How Knowing Who You Really Are Improves Yourself and Life Quality
There is so much value in knowing who we are. Truly understanding ourselves gives us valuable insight into our inner beings and our underlying thoughts, feelings, motives, actions, and behaviors. And as a result of that information, our lives improve because we can apply that knowledge to specific areas of our lives to help us grow and advance. The following outlines some specific advantages that knowing who we really are can offer us and how it can improve ourselves and our lives.
Clarity
Often, we walk around deceived or confused because we lack self-knowledge needed to guide our lives. Knowing who you really are can offer a lot of critical information about yourself. Via processes such as self-reflection and introspection, we can learn about our inner selves- thoughts, feelings, actions, behaviors, and motives.
Additionally, we can learn about strengths and weaknesses, as well as goals and ambitions (McKinney, 2011). This clarity about ourselves can give us more direction and a more clear path forward so that we can reach our goals and move forward with our ambitions.
Confidence
Knowing ourselves in entirety helps us to uncover the good and the bad and accept all parts of ourselves. When we know the good and our strengths, we know how to leverage them in our favor and to our advantage. When we know the bad and our weaknesses, we can learn to embrace those aspects of ourselves as we also learn how to make changes and adjustments that will help us improve in those areas. From there, we can move forward in confidence with a deeper understanding of ourselves and a greater love for our entire selves, using that understanding and love to help us move forward (Jansen, 2013).
Empowerment
It is via greater clarity and confidence that we become empowered to make the best decisions for ourselves and our lives. When we understand ourselves better, we are in a better space to control our thoughts, emotions, actions, and behaviors in a way that best serves our goals and ultimate dreams.
We are also better equipped to use our strengths and pull from our confidence to get us closer towards our vision for our lives. Similarly, with the information, we have about our weaknesses and areas that do not serve us well, we can make decisions about how to improve upon those weaknesses or make changes in our lives that will remove those things that don’t serve us (McKinney, 2011). It is our knowledge of self that helps us make the changes we need and leverage the good things about us to propel ourselves forward.
Freedom
A final way that knowing ourselves helps us is by freeing us from the opinions and approval of others. When we don’t truly know who we are, we often seek that information from others. We look for other people to define us or tell us about ourselves as a means of finding identity and worth.
However, when we understand ourselves, we don’t need other people to define us or affirm us. The opinions of others don’t make us or break us, which allows us to move freely throughout life without feeling like we have to please anyone other than us (Jansen, 2013).
Knowing ourselves is the key to clarity, confidence, empowerment, and true freedom. When we know ourselves, good and bad, we can understand all facets of ourselves, be empowered to make the necessary changes that will benefit our lives, be free from the pressure of living up to other people’s expectations, and be confident to go about living a life of value and purpose. This will allow us to be happier and more fulfilled in the short and long-term, and what more could a person truly want?