Know Thyself

Do you know yourself?

How often have you done something, bad or good, that surprised you? I'm sure many of us have had a few of these experiences throughout our lives, but why don't we know ourselves better?

One of my greatest interests in life is striving to be better - a better man, person, partner, nurse, writer...I want to be truly wonderful, and I don't mean that ironically or flippantly. I absolutely want to, at the conclusion of what I aim to be a very long life, be able to reflect and see how well I lived. "Living life to the full" is such a cliche nowadays and when I hear people say it I rarely see any real commitment in their eyes.

So how do we really improve and better ourselves? I recently had an "A ha!" moment, where it all seemed so clear. The very first step, before we look at diets, yoga regimes and Russian correspondence courses, is to know yourself.

If you don't know what and who you are, how can you make and execute a clear, systematic plan with achievable goals and measurable results? Geographically, you need to know your current location, in order to get to where you want to be.

Seems obvious, doesn't it?!

I can hear some of you saying, "I know who I am". But do you?

Beyond your name, weight, date of birth and mother's maiden name, who are you really?

Try these -

*Grab a pen and paper, or open a word processing package, and get to work. Create a map of you and your life. With you in the middle, write or draw the people, jobs, hobbies and routines around you. As you go, write little comments about your attitudes and thoughts about each item. Take as long as you need.

*Make a list of your top 15 likes and top 15 dislikes about your life.

*Then make a list of 10 things you really want to change.

*Survey family and close friends, whoever you feel comfortable with, and ask them to list 10 awesome and 10 awful traits you have.

*Now google personality tests, and take one, or three. This will give you a little insight into yourself. For example, I am an INFP, falling into less than 1% of the population. This categorisation makes so much sense and I feel light has been shed on a lot of what goes on around me (or rather, my perception of it).

*Next, make an appointment with your doctor, and get a full work up done.

After a few of these, you should start to get a fair picture of who you are, what your drives are and how others perceive you. You should also have a good idea of where the work needs to be done in order to improve yourself.

Of course, it may just be that this post is nonsense, and that I may be indulging in my need to over-think things, and obsess a little. But then, you might get some benefit from the above, in which case we will both be better off.

Have a good day, people.