The ObservatoryPart of your existential wellbeing
Identity
A coherent and relatively secure sense of who one is and what one stands for.
How it's measured
3 statements in the wellbeing assessment, scored from "doesn't apply at all" to "applies completely".
- I have a clear sense of who I am.
- I feel secure in what I stand for.
- My image of myself feels coherent even when life changes.
Where you work with it
The life areas in this section — assess yourself, answer the questions, and track them over time.
Getting started
Exercise
The me without the title
Two thought experiments that strip away roles and titles, one at a time, until what remains becomes clearer
8 min · Compassion
Self-assessment
How is your self-esteem doing?
Six signs that reveal how your self-esteem is actually doing, beyond how it feels on a good day.
4 min · Rationality
Article
Self-esteem can't be talked into being
Mirror affirmations, praise and "you are amazing" never built anyone's self-esteem. What builds it is less glamorous — and doable.
1 min · Rationality
Exercise
Ask someone who knows
Your self-image is built from the inside. The people who see you from the outside hold information you cannot reach on your own, if you dare to ask for it.
15 min · Discipline
Exercise
Your blind spots
Most of this is about being too hard on yourself. This is about the opposite: the places where we see ourselves as better than we are.
12 min · Rationality
Exercise
Try a new role
"I'm just like this" is a hypothesis, not a fact. Write a script for a different you, and play it in a single scene.
13 min · Discipline
Exercise
Two minutes: you are more than this day
Write two lines about something that matters to you, and why, when the day makes you feel small
2 min · Compassion
Session
Your story, from a little distance
A guided moment that lets you see your history as a story with chapters, with warmth rather than judgment
10 min · Compassion
How's your identity?
The wellbeing assessment gives you a profile across all six dimensions, and you see it change over time. Free account, no payment.