The most important skill you can possess is the ability to discover your true self. It is easier to know what to do when you know who you are rather than seeking approval from others. By putting your time into the right things you can avoid tons of frustration. Trial and error are an inevitable part of life, but this lets you experiment in the best areas. Knowing yourself will help you become more confident, understand your purpose, and be able to make a greater impact on the world.
So how can you find out who you are and what you should do with your life? To know who you are, follow these six steps:
1. Be quiet.
If you do not take the time to be still, you will not be able to discover yourself. There are many people who don’t know themselves because silence scares them; being alone with every flaw staring back at them is too uncomfortable for them. But only when you get alone, evaluate yourself, and are completely honest with yourself will you be able to see every aspect of your life-both the good and the bad. Be quiet and discover who you really are.
2. Realize who you truly are, not who you want to be.
While you may already have a firm idea of who you want to be, it may not be who you were designed to be. Once you know who you are, you can finally see how your gifts fit into the bigger picture.
It is best to begin your journey of discovering yourself by taking a personality test and the StrengthsFinder test.
The self-evaluations are not perfect, but they do pinpoint your top strengths, so you can focus on making the change you’re meant to make in the world. (If you’ve completed either of them in the past five years, go over them again.)
3. Find out what you are good at (and not good at).
You may find that this is the most difficult step in discovering who you truly are, but it’s a necessary one. Yes, it takes trial and error to find what you’re good at, and no, I don’t want you to give up before you’ve tried more than enough times. However, knowing when to quit is a gift that every person needs to acquire.
When you have put in enough time and your efforts are not paying off, stop. How much time is enough? That’s up to you. When you quit correctly, you’re not giving up, you’re making room for something better. When your actions drain you rather than increase your passion and drive to do more, it’s time to move on. Know yourself by your strengths.
4. Find what you are passionate about.
Having a passion for anything is a good thing, and you should pay attention to it when it comes because it shows you an area of your life you need to focus on. Following your passion in work is a good thing. If we’re talking about having more passion for life, that’s a good thing. If you focus more on passion and understand yourself better, you will make a bigger impact. Passion produces effort, and continuous effort produces results, which lead to a deeper discovery of self.
5. Ask for feedback.
Hearing what others have to say about you can be helpful if you don’t know yourself. Ask them two simple questions: “What strengths do you think I need to develop further?” and “What weaknesses do you think I need to work on?” Of course, their opinion isn’t going to be perfect, but their feedback will probably indicate a few areas you should at least take a second look at. This step is especially important for those who are stuck in finding themselves. Sometimes those closest to us can see something we might not be able to see in ourselves.
6. Assess your relationships.
In your relationships, you can discover a lot about yourself. The importance of knowing yourself becomes even more apparent when you realize you’ll never know anyone else until you know yourself. It is especially important for business leaders, since if you don’t know the people on your team, then you will be lost as a leader. Of course, this rule applies to any kind of relationship. Other people also need to know who you are almost as much as you need to know yourself. The real you is what people need.
Reflections can help you overcome your biggest fears because when you understand who you are, your purpose will finally become bigger than your fears. Spend less time spinning your wheels when you realize who you are. You can make a bigger and better difference in the world by focusing on your strengths. You will find more peace and success if you know yourself.
Take action today and discover your true self.
By,
Tarannum Yogesh Dobriyal