It is often said that you are at your best when you are yourself. This implies that a man must first know himself and be himself in order to be at his best. To know yourself simply means to discover or understand who you really are. Generally speaking, self-knowledge or self-discovery, involves understanding the things you like and dislike; knowing what you can do easily (your strengths) and the things you are not good at (your weaknesses); Put in another way, it entails discovering your gifts, talents, passion, dominant dreams and so on.
We are all different in life, with different abilities, likes and dislikes. Even identical twins still have different fingerprints! Everyone is unique. Some people like to work with figures, others prefer to paint with colours; there are those who could chat up any crowd (extroverts), others would prefer to remain silent in obscurity (introverts). I have seen very good singers in my life; at the same time I have met someone who could hardly differentiate between two notes. Isn't it funny how an individual could be so good at fixing any kind of “complex” car, yet so poor at handling a “simple” speech to a set of primary school students? Funny as it may seem, the list of our individual differences and uniqueness is truly endless. This is where the need for self-discovery comes into play.
Why Must I Discover Myself?
Everyone has a responsibility to discover himself/herself for many reasons amongst which are:
- As has been earlier mentioned, you cannot be your best without first discovering what you are good at. God in his wisdom gave all of us different combinations of skills, gifts and talents with which to trade with (Mathew 25:14-30). It is considered an act of “wickedness” and “slothfulness” (vs26) by God not to use our talents and gifts profitably.
- A thorough self-knowledge helps to maximize our resources by focusing on our strengths. When a man knows his areas of strengths and weaknesses, he wastes no time (a resource) engaging in activities where he has no “comparative advantage”, rather he focuses on what he can do with great success. This guarantees maximum performance.
- Self-discovery checks unhealthy comparisons, rivalry and prevents inferiority complex. There is no point trying to sing like Cece Winans when what God gave you is to enable you become the best song writer you can be. A case in point is my favourite gospel singer, Kirk Franklin. Although blessed with an awesome ability to write and compose beautiful songs, yet he lacks the kind of singing ability to hold a song for any considerable length of time. Wise as he is, having realized where his strengths (and weaknesses) lie, he has consistently surrounded himself with good vocalists to sing his songs. Today he is widely celebrated and in a class of his own, without having to compete with the likes of Donnie Mcklurkin, Fred Hammond, Marvin Sapp and the likes. I think that's a good example of the benefit of accurate self-discovery.
The Path To Self-Discovery
The path to self- discovery begins by asking the all important question: “Who am I?” This question seeks to help us find out our true inclinations and uniqueness. In my opinion, a good place to start is by checking one's potentials and passions.
Your potential is that thing you can do well. It comes natural. Passion on the other hand has to do with what you love to do. If you love to sing, it might very well be that you are a “singer”. The same principle applies to painting, engineering, medicine, etc.
Another way to achieve self-discovery is to listen to the opinions and remarks of others, like your parents, teachers and friends. There may be areas of our strengths or weaknesses that we are not aware of, but have been noticed by others. Our natural abilities are often confirmed by others. Their remarks may point out our strong points as well as our weak spots. Listen to such remarks and learn about yourself. But we should be careful not to be easily carried away by other peoples' opinion of you because sometimes they may not be correct (particularly if the people in question do not truly know you).
The process of knowing yourself may not be very easy. It might take sometime for you to sit down and really think before you can discover your uniqueness but the rewards will be worth the effort because the unexamined life is not worth living. As I conclude this piece, I hope I have been able to reiterate what the ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates was trying to pass across when he said…”Man, Know thyself”.
