what’s important to you, and writing it down. There are a lot of guides for writing personal mission statements online, but I find most of them fairly cheesy, so I’ll distill the process into prompts that I find helpful.

### Questions for Reflection

One place to start is to think of who you admire, and what qualities you admire in them. Maybe they’re some famous scientist, maybe they’re a family member, friend, or colleague. What do they embody that you admire? These don’t have to be perfect people, they don’t have to embody who you want to be in every aspect of their being– the important thing is to think about [**why**]{} you admire them. 

What do you see as your purpose? What is important to you? When you do something that feels like an accomplishment, why does it feel that way? In all of this, it is helpful to be as honest and non-judgmental with yourself as possible– for example, perhaps you like giving public talks because you feel as though you are helping people understand the universe, but perhaps you also like being on stage and performing for a crowd. One of these is driven by an urge 