INTROSPECTION

How you get to know your true self

 It is very important to spend some time to work on getting to know yourself better. When you have doubts and start asking a lot of questions, this means you need to reconnect with yourself. Getting to know your TRUE self is an important process in your life. I’m going to guide you by giving you the main steps that you should take to know who you really are, so it’s important that you apply these to your daily life.

Step one: Meditation

Meditation is a way to redirect your attention from the outside world to your inner world. Amid the agitation, the crisis, the chaos, you need to find time to stay still, to pause. So, find some quiet time and breathe! There is nothing more relaxing than meditation. Reconnect your mind and body. Let you mind reset the serenity you need. To know that everything is going to be ok. The main objective is to find the calmness, to go to your happy place. You let your mind rest in this moment of interior clarity and simplicity. Meditation is your tool to be aware of what’s going on, choosing to stop and pause, to find calmness, and remind yourself of your true self.

Step two: Self-reflection

You need to know who you really are and not what you want to be. It's important to know where you and your specific gifts fit in the bigger picture of this world.

Finding out what you want is fundamental to know yourself. It's better to concentrate on what you want rather than what you don’t want. It's a positive approach that is going to help you define who you really are. Defining your wants and desires will help you know who you are. For example, if you are saying something like: “I want to be really successful and have a career”, deep inside you are an ambitious person (whether you are successful or not, have a career or not). If you are an ambitious person and you don’t let yourself look for more to achieve, you won’t feel satisfied. There will be always something missing if you don’t allow yourself to be the person who you really are.

Step three: Make sense of your past and let it go

To understand yourself better and why you act the way you do: have a look at your past experiences to find out what is bothering you and making you act in a certain way in the present moment. Knowledge is because you allow yourself to make sense of reasons why you are acting in a certain way in the present. Most of the time, it’s our childhood experiences that influence our behavior and way of thinking in the present. When you realize that, you can gain control to stop that from affecting your present life. The most important thing to do is to understand your past and then let it go. The past has to stay in the past and do not allow it to define who you are in the present. What happens in the past is not who you are anymore. You are who you want to be.

Step four: rediscover yourself by finding your passion

You need to uncover your true passion. What are you really passionate about? This is important because if you don’t have passion in your life, or you are not passionate about something in particular, you cannot become rich or achieve any other goal in your life.

So ask yourself, what do you enjoy doing when no one is watching? Something that fills your heart with joy while you are doing it? Finding your passion can tell you a lot about who you are, it connects you to people and give your life a sense of meaning and purpose. 

You can turn passion into a successful project in your life. Some people start with a simple idea based on something they are passionate about and turn it into a successful business. For example, I heard about this man who is passionate about making barbecues during his spare time. When he retired, he launched a successful barbecue restaurant and his way of deboning spare ribs was patented! You need to find your passion, things that challenge you, fascinate you and give you the motivation you need to keep going! Then see if this passion can lead you somewhere!

Step five: assess your true potential

It's important that you know what you are really good at and not good at. You know this after a series of trial and error. This is how you gain experience in life and how you learn more about yourself, your capabilities and your true potential. The thing is, I don’t want you to waste your energy and efforts on something while you can be directing them on something better and bigger, something that makes you happy and satisfied. I want you to have the courage to ask for more in your life! Make a list of goals. Don't limit yourself to what you think it’s realistic, because it usually means what other people believe what you can do. So, have this list of goals, then have a look and decide what you need to do to achieve them. If there is something that seems out of your reach, something that someone would say “you still didn’t quit?”, but you know you can do it. You know it’s going to be hard but you are determined anyway! This IS your true potential. It’s something you are good at even though some people do not believe in you. But you need to believe in yourself and once you find your true potential, it will be easier and more satisfying to you to make an effort to achieve your goals in life.

Step Six: Find your own sense of purpose

It's very important to find out what the meaning of life is for you, what truly motivates you? This is not what people expect of you, it’s what you truly believe in. Ask yourself : what are your values ? What truly matters to you? And make a list. Your values define you my dear. Your life principles are important because they show who you really are, then give you a sense of purpose to set personal goals and achieve them.

Happier people have personal goals that they strive to achieve. Happiness and that sense of fulfillment come from knowing what you want from life and work towards it. Let me give you an example, some people have this sense of purpose of wanting to be a teacher. They want to share their knowledge guide learners to succeed in their life. Teaching brings them happiness and true meaning in life. What about you? What would bring your life more meaning and happiness?

Step seven: assess your relationships

This is the time when you reconsider the needs of others versus yourself. Sometimes in life you leave no room for yourself, it’s all about other people and what they need. You hide your true feelings, emotions and needs because you are afraid not to please the people in your life. This is not good for your emotional development. If you want to live a happy life, people need to see who you really are. If people don’t accept you for who you are, they don’t deserve to be in your life. When you become true to yourself, you can have close and strong loving relationships with people. Stay connected with the people who bring the best out of you. Stay away from toxic people who bring you nothing but negativity. You deserve to be happy my dear and that’s why you need to make sure you are the true you and surround yourself with the people who truly believe in you.

My dear, all these steps are equally important and interconnected. They are all meant to direct you to one main goal: knowing your true inner self, to be happier and more satisfied in all the aspects of your life. When you know who you are and what you want, it becomes easier for you to discover the right life path that will lead you to success and happiness. So, don’t forget to start this process NOW and apply it to your daily life.