What is self-knowledge?
Self-knowledge, as the name suggests, is the knowledge of oneself. It starts with the phrase "who am I?", the answer to which is already very broad and certainly involves a first name, being a son or daughter, being born in a certain city, your age, and also your current occupation. However, self-knowledge is not just about knowing that typical first sentence learned in any foreign language: Hi, my name is Bárbara, I'm 26 years old, I'm from Belo Horizonte, I studied Chemical Engineering at UFMG, and now I live in Paris.
Self-knowledge goes far beyond these characteristics, it includes your skills, your strengths, your points to improve, your hobbies, your behaviors, your reactions in different situations, your dreams and goals, your actions, your desires, your values, your social relationships and, above all, what makes you unique! Because each of us is different, we have our own way and are extraordinary because of it! When we reach the point where we accept all our characteristics and try to be better for ourselves, everything in our lives changes. I would dare say that self-knowledge is the most basic and important soft skill; it's from this that we develop all our other abilities.
You can already see that the subject is very wide-ranging and that the process of self-knowledge is continuous and active, right? After all, only you can discover all this information and use it. Although it's not easy, there are various tools to help you along the way. If you want to increase your own perceptions to help you answer, "who are you?" The first step is to list! Yes, list again, but this time it's not your tasks but your characteristics.
Last week, you learned how to use Google Forms (and if you haven't, go check it out!). You can use a form to collect information about other people's views of you, giving you an initial parameter of how you express yourself and are interpreted. It can be anonymous or not, it turns out that being anonymous gives the person more freedom to be honest, but you also can't control who wrote it. The important thing is that these people have a good critical sense and provide a constructive view of you. Here's a template for you to use (just remember to make a copy for your drive before editing or sending it to people you know):
Before looking at other people's answers, do your own self-assessment to prevent the points raised from influencing your own analysis. Use the questions on the form, but don't limit yourself to them. Also, list all your characteristics, and divide them into groups if you wish: physical, psychological, behavioral; what stands out; strengths and weaknesses; what you would like to change.
There are also some additional questions that help you to reflect and get to know yourself, some of which are even found in selection processes, which is no coincidence as companies are looking to get to know you and understand whether you are suitable for the position in question. For example:
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What do I like?
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What don't I like?
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What do I admire about myself?
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What would I change about myself?
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A word or phrase that defines me.
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What does my past say about me?
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What makes me unique?
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How do people see me?
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What is the essence of my choices?
These questions help guide the process of self-knowledge, and the rest will flow little by little. It's also worth pointing out that we are not immutable beings, and that some of these points may change throughout our lives. That's why it's important to always seek self-knowledge, it's what helps you define your purpose and your current goals. It makes you understand and accept yourself. It makes you make better decisions because these will be based on concrete information about you.
Now that you have defined who you are and how you behave logically according to your own assessments and those of others, you can take advantage of other very useful tools, which are personality and self-knowledge tests. There are many of them, one very famous in English is:
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Test of personality 16personalities: https://www.16personalities.com/br
Continuing the process, it is also necessary to identify other characteristics that are part of you and your routine, such as the famous triggers that provoke specific feelings or behaviors. As well as identifying them, understanding why is very important if you want to change or accept them. This is a more time-consuming task and consists of continuously tracking your habits to identify, for example, which tasks tire you out the most, which situations make you happier or sadder and which moments of the day make you more motivated. It's difficult to keep track of and analyze everything at the same time. As I said, it's an ongoing process! When you remember more of your characteristics, write them down along with the others. And choose a regular pattern to monitor some parameters of your life and discover more and more about yourself!
All knowledge is meant to be applied and not just stored in the brain or on paper, so there's no point in having it if you don't know how to use it. Self-knowledge is no different: it's not enough to understand yourself, you also need to know where you want to go, what you want to achieve and work hard to achieve it! You already know who you are today, not only by listing your characteristics but also by filling in your wheel of life (and if you haven't already, check it out here). This already gives you a good idea of what you're good at and what you should strive for in life, whether it's a job, a hobby or leisure time, and it helps you adapt by choosing, for example, more productive hours for the most important tasks and avoiding discussions and decisions when you know you're not doing well. The next step, then, is to define where you want to go, set a goal, which doesn't have to be anything macro (but we'll look at purpose and goal setting here), it could be developing a skill or changing a habit.
Now that you know where you are today and where you want to go, you just have to figure out what you need to do to achieve that goal. At this point, there is no right answer, although there are techniques that work for most people, it's up to you to define, based on all the knowledge you've already acquired, what works best for you. As I've already said, self-knowledge is an active process, no one can or will do it for you and if you just follow the flow of life you could end up in a position that demotivates you, doing things you don't like. It's also worth pointing out that life is never as planned, so be aware that you can draw up a plan and adapt it as necessary.
Not only can the process change, but you can and should too! After all, it's not because you accept yourself the way you are that you can't try to develop yourself to be better, explore your strengths and improve the points you can and want to. In this respect, evaluations help a lot, but so does knowing why you are the way you are, which is also not a simple answer and requires a lot of introspection into your history. Some of the most common methods involve mindfulness, therapy, studying how the brain works and even personal reflection guided by a few questions and usually with the help of a mentor. I'll try to talk about several of these themes here.
Good self-knowledge not only helps you pass selection processes, it also helps you make choices in line with your values and what you want, because this will be clear to you, and motivation will always be there, because you know the reasons and benefits of each choice. And this applies to everything in life, from the partner you choose for your relationship, the job you choose and even the leisure time you devote yourself to, because it's not necessarily your friends' leisure time that gives you pleasure and recharges your energy, as it should. Good luck on your journey, I know you'll only gain!