Course Content
WHAT IS SELF-DISCOVERY
Introduction Greek philosopher Socrates once said Man Know thyself—this famous admonition really captures the essence of self-discovery. self-discovery is about getting to know the parts of yourself that are as it were “disowned” in childhood. It's about answering the age old question of Who are you? The major importance of asking and answering this question lies in the fact that gaining self-knowledge, which means to know ourselves at a deeper level is the foundation for achieving greatness and unimaginable levels of success. For instance through self-discovery we discover our talents and through the use of our talents we achieve accomplishments that has potential to astound humanity example is the case of the invention of airplane by two brother who were bicycle mechanics: Wilbur and Orville Wright who are commonly called the Wright Brothers. These two brothers used their talents to invent the airplane and gave us flying capabilities beyond those of birds. This is one example among so many which shows us the power of self-discovery. In view of this anyone who desires to achieve success and greatness must endeavor to discover his or herself. If you're interested in learning more about yourself on a deeper level to better your life and achieve all God created you to achieve, you may want to pursue the self-discovery or self-examination process. In this module, we discuss what self-examination means, importance, benefits and explore tips for self-discovery. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
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WHAT IS SELF DISCOVERY
TIPS ON HOW TO CARRY OUT SELF-DISCOVERY
This topic will expose you to cogent tips needed to self-discovery
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BENEFITS OF SELF-DISCOVERY
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BENEFITS OF SELF-DISCOVERY
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OUR FOCUS: PURPOSE DISCOVERY, A VERY VITAL FACTOR.
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OUR FOCUS: PURPOSE DISCOVERY, A VERY VITAL FACTOR.
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BENEFITS OR DISADVANTAGES OF PURPOSE DISCOVERY
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BENEFITS OR ADVANTAGES OF DISCOVERYING PURPOSE
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WHAT DOES SEARCHING FOR ONE’S IDENTITY MEAN
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WHAT DOES SEARCHING FOR ONE’S IDENTITY MEAN
SELF-DISCOVERY
About Lesson

What is self-discovery?

Self-discovery, also called self-examination, self-observation, or introspection, entails learning and understanding your personality, including meditating on your interests, dislikes, and ambitions. When you uncover more about yourself, you may also realize your essential values and your capability in life.

The Process of Self-Discovery

The process of self-discovery is one in which a person is guided, through self-questioning and examination of one’s own thoughts, words, and actions, in order to reach his or her own conclusions regarding who they truly are.  Through the process a person gains a deeper understanding of his or her own self, character, values, and purpose in life.  He or she also becomes more aware of his or her potential. It is very vital to note that the process of self-discovery is not a straight forward path and as a result it comprises of many different stages. But among these many process, there are two non-negotiable factors or requirements that you must engage in the process of discovering yourself, they include:

  1. Self-awareness:

Self-awareness is an in-depth exploration of the conscious and unconscious aspects of ourselves. Self-awareness is your capacity to understand yourself, your personality type, your behaviors, your feelings, your priorities, your wants, and your ideals. Self-awareness can also be seen as a positive intrapersonal experience where one is able to reflect during a moment of action or past actions. Self-awareness is a mental process that allows us to read ourselves like a book. This process enables use to understand ourselves. Developing self-awareness can help you understand your personality and identify how it can differ from others, which can also help you build better relationships increase our emotional intelligence, leadership skills, and performance.

  1. Self-analysis

The first step in the self-discovery process is self-analysis (also known as self-reflection or self-examination). You must make the time to stop and really think about who you are.  Quiet meditation and reflection will allow you to refocus your mind and concentrate on your inner self, and allow you to examine the way you “see” yourself.  Self-Reflection allows you to explore your individual personality, natural preferences, values, beliefs, preferred styles and tendencies in order to become self-aware. You can also reflect on your personal interests, your dreams, and what you would like to do for a living. 

“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it.” – George Moore 

 

Through the use of the two factors mentioned above (that is self-awareness and Self-analysis) you discover the following:

  1. Your Potential

One of the core aspects of self-discovery is discovering your potential. Your potential are the things you can do which you have not done.

Most of our lives, we have been trapped into doing only certain things, performing only within certain capacities and releasing only enough ability from within us as the environment demands. This conformity to culture, however, had robbed us of the definition of potential.

Although we define potential as what could be done, we don’t define it as all that could be done that hasn’t been done yet. This means once a thing has been done, it is no longer a potential; it is an ability. The potential of a sports car is not 80km/hr because the driver drives it that speed. Rather it is the highest speed built into it by the manufacturer. Same way your potential is all that is built into you that you could do.

The continuous release of potential (doing what you could do that you haven’t done), is one of the strongest sources of fulfillment for any life.

Discovering your potential therefore entails examining the little despised energies which you have to see how they can be channeled into doing great things. It also entails examining the energies which are misplaced (i.e either underutilized or used for doing unproductive activities) and channeling them into highly productive and fulfilling activities.

  1. Your Passions

Self-discovery also involves discovering your passions. Your passions are the activities or causes that you can spend so much time on without getting bored, tired or discouraged even if significant results are not gotten immediately.

On a broader sense, your passions are causes which you are readily motivated or do not need motivation to engage in. They are the things you are ready to pursue.

They are reasons which may not be defined but are so strong that they pull you and you just keep lingering on and devoting so much of yourself (time, resources) to them. They are the things which you are willing to sacrifice other things for.

