The mimetic desire audit

A Targeted Inquiry for discerning which of your goals and desires truly resonate with you, and which came from external sources like parents, culture, etc, and are not leading you in the direction of a flourishing life.

This exercise is pretty involved compared to other inquiries in The Forest. So I'd recommend setting aside about an hour to go through it.

Step 1: Brainstorm Goals & Desires

Ideally, you'd do The desire audit prior to this, but you can also do a quick version.

Set a timer for 10 minutes, and do some Freewriting or Freespeaking on these prompts. Get as many ideas out as possible.

• I want...
• My current goals are...
• I am striving for...
• I want my business to...
• I'd be creatively fulfilled if...

Step 2: Synthesize & Rank

Review everything from step 1, and create a list of recurring desires, goals, and themes.

Rank them by which ones are taking the most of your time and energy right now.

Step 3: Investigate Your Desires

There are a couple of ways to approach the list you just made.

First, you can review the list and let your intuition, and your felt sense of resonance/dissonance, help you separate the wheat from the chaff. You can also combine your intuitive sense with some freewriting or freespeaking for this too.

Step 3A: What's your intuition saying about the list you just made?

• Which of these desires feel resonant and exciting? Why?
• Which of them feel like heavy obligations, or like something you think you should do?

The second way, if your intuition feels a bit muddy (which it often is when it comes to work like this), is to take the top goal or desire from your list, and put it through its paces. Use more freewriting or freespeaking to figure out where it originated, and whether it's resonant.

Then repeat the process for other desires on your list, especially the ones that are taking up the most of your time right now.

Step 3B: Where did this desire come from?

• The first time I remember wanting this is...
• This desire came from...
• The people who most influenced me are...

Step 3C: Will this desire help me flourish?

• When I pursue this desire, I feel...
• Would I want to trade lives with the people who first inspired this desire?
• If I make it to my deathbed having fully lived out this desire, will I be proud of my life?