Two perspectives can help to develop self-knowledge.

• The "inside" view. This kind of self-awareness you gain from life experiences, such as a breakup, or finally knowing what you want in life. This knowledge underpins much of our motivation but tends to be hard to write down.
• The "outside" view. You can gain this perspective from reading psychology, economics, neuroscience, and religion. This perspective doesn't explain your situation but can offer ideas for all situations.

Wisdom is gained from experience. But our experience is also very narrow and a fragment of the possible lives we could have lived.

• We can broaden our range of experience by trying a bunch of things. While this may sound silly to someone who is struggling, it is often...