These passions are not general to all. Many people around you may find it boring and wonder why you are so engrossed with it. Those are your passion and they are worth taking note of and harnessing.

Your passion may not be clear-cut defined to be something worthwhile; they may be things you don’t find any meaning in yourself. Self-discovery is the process of looking into your little, and maybe meaningless passions and building them into noble causes that will greatly benefit you and the world.

I stated earlier that your passion will keep you on a path even if you get little results or make insignificant progress while doing those things, but what is typical of people who follow their passion is that they get great results.

Their passions for those causes will give them the staying power to practice (when there’s no result), seek for improvement to get better results; it will also keep them committed till they accumulate more and more better results and build satisfying lives or get remarkable achievements.

  1. Your Limitations

You may discover that some weaknesses that need to be worked on might be the result of limiting past experiences: growing up in a dysfunctional home, holding onto limiting belief systems or the experience of some trauma. The weaknesses and limitations incurred from these experiences can become so part of you that it becomes difficult to separate them from your personality.

Self-discovery is finding them (those limitations) and digging them out so they can be worked on. Low self-esteem, shame-based thinking, guilt and all limitations/hurts of this kind usually take longer time to be worked on than other weaknesses but they must be brought out for healing to take place.

  1. Your Weaknesses

As I have already started pointing out, self-discovery involves finding your limitations and weaknesses. As much as you know your potential, you should also know what you can’t do, what you should stay away from and what you should outsource for your holistic growth as an individual.

The first result of knowing your weakness is that it saves you the stress and waste of time of doing what you aren’t good at or built for would have brought you.

Contrary to what the experience is in schools, you don’t succeed in life by trying to be good at what you aren’t wired for, but by finding, developing and nursing what you are already wired for or good at and bringing in others into the team who are good at other things you need.

Secondly, knowing your weaknesses is the only opportunity to find those inevitable virtues needed that must be cultivated which you do not already have. As much as I stated earlier that you shouldn’t kill yourself trying to be good at what you are not wired for, that does not mean you should not work on yourself and be better at what you do.

For you to be truly effective at what you are wired for they are various skills and virtues that must be developed. For instance, if you’re wired for public speaking (you are a captivating speaker), you still might not have the right diction and vocabulary. Those are weaknesses that can be worked on and you must work on.

Same vein, if you have a defect in your character, that is another weakness you can work on and must work on for you to succeed at what you are wired for. However there are some things that you cannot work on and you shouldn’t worry yourself about like your height or voice texture.

  1. Your life’s purpose

Self-discovery is indispensable if anyone must fulfill the purpose of God for their life because functioning in the capacity at which God has planned for a person to work demands that the individual discovers and maximizes the wiring God has put in them for the specific purpose he created them for. God created every individual to fulfill a specific purpose on earth and then designed everyone with the right potential, personality, and passion that will help them fulfill that purpose. Self-discovery  is the process of understanding one’s personality, potential and passion and finding how best they can be maximized to fulfill God’s plans for their life and help them live fulfilling lives.

  1. Your hobbies and interests

This involves identifying your hobbies and interests. To do this, you should pay close attention to the things you naturally love doing, these things guide you toward your true self, which stems from your genetic makeup, upbringing, and experiences.

To identify the things you love doing, do the following:

  • Try to notice activities that cause you to be happy, as these often point us toward our true selves.
  • Consider which activities you possess a natural aptitude or talent for, perhaps using a strengths-finding exercise.
  • Think about which activities you find intrinsically motivating. These are the activities you would undertake in the absence of external rewards, such as money or the approval of others.
  • Notice times when you feel a strong sense of personal responsibility to do something or have a unique vision about how something should be carried out.
  1. Your abilities and qualities

Through self discovery you also find out Your abilities and qualities. This refers to your area of strengths. You can compile a list of your strengths and identify how you can leverage them. For instance, if you have a talent for writing, you can pursue various jobs, including becoming a novelist, copywriter, or freelance writer. If you can’t think of any strengths, you can determine them by considering the areas where your colleagues or family usually require your assistance. By integrating your strengths into your everyday routine, you can leverage them more effectively and potentially improve your confidence in your abilities. Additionally, it might increase your desire to continue refining your skills.

  1. your satisfaction with your life

Self-discovery also involves judging your satisfaction at each phase of your life.

Deep within you, there’s a deep clamor to be in a certain state or to do certain things. However, you can get so lost in activities (sometimes, the activities you started because of that clamor) that you will lose touch of the clamor.

Within that clamor is a voice that truly represents you– it gives a clear picture of you, aside from the expectations of the environment and the influence of people. Within that clamor is your ‘self’ and it is in staying in touch with the desire of the clamor that gives you true satisfaction in life.

Most times, that desire from within us is not popular or prestigious and we might deceive ourselves into believing that what is popular is what we want. But for everyone, the desire for fame and prestige is a secondary level desire.

The desire of the inner self or your spirit is usually very simple: “I just want a peaceful life. I just want to live a life that will be beneficial to those around me. I just want someone to be grateful I lived.” But it is the voice of rest. It is so quiet that we don’t listen to it.

Self-discovery is finding that voice and honestly comparing how your life’s activities are matching to its desire. The degree to which your life matches the desire determines your level of true satisfaction in life. It is the seemingly little things that usually bring the deepest satisfaction in life. Once that voice can be found and made loud enough that you can hear it in every activity you do, it will guide your life and actions to a place of peace and ease.

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