A Guide to Using ChatGPT for Self-Reflection and Personal Growth
According to research published in the Harvard Business Review, the most common way people use ChatGPT is to generate ideas. This finding came from an analysis of tens of thousands of posts on forums like Reddit and Quora.
Luckily we covered how to use ChatGPT to generate ideas in the first post in this series. Interestingly, the second most common use case for generative AI was therapy and companionship.
How to use ChatGPT for therapy
The first time I heard of ChatGPT being used in a therapeutic context was when Dan Shipper wrote a post about using GPT-3 to journal as a personal development practice.
Rather than staring with a blank page, he wanted journaling to feel more like a conversation. He would ask GPT-3 to pretend to be someone and then ask him questions:
You are Socrates, please help me with an issue in my life. Please ask me questions to try to understand what my issue is and help me unpack it. You can start the conversation however you feel is best.
Michelle Huang took this a step further in a Twitter thread about feeding her own journal entries into the prompt. This allowed her to have a conversation with a younger version of herself.
The prompt she used to do this was:
The following is a conversation with Present Michelle (age [redacted]) and Young Michelle (age 14). Young Michelle has written the following journal entries: [diary entries here] Present Michelle: [type your question here]
This was way back in 2022. At the time, one of the problems with doing this was limitation on how much text you could put into a prompt in one go. Thankfully the latest models let you work with a lot more text.
If you want to play with an entire year’s worth of journal entries then you can pay for the latest version of Claude and squeeze a ludicrous 500 pages of information into a single prompt.
If you do decide to use ChatGPT therapeutically, I recommend you turn your Chat History off so that your deepest darkest thoughts are not being used to train future ChatGPT models.
Using ChatGPT to Do a Yearly Review
Dr. Gena Gorlin, a guest on the “Every” podcast, shared her process of using ChatGPT to analyze her journal for a yearly review. She fed ChatGPT years’ worth of journal entries and engaged in a series of prompts to gain insights and guidance for the coming year.
First, Gena asked ChatGPT to read through her journal entries, saying that she was working on her 2023 year in review and gave it 5 years worth of journal entries.
She received a synthesized overview with key elements from each year, basically her recent life story neatly placed on a timeline.
Next, she asked ChatGPT to identify major themes that might emerge in the coming year based on the patterns in her entries, using the prompt:
"are there any major themes you anticipate emerging for me in the coming year given the patterns you see in my entries to date?"
She then asked ChatGPT to identify her potential blind spots for the coming year, and followed this up by asking for suggestions on the most impactful goals and intentions to set, using the prompt:
"what would you suggest is the highest leverage goals and intentions for me to set in the coming year?"
Conversely, she also asked ChatGPT about goals she should avoid setting, saying:
"what goals maybe I shouldn't be setting for the coming year you know in the spirit of being able to say no to things?"
When ChatGPT repeatedly mentioned “work-life balance”, not a term Gena uses often, she asked it to analyze her distinct perspective on work-life integration based on her journal entries, using the prompt:
"I don't actually like the phrase work life balance what insights have I in fact articulated about this in my journal and what's my distinct perspective on it if you can tell?"
She followed up by asking how she might specifically struggle with work-life integration in the coming year, and then inquired about high-leverage activities specifically related to a specific goal.
Finally, she asked ChatGPT to summarize and consolidate everything they had discussed during the session.
Your Turn
You can replicate Gena’s process by following these step-by-step instructions:
Compile your journal entries from the desired time period. If you don’t have any journal entries there is an alternative exercise for you below.
Ask ChatGPT to read through your entries and provide a summary of major themes, patterns, and insights (e.g., “I’m working on my [year] review and I’ve compiled my journal entries from the past [time period]. I’d like your help in analyzing and organizing my thoughts. [insert journal entries]”).
Seek specific insights: Ask targeted questions to gain deeper insights, such as:
What major themes do you anticipate emerging for me in the coming year, given the patterns in my entries?
What might my blind spots be in the coming year?
What high-leverage goals and intentions would you suggest I set for the coming year?
What goals maybe I shouldn’t be setting for the coming year?
Iterate and refine: Based on ChatGPT’s responses, continue the conversation by asking follow-up questions, providing additional context, or asking for clarification on specific points.
Summarize and plan: When you’re finished, ask ChatGPT to provide a final summary of your conversation and use this as a foundation for creating your own action plan or setting intentions for the coming year.
An Alternative Approach for People Without Journal Entries
If you don’t have any existing journal entries, you can still use ChatGPT for self-reflection and personal growth.
Try initiating a thoughtful discussion with the following prompt by Dr. Gena Gorlin:
"I want to have a thoughtful discussion to help me understand what I value and why. Please start by asking me what are some feelings that have come up especially strongly in this past week? For each feeling I name, ask me what I care about such that I feel this? Keep asking me why that's important to me until we get to a pretty core value (sort of like the 5 whys). At the end, summarize our conversation and the values that we identified. Ask questions one at a time rather than all at once."
Remember to approach the process with an open and curious mindset, and be willing to engage in multiple rounds of conversation with ChatGPT to refine and deepen your insights. It’s important to note that while ChatGPT can be a helpful tool for self-reflection, it is not a substitute for professional mental health support when needed.
If you found this post interesting, consider subscribing to the current series, where I share stories of how people use ChatGPT in different ways and provide 15-20 minute exercises to cover the most common use cases. The goal is to help you spend more time playing with ChatGPT so that you can discover new ways to use it in your life and work.
Josh Pitzalis 