How to begin your Self-discovery journey

Self-discovery is fundamental to personal development. To become the best version of yourself, you first need to know who you are, and be aware of your true potential, needs, values, character, and motives. Self-discovery leads to self-knowledge and requires ongoing self-reflection and self-awareness.

Self- reflection

Self-reflection is the key to personal development. Self-reflection is like a “mirror” that reflects your inner self. Emmanuel Kant once said in the Critique of pure reason, “The exterior, that which surrounds us, is in fact the reflection of our inner self.” So, if you can think and understand your inner world, you will better understand your exterior world, and know how to respond to different situations and circumstances. Self-reflection is about taking time to reflect on your experiences, personality, beliefs, values, actions, and behavior to become self-aware and grow into a better person.

To develop good self-reflection, we need to understand our defense mechanisms. Whenever our identity is threatened, when we are not happy or when we are exposed to painful information about ourselves, our defense mechanism is activated. We then often react through blame, denial, regression, dissociation etc. For instance, I have heard people say, “I am miserable because my partner doesn’t know how to make me happy.” Because we are not able to take time and reflect on our actions, it is much easier to blame other people. Being aware of what causes these reactions and of what defensive strategies we use will certainly give us clear information about our deepest fears, shortcomings, and needs. Self-reflection helps us understand our own emotions and take responsibility for our own actions. Self-reflection gives you the ability to develop great internal dialogue which helps you become self-aware, discover errors in your actions, weakness, shortcomings, insecurities, and unease, in order to heal and grow into a better person.

Self-awareness

Self-reflection leads to self-awareness. When you take time to reflect on your experiences, character, personality, emotions, potentials, beliefs, motives, values, and actions etc., you then become aware of who you are. Self-awareness helps us improve our judgment, create goals and identify opportunities for professional development and personal growth. For instance, being self-aware of your personality will help recognize situations that will provide you with more happiness, and help you avoid situations in which you will experience more stress and unhappiness: If you are a highly introverted person, you will probably experience less success and more stress in sales position than a highly extroverted person would.

Self-awareness improves emotional intelligence, which is the ability to identify and manage your own feelings. Being aware of your feelings, what causes them, and how they impact your thoughts and actions would help using your feelings or emotions to guide thinking and behavior, manage and adjust feelings or emotions to achieve your goals and to adapt to environments. Emotional intelligence also helps improve personal and professional relationships. The more you are self-aware, the more you improve your emotional intelligence, which also includes recognizing and understanding other emotions, seeking feedback about how you’re perceived, admitting mistakes and apologizing, and helping others.

If you want to become the best version of yourself, the first step is self-discovery, which is achieved through self-reflection and self-awareness. Remember, personal development is a lifelong process that never ends. Take a break and look at the “mirror”, reflect on your experiences, personality, beliefs, values, actions, and behavior to become self-aware and grow into a better person.

Short biography about the guest post author: Ruddy Umba is a personal blogger and entrepreneur, one of his passsion is to help people meet their goals, in his blog he shares his knowledge and experience with people to help them understand and improve their personal growth and development. You can follow Ruddy on those social media: LinkedIn , his blog Ruddy Business World or on Instagram

Till next Sunday

Be yourself