Hey fellow nerds.
So today, we're gonna get corny and talk about self-knowledge.
But before I butcher this idea, let's have someone else explain it.
'The ancients wrote it forever, in letters of gold on the wall at Delphos, and in characters of esteem in the souls of the wise: "Know thyself!" Of all living creatures, only man mistakes his end, only he can stumble, led astray by the very nobility of his free will. And the person who begins by not knowing himself will never know anything well. What good is wisdom unless you are wise to yourself? We degenerate into the slaves of our slaves as often as we submit to vice. No robber, no sphinx, assails the traveller, assaults the living, like self-ignorance. Ignorance condemned to stupidity, when it does not know it does not know, and does not notice its lack of attention!' By Baltasar Gracian in A Pocket Mirror for Heroes
Charismatic Nerd Commentary
One of the issues I and many others suffered, is not knowing themselves well.
What does that even mean?
Well, you know how your friends can point out your weaknesses better than you? Well, that's due to not knowing yourself as well as you should.
As a result, people live their whole lives making the same dumb mistakes because they don't know themselves. Whether it's bad habits, internal issues, emotional issues, etc. These things hold people back, not because they are impossible to fix but because they don't know their faults.
One of my most significant issues was that I got nervous or excited quickly.
My emotions would overwhelm me, and I would end up looking like a fool. If I was too worried, I sounded like I deserved to be in the film, Dumb and Dumber. If I got too excited, I would be too eager and scare everyone away. This could have been avoided if I knew myself a little better. But instead, I ended up committing these mistakes for years.
Now this begs the question: How did I improve?
Therapy and journalling. These are not sexy answers. Therapy is to help find those deep-seated issues. And journalling is to finding patterns in yourself.
These two will open your eyes to how you operate mentally and emotionally. And by seeing yourself objectively, you can take steps to improve.
Not a crazy formula, but a simple one.
I dislike a lot of personal development content on YouTube because they focus on fluff. You know, things that seem cooler or sexier. But if you don't know yourself, any advice to improve yourself is useless. Need to start with the basics of your personal development. I went years reading and consuming self-improvement content, but I was ignorant of how I operated. You must focus on knowing yourself better to get the best out of life.
Even Sun Tzu has a piece on this:
"Know the enemy,
Know yourself,
And victory
Is never in doubt,
Not in a hundred battles."
It's not enough to know others or other types of knowledge.
We have to know ourselves. Life will throw curveballs, and the last thing we need is to get in our own ways when dealing with Life.
So commit to understanding yourself.
And trust me, you'll find that this simple tweak will progress your self-improvement faster than you could have imagined.
Until next time,
Bulcha
The Charismatic Nerd