“ Fortunate is the person who has developed the self-control to steer a straight course toward his objective in life without being swayed from his purpose by either commendation or condemnation.” “ Self discipline is an act of cultivation. It requires you to connect today's actions to tomorrow's results. There's a season for sowing and a season for reaping. Self-discipline helps you to know which is which, “ quotes Gary Ryan Blair and his words remain true today. With self discipline, anything is possible and anything can be achieved.
Self-control, self-discipline are the greatest virtues one can demonstrate in daily life. They show strength, willpower and willingness.
However, all virtues are fine things to behold and one must recognise the value of virtues in their journey of self discovery. The development of virtues is part of the essence of life.
The sixth and final pillar of self discovery is the acceptance of self. We cannot say we have discovered ourselves until we have accepted who we are and are comfortable with what we have discovered so far and whatever we may discover in the future. Self acceptance is about looking at yourself and being feel satisfaction at what you see, what you know and what you've accomplished so far. Self acceptance is being able to be confident and comfortable in your own skin being your own person. However, self acceptance does not mean you have to be content with the parts of yourself in which you know you can improve and by doing this you will enrich your life. Self acceptance is loving and accepting the essence of who you are and learning to live with those things in which you cannot change about yourself. Self improvement however fuels the journey of both self acceptance and self discovery. It is changing and improving those things within your life that you do not have to put up with or settle for. Something that, with effort, hard work, change and or challenge, you can fix for the better of your future. For example, take the obese man. He could chose to live with his obesity. This would not be self-acceptance as it is something which he can- and, health and body issue wise- should be changing. It could however, be a path for self improvement. If he chooses to loose weight making sensible and healthy lifestyle choices and taking up regular exercise and healthy eating as opposed to diet pills and fad diets, he will improve his overall well-being, his physical health and most likely, his state of mind and body image.
Self-acceptance is such an important pillar to grasp in this journey of self-discovery. While it is of utmost importance that one loves and embraces who one is within their heart and soul, self discovery and hence the essence of ones life is made deeper by the reinventing, changing and improving of oneself.
In conclusion, one must acknowledge that self discovery is a journey throughout our whole and entire lives. It is the essence. One must never stop discovering who they are. If one stops rediscovering and reinventing, then they have indeed reached a death within their lives. Regularly, one must ask oneself “ When was the last time I did something for the first time?” . If one cannot answer with a response from recent times, then ones discovery will slowly being to die and consequently the essence of our lives will die.
A theory from the time of the poet William Blake and his contemporaries was that ones lives pass through three different “life stages”. At birth and during childhood one is at a stage of innocence. This is a period is questioning, of exploring, of naiveté. This stage is then followed by a period of experience- a time of knowledge, a time of discernment and a time for the development of social grace. Followed by that is then the season of enlightened innocence- a divine combination of the two. Our paths of self discovery must be a fusion of all three of these stages so that one must discover the many sides and faces of oneself. We are multifaceted creatures mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually and intellectually but to make best use of these sides one must discovery them all in their journey of self discovery which is the essence of our entire lives.
So is the essence of life is the journey of self discovery? Without complicated explanations all one really needs to say is “ It is” for anyone who questions this still has so much more of themselves, their journey and their lives to discover and we they do learn this truth, they'll understand the essence of their lives for the rest of their time on earth. They will not need to question. They will not need to query it because they will believe it.
The essence of life truly is the journey of self discovery because if we don't find ourselves in life....who else will?
