My 30 Favorite Ice-Breaker Questions

Hi All! Dr. Emily Anhalt here. I hate small talk. But a great ice-breaker question can shift an interaction from surface-level niceties to connection-building exploration.

Use these with friends, colleagues, partners, or as self-reflection. They range in level of intimacy - choose the one that's right for your situation:

✨ Who is one person who changed your life but doesn't know it?

🔪 If you were a kitchen utensil, which one would you be and why?

😎 What mattered to your high-school self more than anything else?

📢 If you were handed a megaphone and could blast out one message for the entire world to hear, what would you say?

🧠 What’s one thing that you’ve changed your mind about lately?

🖌 If your life is a story and at this point you're in chapter two, when did you go from chapter one to chapter two (or in other words, what‘s been the most significant moment of change in your life thus far)?

📚 What would the title of your autobiography be?

👀 If you walked into a room with everyone you've ever met in it, who would you look for?

❤️ If all of your romantic partner’s personality traits / attributes were going into a bag and you could only guarantee that they’d get three of them back, which three would you choose?

🎶 What's your hype song (the song that would play as you enter the arena)?

🕰 If you could, would you rather spend a day with your younger self or your older self?

🔥 F*ck, marry, kill: your own personality traits…

🎅🏽 What is something that you learned much later in life than most people?

🍱 What’s your death-row last meal (pick a main dish, two sides, a drink, and a dessert)?

🔮 What’s a story from your childhood that, looking back, predicted what you do for a living today?

🎯 If you were on Jeopardy and could pick your Final Jeopardy category, what would you pick to give yourself the best chance of winning?

🤯 What’s something that you assumed was true for everyone that you later found out is only true for you / your family?

🚚 If you could win a lifetime supply of any one thing, what would you choose?

🏆 What's one thing you always wanted that you have now?

🧸 What is your number one comfort item?

3️⃣ What are three words your best friend would use to describe you?

👩‍👦 What is one thing your parents did right? And what's one thing you wish they'd done differently?

🏎 If you were physically invincible for one day, what would you spend the day doing?

💪 What is a big strength of yours that can also sometimes be a weakness?

🌅 If you woke up tomorrow and your life had magically leveled up, how would you know? What would be different?

💀 The zombie apocalypse is coming - who are the three people you’d want on your team?

🎭 What is one thing you love that most people hate, and one thing you hate that most people love?

🪄 If you could magically develop any one skill, which would you choose?

🦸🏻‍♀️ What is your micro-superpower? (ex: can tell when it's going to rain, heightened sense of smell, can always open jars, etc.)

😊 Where are you, what are you doing, and who are you with when you're most content?

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Enjoying these ice-breakers? Order my book for more!