Do I know myself?

“Do I know me?” The thought that immediately comes to my mind is, “I obviously know myself. Big deal?” But after introspecting for a moment, next thought comes, “Do I really know myself?”

Clear knowledge of my personality can be called Self-Awareness. It is accurate understanding of my abilities & preferences. It includes knowing my strong points, where I lack, my thoughts, beliefs, emotions, behaviours. It’s also the understanding of my needs, desires, failing, habits.

Now, the next question that arises in my mind is, “Why? What’s the use of it?” Before trying to find the answer to this question, let’s try to answer a much simpler question. What do I do when I have to find directions to some place on Google Maps? I update/ make visible my current location. Getting any hint??? Self-awareness is updating my current location before finding directions to my destination. Without knowing where I am standing, I can’t choose the direction towards my dream/goal.

So, what can I do to be more self-aware?

Learn to look at yourself objectively. Write down a description about yourself. Think about the stories you like to share about your past. These stories convey information about your traits that you think are your strengths.

Keep a journal of your feelings. Write down how you feel. Learn to pay close attention to your inner world – what you are feeling, what you are saying to yourself, how you are behaving.

Assess your self-talk. Pay attention to what you are talking to yourself. Take a couple of minutes each day to listen to your thoughts. Learn to replace demoralizing, negative talk with motivating positive talk.

Gain different perspectives. Ask for feedback from those around you. As you learn more about yourself & others, you will be able to differentiate between biased or dishonest feedback & real, genuine, balanced feedback.

Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is the quality or state of being aware of something. It is paying attention to present moment, to your inner state as it arises. Mindfulness can be practiced anytime, through mindful listening, mindful eating, mindful talking.

To sum up importance of self-awareness in one line, ‘In order to achieve Self-improvement, one must be self-aware first’.