Know thyself, sooner than later

Maya Angelou had once said, “I’ve learned that making a living is not the same as making a life.” Such thought-provoking and deep-meaning words. For lots of us, our work is our life. It defines us and our times. It gives us the label we wish for to place in front of others on ourselves. It tags us, it dogs us, it moves before us, behind us, and is every which where. Most people we meet in our lives know us on the steam of the work we do. It is only those who are in our inner and core circle, our kith and kin, and those very dear to us, who may know the real us. The actual person beneath the façade we live in; the one beneath the charade we play all our lives.

The real catch 22 situation is when you yourself don’t know the real you. You have been playing your roles of a mother, a father, a friend, a relative, a peer co-worker, a basketball fan, a couch potato, a humdinger, someone’s doppelganger, et al for so long that the person beneath all these identities is lost to you yourself, let alone to the world around you.

Our work takes up about forty hours or so each week. It plays, in this entire rigmarole, an almost exclusive part in defining us. It gives us our self-identity, or so we let it.

No doubt, our work gives us our template of living. It designs our lives. It is the interior decorator of who we are. And it is important to excel in our work to reach the height of glory which we may have set for ourselves. Which our family and friends want us to achieve and to touch; in the same breath, it is equally necessary to fulfill our passion.

Our work may be our passion. We are the truly lucky ones. However, it may not be so, for the most of us. For it is, the journey itself which is important and not the final destination you reach.

Socrates, the great Greek philosopher is said to have said that ‘know thyself’. Means sit with yourself. Delve deeper into your persona. Into your circa. Do not be flippant about your own self. Knowing yourself is a very gratifying task. It is a sojourn which can really reap and give very positive results. It will help you touch base with your real worries, your deepest fears, self-doubts, your anxieties, your vulnerabilities, your insecurities, all those facets which give you joy and memories to cherish.

It is best to align yourself with your bigger and higher goal of life. Know those aspects of your personality which you do not know about. At the same time, give yourself the permission to not know the traits which you do not wish to know more about. They may exist within you. But you do not wish to engage more with them. Say, you have been an introvert for most of the life which has gone by. But you wish to become an extrovert.

Inculcate certain changes in your zone to change yourself into what you wish to be. Give a cover to that part of you which you wish to give a makeover to.

It is a wise decision to sync in with your soul energies until you realize the focal point of your existence. Till you get your calling. Till you know your own karma and the karmic connection you have and with whom you have. Become aware of your beliefs, core values, and your mission curry to be precise. Ascertain your ceiling limits, your thresholds, and your cut-off points for various pursuits you spend your time pursuing. Search inside of you, not outside.

You will uncover and unravel the secret to your real work. The real reason why you were born will come to you.

“The cost of not following your heart is spending the rest of your life wishing you had,” said J. Paulsen. Then again, we have a real gut-wrenching quote from Tao Te Ching that “knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom.”

What are your primary and secondary talents? How do you deal with success? What does failure mean to you? Do you like a feedback on yourself from others? What thoughts plague you? Do you belittle others? Answer questions about yourself – but only those which are actually meaningful ones. They will offer a route to greater cheer and fulfillment coupled with contentment. Learn the gambits of self-analysis. Do not go headlong into any vistas without knowing their real worth and value.

The real game-changer is that when you work, you should give it your best shot. Work like there is no tomorrow. It will give you a flag to wear and to don in front of all others. Your work identity makes a sizeable quotient. Stay on course. But maybe the real work of your life is not the one which fetches you the monies to live. Maybe the actual reason which gives you self-worthy lies elsewhere. However, it will take a good deal of knowing about yourself to come to a conclusion about this. It requires real pondering and spending time with yourself.

The true mojo of your life could come from anything and everything that is yet to be discovered that you haven’t yet. You could get the real yolo for your life from the most unusual of places and things. But it requires a nonconformist to come face to face with this real person who may be hiding behind the other identities which he or she has. It requires a good dose of courage to come to terms with the actual self of yours.

The base cornerstone of our living is that we should work but work to actually realize our own value and our potential. This may come from any source, any hideout, any which where. But know one fact for sure – of not knowing the true, the real you would not be worth it at all for sure.