Do you know yourself? Do you know who you are and what you want in life? Let me share why I came up with these questions and why I think this is important.
I thought I knew myself very well from the young age. I thought I am not much of a sports person, I love studies, I love to become a teacher and I would never be interested in politics. I thought I’m a shy person, cannot easily get along with girls.
But it was only after my undergrad that I realized I was deluding myself about knowing myself. Not knowing myself was becoming obvious.
I loved making a lot of friends, never restricted to a few selected ones. It was not until I started playing some sports that I realized I love to play sports. Both indoor and outdoor. The traveler in me was apparent only after I started traveling recently. It came to me as a surprise that I love to hike. I learned that I love charity activities but only after I participated in them a few times.
What stood out from these is, I had some assumptions about myself and they were getting broken when I went ahead and tried doing things for the first time. Glad that I was trying out things but I was worried at times for having false assumptions about myself. I thought I’m lacking in those skills. Totally concerned about missing something obvious. But then I came across this somewhere.
You’re not born knowing yourself. Get over it.
This struck me like anything and eased me a bit. Started acknowledging that it is normal to not know yourself. I became more curious. Started spending more time towards that and made it a priority. Over time, I learned that you do not get to know yourself simply by growing up and growing old.
Knowing yourself is a conscious effort; you do it with intention and purpose.
What purpose? The goal of coming to know yourself should be to — ultimately look inward so that you might look outward with greater clarity, patience, and compassion. The goal should be to know why you are doing the things that you are doing.
Since then, I started setting better goals. Spending time productively without confusion. Playing well with my strengths and weaknesses.
The best of all, I am excited to try something for the first time because I would know how good I’m and how am I going to like it. Be it a new cuisine, new sport, a new kind of conversation or any other thing.
So, I wanted to suggest you, the reader, to realize the importance of self-awareness, know yourself and order your life. Try new things, push your limits and break all the false assumptions you have always had.
Thanks for reading. I would love to hear your perspective as well so please comment if you have any interesting stories about “knowing yourself”.