might like the following post:

> Easy Journaling Prompts for Beginners (What and How to Write)

1. The best Self-Reflection questions for personal development for women

Alright. Now it’s time to grab your journal and dive into deep self-reflection for those questions for personal development.

There’s only 4 big questions. These are simple but deep questions. They are simply the best questions for personal development and self-reflection. They aim to raise self awareness and to look deeper inside of you.

You really know yourself when you can answer these questions without hesitation.

Then, if you scroll down there is a list of many sub-questions to help you find the answer.

1. What is my biggest fear?

Why you should ask yourself this question

Digging deeper into our fears says a lot about our purpose, true aspiration and biggest dreams.

Knowing your biggest fears also gives you the courage to face them. Plus, it gives a solid hint on what your biggest block in life is.

The fear of failure is a very common fear. Your biggest fear might be the thing you’re the most afraid to fail at. Meaning… you should probably try it.

If you’re afraid to fail at something, that means it’s important for you.

2. What is my purpose?

Why you should ask yourself this question

Having a sense of purpose makes us feel alive. It gives meaning to our life. If you really want to dig deeper within yourself, that question is necessary. It requires knowing yourself on a deeper level.

When you know what your purpose is, you start living a life that makes sense. And it becomes very easy to get rid of everything that doesn’t serve your purpose.

When we are driven by a purpose, we automatically get rid of anything doesn’t align anymore.

Recommended book: Start With Why, by Simon Sinek

3. What am I ashamed of?

Why you should ask yourself this question

Shame is a huge obstacle in living live at its fullest. Shame is the reason people dim their light. Perfectionist is lead by shame.

Women are often too hard on themselves because of an outdated ideal of the strong woman they need to be. Knowing what we are deeply ashamed of will help unlock true happiness. Because when we heal shame, the true self starts to show up. Shame makes us hide the side of us that we believe inadequate. Inadequate enough to not deserve to be loved. That’s powerful.

Getting rid of your shame will unlock the true self as a woman.

Recommended books:

> The gifts of imperfection – Brenee Brown

> Braving the wilderness – Brenee Brown

> Untamed – Glennon Doyle

4. Who am I?

Why you should ask yourself this question

If I ask you to describe your best friend, would you be able to? Pretty well actually huh? You would probably be able to predict her behaviour in any given situation.

Are you able to give the same exhaustive description of yourself? Including your strengths, challenges, patterns, main personality traits, and so on?

One of my friend’s therapist asked her “Who are you?”. She needed a moment. She didn’t know how to answer. For most of us, that’s a question we can’t answer so easily.

Recommended books

1. Letting Go, by David R. Hawkins.

This book is about resilience and processing hard feelings. It’s meant to help you find internal peace and live a happier life.

2. Atomic Habits, by James Clear

That book will show you step by step how to create (and keep) the habits that will help you achieve all your goals.

2. Quizzes and tests for Personal Development

These quizzes are taken from other authors, mostly from books. I obviously recommend to read the book to get the most out of it. Quizzes are helpful, but knowing how to deal with the results is even more useful.

Click here to shop the books

Most quizzes are about relationships. Or at least, they aim to help breaking relationship patterns, increase self-awareness around relationships and improve communication, which is useful in every area of life.

I found the results of these personal development quizzes very helpful not only for relationships, but to get to know myself better.

1. The Compatibility Quiz

From the book “Attached“ by Dr. Amir Levine and Rachel S. F. Heller

Subject: Relationships

Results: Your attachment style, or how you tend to behave in relationships

In the book: Description of the attachment styles; typical examples of behaviours and reactions of each style; tips to communicate efficiently in a relationship

Click here to shop the book “Attached“

Why you should take the quiz (and read the book!!!)

First of all, “Attached” is still to this day the best book I have ever read. My therapist recommended this book to me.

After reading it, I have recommended it to soooo many friends. They all read it; they had to, you should have seen my excitement talking about it. And they all had enlightenment moments, too. Everyone loved it.

I read this book to understand what the heck was my problem after a recent break up. Why would my relationships never work? I was ready to make a change. This book moved the needle for me, big time. It helped me understand my patterns and gave me tools to break them.

One of the reason women want to heal for is for better relationships. We want to find a good partner and feel fulfilled. We want to break our patterns and build a healthy relationship.

Well, if that’s something you want, read Attached.

Whether you just got out of a relationship or you’ve been single for a while, this book will help you.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE COMPATIBILITY QUIZ NOW (FREE)

Click here to shop the book “Attached“

2. The Emotional Index Quiz

From the book: “The Secret Laws of Attraction” by Talane Miedaner

Subject: Needs and values, related to relationships

Results: Your top emotional needs, or what values are the most important to you

In the book: In-depth description of the needs; tips to fulfill it yourself; tips to have it fulfilled through your relationships

Click here to shop the book “The Secret Laws of Attraction“

Why you should take the quiz (and read the book!!!)

The author wrote this book to help women find a fulfilling and healthy relationship.

However, this book is about fundamental needs. In my opinion, whether you’re on a quest to find a relationship or not, you should read it.

