In a previous post, we talked about the benefits of knowing who you are. We saw how knowing yourself can help you enjoy happiness and inner peace. A good knowledge of yourself makes you understand the single-most important person you have lived your entire life with – you. In this post I will share with you some important tips on how to know yourself (your identity, purpose and passion).

1. Know your personality

When you know yourself, then you know your identity and most of all your personality which is the key to unlock who you are. You already have an idea of people’s opinion about you. This is just one aspect because people may misjudge you with certain actions you carryout.

However, you need to know your personality from within and without, what you are not and what you are not like. Know what makes you to react in different situations. Pay great attention to the things that makes you feel any mental discomfort.

2. Ask yourself thought-provoking questions

Ask yourself questions that will help you realise the things that make you happy or stressed. These questions will help you to have a real-time conversation with yourself. If you answer the questions honestly, then you will get to know the real you.

• What do I love doing?

• What do I believe is possible for me?

• What are my dreams in life?

• How do others see me and how will I like them to see me?

• Who is my greatest role model?

• What mistakes have I made?

• Who do I like to spend most of my time with?

• What kind of legacy do I want to leave behind?

There are many other questions you can ask yourself. When answering the questions, let your inner voice express your exact feeling and believe. Let it be able to decipher what delights or frustrates you and how you respond to it.

3. Know your core values

Your core values are the principles you uphold to in life. The core values include the things that are important to you, the characteristics that you pay a lot of attention to and the things that motivate you to do the things you enjoy.

Some of your core values could be honesty, flexibility, integrity or security. These values play a great role in your life: communication, persuasion, conflict-resolution, influencing and most of all, decision-making.

4. Identify what you like or dislike

Your likes and dislikes are very important and knowing it makes you have more confidence in who you are. Many people look at ‘likes’ in what is popular and ‘dislikes’ in what is unpopular. This is not something worth doing. Stay focus and identify your likes and dislikes. Don’t ask people to help you choose, rather, make the choise by yourself.

It needs some inner-power to define what you like of dislike. You should avoid doing the things that you don’t like or that brings you frustration and start doing what brings you complete joy.

5. You can do a personality test

This can be done online or even by asking people’s opinion about you so that it can help you to understand yourself more. You can ask from friends and loved ones to give their opinion on your characteristics or personality. You can also ask same from your boss, coworker, acquaintances or mentor. It’s okay if you disagree on any of their observations. Their opinions will not define who you are but may rather have more acceptance from others.

You can also take an online personality assessment test. It may not be scientific, but rather asks pertinent questions that pushes you to consider other aspects of your character. You can search Google or other search engines to get reputable sites that provide online personality assessment tests.

All of us play many roles based on our personal relationships, social interactions and responsibilities that we carry out. Knowing the role you play may help you know who you really are. Your dreams and hopes in life can help you to live the life you want. The moment you know your dreams then you’ll start to determine which is worth going after. It is all up to you to decide if the process of knowing who you are is worth trying, though it is worthwhile for you to do it.

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