“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle

It’s great to take feedback from other people and explore different perspectives from the ones you hold.

But never overlook or downplay the wisdom you have within. Your life and personal experiences have given you a unique perspective that’s invaluable.

So trust yourself.

Make it a habit to know yourself on deeper and deeper levels - you’ll find it’s the catalyst to unlocking your best self.

This article will help…

As well as exploring why knowing yourself is so so empowering, we’ll also dive into three revealing techniques that will help you know the person in the mirror on a whole new level.

Let’s get started?

Why it pays to know yourself

“Be yourself — not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.” — Henry David Thoreau

You are the blank canvas upon which your life gets to play out.

You are the common denominator through all aspects of your life too. From your relationships to your career through to your finances, you are the decision-maker, the implementor, the goal-setter, the resistor, and the main actor. You’re ALL of it!

Imagine how much more fluid your life can be if you understand the building blocks that you’ve got to play with?

Imagine how much easier it would be to become your best self if you knew:

• Your patterns
• Your fears
• Your purpose
• Your passions
• Your values
• Your perceived limitations
• Your desires
• Your judgements
• Your limits
• Your needs
• Your insecurities
• Your saboteurs
• Your wounds
• Your patterns
• Your limiting thoughts
• Etc.

When you know what you’re working with, it’s so much easier to make the right decisions for you. It’s easier to put yourself into situations where you’re going to grow. You’ll instinctively know what people are right for you, what goals you need to set, and what aspirations will actually leave you feeling fulfilled - not left wanting.

The more you know yourself, the more you can create a deeply fulfilling life.

So how do you walk this path of ever-increasing self-awareness?

Here are THREE techniques to explore.

1. Journaling 

Journaling is one of the most potent tools for introspection, self-discovery, and self-awareness that I know.

In the safety of the blank pages of your notebook, you can write anything - and see where it leads. You can ask yourself the deep questions that guide you to the parts of you that you're yet to explore - and you can inspire healing and inner knowing as a result.

The beauty of journaling is that it’s personal.

You pick the tools and the frameworks that best serve you. For example, you can try:

Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages
Answering journaling prompts 
Mindmaps 
Doodles 
Notes, bullets, poetry even! Anything goes!

The key is to write from your heart so you can discover what’s really inside. The wisdom that bubbles up is beyond powerful because it’s an ever-flowing stream of knowledge about you.

If you’re ready to start journaling, here are some tools to help:

1. The Writing Your Best Self podcast - for weekly journaling techniques and prompts
2. Icebreaker Deck - prompts that help you find valuable things to write about
3. Scribe notebook - if you love quality stationery, this one’s for you!
   

2. Reflection

“The unexamined life is not worth living”. - Socrates

Humans are creatures of habit, which means we do a lot of things on autopilot.

On the one hand, this is an extremely valuable trait. Autopilot habits take less bandwidth and energy because you don't have to think about doing them consciously. On the other hand, if your ingrained habits and behaviors don’t serve you, you’ll undermine your potential to be your best self.

Reflection allows you to analyze your choices, decisions, outcomes and ultimately your life so you can get clear on what’s working - and what isn’t.

Bringing awareness to our instinctive patterns is a powerful way to get clear on where we hold ourselves back - and where we’re driving ourselves forward.

Reflection is embedded into the Self Journal for this reason. When you can extract the lessons and learnings from your everyday experiences because you’ve become a witness to your life and choices, you can eradicate limits and step into your best self.

3. Ask for feedback

Often we’re far to close to our own lives to see our blindspots. This is where input from trusted people can be invaluable.

A coach, accountability partner, or a trusted friend are all excellent places to get an outsider’s input on the way you’re showing up and potentially getting in your own way.

The right people can:

• Help shine the light on the things you’re not seeing
• Guide you to work through the patterns that don’t serve you
• Support you to solve problems and challenges
• And more!

It’s not always comfortable to work on yourself, but the more you learn about who you really are, the more you let go of what no longer serves you, the easier it is to be your best self.

What techniques will you try to know yourself better?

I promise the habit of self-awareness will make a positive impact on yourself, your goals, and ultimately your life.