The main idea behind this book is that to have a fulfilling relationship, you must not depend on your partner to fulfill all your emotional needs. That’s why you must first know what those needs are, but also know how to get them fulfilled.

Strong connections are built when emotional needs are communicated properly.

Each individual has their most important emotional needs. This quiz tells you what those are for you. And the book teaches how to fulfill your needs, by yourself and with the help of your partner.

Click here to TAKE THE EMOTIONAL INDEX QUIZ NOW (free)

Click here to shop the book “The Secret Laws of Attraction“

3. The Love Language Quiz

From the book “The 5 Love Languages“, by Gary Chapman

Results: Your top 3 love languages (how you most need to be loved to feel loved)

In the book: Description of each of the 5 love languages and how to speak them

Click here to shop the book “The 5 Love Languages“

Why you should take the quiz (and read the book)

The 5 Love Languages is not my favourite relationship book but it’s very insightful. The book teaches you how you need to be loved to feel loved.

The author explains that we tend to give love the way we want to be loved. But in order to make our partner feel loved, we need to love them how they need to be loved. And their needs might be very different from ours.

In the book, each of the 5 love languages are explained. There are a lot of examples and it is very relatable.

When you finish reading, you will understand what your top love languages are. If you have a partner, you will understand his or hers as well.

The book is insightful, but it is not very practical to know your love language if you are not able to communicate it with your partner. I would still recommend to take the quiz since it’s another tool added in your toolbox for knowing yourself better.

click here to TAKE THE LOVE LANGUAGE QUIZ NOW (FRee)

Click here to shop the book “The 5 Love Languages“

4. The CliftonStrengths Assessment

Assessment developed by psychologist Don Clifton

Cost: from $20

Results (basic test): A detailed report of your top 5 individual strengths and how to use them

I really recommend you read about them on their website. I feel that it is so much more than what I’m describing below. However, here’s a short sum up:

Gallup is a global firm of coaching with a main focus on workplace and students. Its founder, a psychologist, is the pioneer of strength based-psychology.

The test is an online talent assessment which is validated and reliable (means that it’s based on scientific research).

The main purpose of its creator was to focus on strengths rather than weaknesses. He believed that we become great when we focus and cultivate our strengths rather than try to fix our weaknesses.

Okay. I know how it sounds.

Bottom line, what it means is that the results shows you your top individual strengths. Those are strengths that do not change over time since they are what you naturally do well. Then, you can cultivate those strengths to thrive.

Depending on your goals, there are several tests you can choose from. The basic test gives you a report of your top 5 strengths.

In my opinion, this is very powerful, especially if you feel lost and are trying to change careers. This detailed report based on scientific research is unique to you. It’s yours.

It is hence very insightful and it shifts the focus from what is wrong with you to what is right.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE CLIFTONSTRENGTHS ASSESSMENT NOW (20$)

Want more book recommendations?

Click here to shop my list of the best personal growth books for women

3. Questions to ask your friends and family for personal development

Inspired by the book “Reinventing you“, by Dorie Clark

When I quit my job as a physical therapist, I didn’t have an idea of what I wanted to do next. Especially for a career.

A friend recommended a book, Reinventing you, by Dorie Clark. So I read it, obviously. It gave me powerful tools to get to know myself better so I could follow an authentic path for my life with the purpose of finding a new career.

My favourite part was the activities she suggested to assess my current situation. And that was: to interview the ones who know you best.

This was SO insightful. A game-changer in my journey to get to know myself better. One of the most powerful ways I got to know myself better is by understanding how I was perceived in the world.

Asking our friends questions about yourself not only gives you a better idea of how you are perceived, but it boost your self-esteem.

We often only see what’s wrong with us. Our friends and family, however, see what’s beautiful about us. When trying to overcome fears, guilt and people-pleasing, this is very important.

The creator of this interview suggests to ask your people, individually, to do an interview. You want to take about an hour of their time and undivided attention. Then you can both sit together, turn off your phones and make the most out of it.

The most important thing to remember, when you go ahead, is that you should only LISTEN to their answers. No discussing their answers. To make the most of it, you need to leave your ego out of the room and be ready to receive feedback.

I strongly recommend that you read the exact steps Dorie Clark suggest in her book Reinventing you before going ahead with the interviews.

One last thing: the main focus of the author is career change. So some of the questions are career oriented. If that’s not your main focus, you can still use the other questions for personal development.

So, here are my personal favourite questions for personal development to ask your friends and family. Some are from the book, but I might have added some that I wanted to ask my friends.

1. Which 3 words would best describe me?
2. What are my strengths?
3. What are my blind spots?
4. Who do I remind you of? Why?
5. Which city in the world represents me best?
6. Why are you my friend, what do you like about me?
7. If you didn’t already know what I do for a living, what would you guess and why?
8. What kind of job do you see me doing and what kind of work should I absolutely not do? (field, tasks, conditions)
9. What kind of tasks would you blindly trust me for, and what kind of tasks would you not rely on me for?

Learn more about The Personal 360 Interview suggested by Dorie Clark