Personality Questionnaire Q21

Self-Examination - the 7 Fundamentals in Life

LINK to ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE ​

1) Q21 is a self-examination exercise that clearly identifies the seven foundational themes of life and how well a person is dealing with them. For ourselves or another, we can quickly and easily see where to direct attention to resolve important issues. The 21 questions access the deeper dimensions of personality and can trigger unconscious processes of self-expression that normally remain dormant.
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2) The underlying philosophy is explained most fully by Sufism’s 7 Planes of Consciousness. However in a simplified version of this, the 7 Words System identifies the 7 realms of life experience with 7 primary words: No Hello Thanks Goodbye Please Sorry and Yes. When we master each of these – which we can see as archetypes – then we manage our lives effectively and progress to greater levels of creative self-expression wherein we enjoy a widening of horizons, abundance and joy, meaningful involvements and shared visionary goals, and we learn from our mistakes how to live with greater spiritual awareness.

Use as a Counselling Tool

3) Using Q21 as a counselling tool we must centre ourselves in the heart and always remember to maintain empathy with the client. This requires excellent listening. Firstly we hear the specific words that are offered yet additionally we have to be very sensitive to the hidden meaning within them. And of course the scores are very revealing. Someone who enters a very low score is clearly identifying and issue they want to talk about. This is probably a difficult topic for them yet we can raise the subject much more easily by discussing it as a number – ‘I see you have put a 4 for this question can you say more about that? This begins a conversation that needs to be handled very tactfully and with kindness.

4) Q21 brings realizations and in an awakening person this will lead to a decision. It is not necessary to push hard for such a decision yet a gentle suggestion can be very helpful sometimes. ‘Do you need to join a club? Do you need to establish stronger boundaries? Might you get along better with your children if you showed the appreciation you feel? Gently done and without judgment, this can be a powerful turning point.
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5) Other questions can support self-improvement, such as: ‘You scored 8 here, what needs to change for that to be a 9?’. This will create an attitude of mind that is directed to find creative ways to improve. Or, more generally: ‘What do you feel you can do differently to improve one or more of these scores?’

Dealing with Issues

6) We need to consider the limitation of the questionnaire. It is a generalised overview of personality at a given moment in time and is self-referential so entirely subjective. A week later some of the scores will be different, and if we specified a given context – at home, at work, with friends, with strangers – the scores would differ significantly. Yet there will always be an underlying trend that indicates the general contours of the personality. These indicators change over time, especially if the exercise is repeated say weekly or monthly, wherein improved scores are to be expected. This occurs slowly and the underlying pattern usually does not change very much.
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7) Most people stumble along with little or no willingness to engage in serious self-reflection, perhaps in the belief that ‘Things are not too bad and life isn't meant to be a bed of roses.’ Yet when they see and accept clear written evidence of their own self-appraisal scores, they may think about what the inner voice is saying. Usually one or more of the scores indicates sincere dissatisfaction. Happily this can be addressed when it is identified – but only when - and this is made possible with Q21.