Permission-based Questions

I’ve noticed a surge of bloggers writing about questions we should be asking ourselves.  Questions like, “Are you realizing your full potential?  Is there value and fulfillment in your work today?  How do you define fun; and are you having any?”   I think that’s all well and good, and I particularly like the how the philosopher Ed Brenegar makes you think.  However, when these questions are asked of you by another person rather than yourself, they can be construed as quite confrontational, intense, or fierce.  That’s fine if a relationship of trust exists, and the “asker” has permission to probe, or the questions are invited.  An intense curiosity about what makes people tick can be a source of enlightenment, but you have to remember that intense questions can seem more like an interrogation rather than a reciprocal conversation of friends threaded with an implication of trust.  Are you asking yourself the hard questions first?