To know Oneself is to love Oneself
We hear it all the time: “You’ve got to know yourself.”
The search for such knowledge is a journey that many, if not all of us, go on at some point in our lives. However, some of us seem to be more successful at it than others…and those people often seem to be happier and more comfortable with their own person.
Here are a few reasons why knowing your self means loving yourself:
When we grow to know ourselves, we grow to know our own wants. And then we are able to more easily obtain those things. After all, how to you get something if you don’t know that you want it in the first place?
When what we do have doesn’t seem to be enough, it’s time to take a deeper look and learn about what it is we really want. When our lives lack the things we desire, we need to be connected to our Selves; separating ourselves from who we are doesn’t lead to anything productive or positive!
When we’re honest about our strengths and weaknesses, it’s simply easier to navigate life. Less time is spent on the things that suck our energy up with no avail, and more time is spent doing what we love. And the thing about doing what we love is, typically, we’re pretty good at it.
OK this may vary by case: some of us like to sing in the car even though we can’t carry a tune, but you know what I mean.
Our passions often coincide with our talents. Therefore, when we finally pursue such passions we flourish, and when flourish at the things we’re truly passionate about, we’re proud of ourselves.
Self-knowledge and self-love are absolutely cyclical.
When we understand what we don’t want, it’s easier to say no.
Knowing yourself means understanding not only what you do want, but what you don’t want. Once we come to understand our own boundaries in life, it gets easier to walk away from the things that don’t fit within the lines that we’ve drawn for ourselves.
And that’s not so say by any means that we should limit ourselves—but we must know that it’s OK to not do the things we don’t want to do. We’ve got one life, and it’s ours alone. The less time we spend doing things that aren’t serving our truest Self, the more fulfilling that one life of ours will be.
You’ve just got to know yourself.