Knowing yourself

[BillyTheAdult]

I have been trying to do online dating as you may well have read. I'm also making serious efforts to improve my life in about every other way imaginable.
Anyway on these sites they have questionnaires and they also ask you to make just brief descriptions of yourself. I'm finding I'm having a hard time describing myself or really even knowing some very basic self knowledge information. Much of it is probably there if I just look and some aspects probably need some development. There was a time where I would have called myself the most in touch with myself person I know. Now not so much.

Anyway my question is this: What are some good exercises to sort of elicit my own values, questions I can ask of myself, or even books that may be full of these types of things (but only if they're really good, I don't really want to take on more reading projects) in order to gain insight into my own inner workings.

[Somnium Dico]

It seems like you have a good starting point in the form of the questionnaire from the dating website you're subscribing to. From the sounds of it, many of the questions have quite a bit of depth to them. Why not start there?

Find one of the questions they ask that stumps you, and instead of staring at the screen trying to think of an appropriate response, go off and meditate on the question. Really delve deep, find the answer to that question, and most importantly, take the time to make sure you didn't fabricate that answer to sound like the most desirable one.

After you've done that, go back to the site and find the next question that stumped you. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Hopefully, after doing this for a few questions, you'll be able to think of your own questions to ask yourself. I can't think of any specific literature to recommend about this subject, but honestly, I think sometimes a little alone time to think is all a person needs to get to know themselves.

Best of luck, mate. I'll be looking forward to future updates from ya.

[Clint Cora]

I would ask this question to some closer friends or relatives that know you well. See what they have to say about you. You might even be surprised at their answers. Also, knowing where you want to be in terms of development also says a lot about the type of person you are.

[Ilikeindowem]

I've never understood how one cannot know oneself. Perhaps we cannot 100%, but surely via life experience we know who we are and what are capabilities are.

Attitudes, values, thoughts, beliefs, etc. all stem from experience.