Know Yourself Cards

It can be hard to understand who we really are: what we want, how we feel and why we react as we do. This lack of self-knowledge can lead us into unhappy relationships, unsatisfactory jobs, and unsustainable spending habits. No wonder Socrates summed up all the counsel of philosophy in just two words: ‘Know Yourself’.

These Know Yourself Prompt Cards are designed to assist us in a journey of self-knowledge. They present us with a range of ideas and questions that encourage self-reflection, allowing us to become a little more aware of what we really need and what our priorities and potential might be. Each card carries an exercise on one side and a piece of analysis on the reverse to help you gain insight and clarity on that ever elusive subject: yourself.

Example Cards

• Q: If I knew I couldn’t fail, in my professional life, I’d try to…
  A: We are often so scared of being humiliated by the gap between our aspirations and our reality that we don’t even dare to voice any aspiration – thereby conclusively ensuring that it can never come true. We owe it to ourselves to state what we deep down feel we could do and be – even if it never comes right.
• Q: What sort of things have made you envious recently?
  A: We’re taught to be appalled by envy and never to feel it. But the things and people we envy in fact provide us with a very important map of our desires – which can teach us vital clues about ourselves. Keep a diary of envious feelings; and allow an autobiography of your future to emerge from it.

The design is graphically minimal, using neutral colours and a nostalgic Swiss 1950s typeface to set the tone for uncluttered thinking.

How to Use the Cards

You might…

• Lay out the cards out on a table and contemplate the questions at hand.
• Go through one card each day to fully focus on each question and encourage long term self reflection.
• Note down with a pen and paper some of the changes you would like to make and inner milestones you would like to reach moving forward.