Reading the Traces: discover your abilities in real situations
Describe one real situation question by question and see what your actions there show, and what stays open. No scores, no diagnosis.
Reading the Traces
What do your actions really show?
Reading the Traces is a structured approach from my coaching practice. You describe one specific situation from your life, question by question, and then see what your actions there show, what that is drawn from, and what stays open.
Go to the exercise
How it works
Eight questions on a real situation
Stays in your browser
No artificial intelligence
How the exercise works
One story takes about 15 to 25 minutes.
Choose a situation
One particular day from your life, not a general habit.
Answer eight questions
What the situation required, what you did, what your part was, what changed and what it cost you.
Your reading first, then decide
You say first what the story shows. Then the page suggests a reading made of your answers, and you decide whether it fits.
Go further if you like
Compare several stories, clarify what your goal requires and choose a voluntary next step.
Your record
To print, save as a file or bring to a conversation.
What this exercise can and cannot do
It can
make visible what you did in particular situations
show, for every statement, which of your answers it comes from
leave open questions open
It does not
measure anything or give scores
make diagnoses or prove fixed traits
draw conclusions from one story about every situation; whether something works elsewhere is something you can try out
Everything rests on your own account. And if no example comes to mind, that does not mean you are missing something.
Your options: You can skip any question, change or reject any reading, pause at any time and delete everything. If something weighs on you heavily, choose “I need support right now”. The exercise then stops interpreting.
Find A Helpline | findahelpline.com, free and confidential helplines in over 175 countries, by phone, text or chat TelefonSeelsorge (Germany, in German) | 0800 111 0 111 or 116 123, free, day and night Emergency number in the EU | 112
Your data
Your answers are only kept in this browser’s storage (localStorage), not on our server and not with an AI service. This version uses no artificial intelligence.
Deleted when you want
With “Delete everything”, when you clear this site’s data in your browser, or the next time the page opens after 30 days without a change. Anyone using the same device and browser can see them.
Sent only with your booking
Something is sent only if you choose “Bring it to the free intro call” and then confirm a booking. On the booking page you see beforehand what goes along and can untick it.
Reading the Traces in coaching
Reading the Traces is a conversation at heart. In coaching we reconstruct your stories together, I ask follow-up questions where this page cannot, and you decide about every reading.
This page is a way in and a preparation. You can bring your record to the free 20-minute intro call.
Reading the Traces is a structured approach from my coaching practice. It has not been scientifically tested.