Knowing Yourself Is The Beginning Of All Wisdom

What a truly knowledgeable man Aristotle was, so far ahead of his own time–as if he had a window to peer into the future and see how mixed up and confused we would all become in the 21st century [1](Sandigamble.com, 2017). Multi-tasking is our norm. Many of us are so caught up in corporate “busy-ness” that we operate on automatic pilot, lose focus and stop paying attention, not just to our surroundings, but to ourselves. We do as many things as we can at one time in and actually take pride in it. Even boast about it! Constant contact is often not only expected, but demanded by bosses, peers and our families. For the few remaining hours before we finally sleep, we field never ending demands generated by our partners, kids, parents, hobbies, friends, homes and any other relationships in our “free “time [2](Dalton, 2017). We get so busy in balancing our social and professional life that we soon begin to forget the most important person in your life and that is You. When it comes to knowing ourselves, we either become too arrogant or we underestimate ourselves too much. You should know that no one knows you better than you. There are some dark sides which you don’t want to reveal it to anyone and there are some good things that you want people to know about you. There are some things which you are proud off and there are somethings which you try hard to let go.

Self-evaluation is not that easy. We are humans and we have a tendency to be quite liberal in evaluating our own self. Thus to make this job easy for you, below are some of the ways to help evaluate yourself without any bias which will help you to reach your professional and personal goals:

Never Fear

You should not be afraid to face your weaknesses and shortcomings. Instead, you should take time to improve upon that and remember that no one here is perfect and everyone here in this world is fighting their own devil inside.

Never Compare

Never Compare. Everyone operates in their own time zone. One cannot compare his/her struggles with that of others. Somebody’s starting point is someone’s ending. Everyone is in different circumstances and their success/failure cannot be gauged with anyone else.

Be Honest

As stated above, we humans are liberal when it comes to evaluating us but that is not the right way. One should be very honest and should try to dig out the most genuine feedback about one's own self. This doesn't mean that one should be highly pessimistic and should have all the list of negatives he/she have. The motive behind being honest is to have both the parts equal. Positive will make you motivated and negative will lead you to become perfect by eradicating it.

Ask Questions to Yourself

Quite often we ask many questions to the person beside us, to our close friends to know more about their lives, their ambitions, what they wanted from their life etc. Have we ever stopped by to wonder what we wanted to achieve at the end of the day?. What is the purpose of our existence? Asking questions to oneself helps one know oneself better. In the end of the day, it is you who matters. Knowing your goals and vision helps you in channelizing your energy completely and filter out all the distractions

See Yourself as others See You

To see yourself as others do is the most candid way to know how your reactions and actions are being perceived by them. Just put your feet in other’s shoes and evaluate how they really look at you. You should silently observe how somebody is reacting and behaving with you as it is the mirror of how you are doing with them. When you observe someone’s reactions and behaviour’s you become more self-aware.

Get Feedback about Yourself from others

Getting constructive criticism from peers help one in correcting their flaws in a much lesser time span. It is very important to know how you are perceived by others and whether your personality matches with the way you are being perceived. Constructive criticism helps someone in improving their personality to a large extent. The best way of getting feedback is asking your own family or your close peers.

Always remember that it is never too late. Self-realisation should happen at least once in anyone’s life. There should be some purpose, some goal in your mind which instils the motivation inside you to get up every day in the morning and work towards it. You will realise how different a person you have become once you know what you want from your life. After all Aristotle has rightly said “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”

Thank You for Reading.

References:

1.    Sandigamble.com. (2017). Knowing Yourself Is The Beginning Of All Wisdom… | Sandi Gamble. [online] Available at: http://www.sandigamble.com/knowing-yourself-is-the-beginning-of-all-wisdom/ [Accessed 22 Oct. 2017].

2.    Dalton, D. (2017). “Knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom” Aristotle - Dorothy Dalton. [online] Dorothy Dalton. Available at: https://dorothydalton.com/2009/06/23/knowing-yourself-is-the-beginning-of-wisdom-aristotle/ [Accessed 23 Oct. 2017].