Self-Discovery - Part 1

Enlightenment begins with self-discovery = your biggest asset

Self-discovery is the biggest asset you can have if you want to be successful in life. This is what you need in order to choose the right career, the right relationship and the right social circle.

Learning how to be more self-aware is probably going to be the best thing you’ve ever spent time on. Learning what you’re good at and bad at; your strengths and weaknesses is super important to your personal development.

If you want to move from one city to another you need now in which city you are now on the map. Similarly, self-discovery is like knowing where you are. Self-awareness is like knowing where you are on the map of life so that you can chart a course to your destination. Here are four tips on developing self-awareness. I will share these tips in four separate articles. This is part one.

1.  Keep a journal: the first tip to becoming self-aware is to keep a journal. Numerous studies have shown that people who keep a journal a happier and more successful. The whole point of this exercise is to become more in tune with how you are feeling every day. This gives you the opportunity to look at these feelings and own them.

The value of the writing is not in the writing itself but in reading it when you are in a different of mind. There is a very clear distinction between keeping a journal and writing a diary. Writing a diary does not have a specific end other than just writing down what happened that day. Keeping a journal has a very direct purpose, this is personal evolution.

Tips: every morning, before you do anything, write down three things that are bothering you the most. Write down also three things you are grateful for. Then write down the day’s tasks. Then before you go to bed write down a few words about how you felt that day and some of the events that occurred. You can also write down the tasks that you plan to do for the next day. Keep doing this for at least a month to make it a habit.

Every weekend go through your journal and look at everything you wrote the previous week. When you do this for long enough, you will begin to see patterns in your behaviour, patterns that you did not see before…you may realise that talking a certain person makes you feel good et cetera.

So, you want to court them more. You realise that certain kinds of meals, junk food, make your day unbearable. So you may start eating healthier. Whatever you can measure, you can improve, but must first be aware of this. Keeping a journal is the best way to measure self-awareness. It does not matter whether it is digital or a traditional notebook, all that matters is that you are consistent.