You’ll never get a full instruction manual for yourself. You write it a page at a time by paying attention.

Nobody is going to hand you the document, and waiting for one is how people stay vague about themselves for decades. There is no test, no teacher and no quiz that produces it. What exists instead is an accumulation of small noticed things: when you work best, who you are worse around, what you always regret.

Start the file this week and keep it badly, which is the only way it gets kept. A note on your phone, one line whenever something is clearly true. In a year it is the most useful thing you own, and no single entry will have felt important.