Are you in search of self-discovery? In a world buzzing with distractions and demands, it’s easy to lose sight of yourself, or even see your true self in the first place. So in this blog post, we’re diving into the art of getting to know yourself better. Right now, you’re not feeling a strong sense of self, and now you’re looking for ways to increase your self-knowledge. But where to start? Today I will cover some ideas that can help you get to know yourself better.
First I will outline why it is important to get to know yourself better. Understanding this will foster inspiration to focus your attention on the process of getting to know who you are. Then I will suggest some options for you to start with, that will help you gain more information about who you are as a person.
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Why is it Important to Increase Your Self-Knowledge?
Properly getting to know yourself is a valuable element of aging. I consider it the ultimate power move.
When you know who you are, you know what your strengths and passions are, how to be in touch with your thoughts and feelings, what will give you a sense of purpose, and the list goes on and on. Being aware of these things can guide you to a life that is meaningful and fulfilling to you.
This allows you to show up authentically in every aspect of your life, which is ultimately where you can experience the most life satisfaction. Living authentically can help you create your life in a way that you consider important.
Knowing yourself will also lead to forming more meaningful connections. When you have a strong sense of self you will feel better in the presence of other people. The boundaries between you and other people will become more solid, as you will know what you want and think regardless of others.
Especially when I was just starting out with self-help work, I made it my mission to increase my self-awareness. Know Thyself became my new motto in life, and I felt much more empowered over all. And you can attain the same with just a bit of directed intention. Let’s dive in!
1. Journaling
If you’ve been on your journey for a while, you are probably already familiar with journaling. Being frequently mentioned as an effective self-help tool, it may come as no surprise that journaling comes with many benefits. I consider journaling to be what I like to call a “compound habit”. These are activities that affect many different aspects of your life simultaneously.
Journaling involves the practice of exploring your inner world, by doing nothing more or less than writing your thoughts down in a notebook. One of the benefits of journaling is that you will get to know yourself better over time.
There are two broad ways you can use journaling for self-discovery.
How to Use Journaling to Increase Your Self-Knowledge
You can practice journaling in a non-restricted manner, where you simply write down whatever thought comes to mind. Writing daily journal entries about anything that pops up in your head allows you to have an unbothered moment with just yourself. A light-hearted and casual way to check in with your feelings, thoughts, wants, experiences, and worries.
When you start journaling every day you’ll notice that, over time, you will feel more connected to yourself. Writing daily journal entries means that you’ll have a notebook filled with your thoughts, feelings, experiences, memories, choices, and desires, all contributing to increase your self-knowledge
Journaling for self-discovery can also be done in a more guided manner, where you use prompts or questions to steer your thoughts in a certain direction. Journal prompts like these could challenge you to think about yourself in a way you otherwise would never have. They invite you to dive deeper into the corners of your mind, where you might find out some things about yourself you never would have thought.
This way, guided journal prompts can spike self-knowledge. If you are interested in using guided journals for self-discovery, find the one that fits your journey best in this blog post.
If you want the maximum effect journaling can offer you, I advise combining both non-restricted and guided journaling into a daily practice. Build a habit of writing daily journal entries, and combine this habit with writing one (guided) journal prompt every day.
2. Take a Personality Test
Another way to gain more insight into yourself is to take a personality test. They are founded on years of research and massive amounts of data, and can strategically uncover traits that make you, you!
The one I like most is the Myers-Briggs test, also known as the 16-personalities test. This personality test consists of 16 different personalities that are described in great detail (“Oh really, 16 personalities? You don’t say!”).
But seriously, the fact that there are so many personality types means more specific information about yourself!
Why this test?
At times, it has scared me how they can describe me so well based on one test. And it’s not just me. This test is described as “freakishly accurate” and 91,2% of people rate the test either as accurate or very accurate.
I have taken this test 3 times over the course of around 8 years, and I got the same result every time. To me, this consistency in results indicates that this personality test is a solid and credible way to increase your self-knowledge.
It’s also very extensive. Upon finishing the test, you receive your personality type and are presented with a sea of information about your personality. They focus on all kinds of life aspects, such as your strengths and weaknesses, relationships, friendships, work, and much more.
So I would definitely advise you to take the Myers-Briggs test to get to know yourself better.
You can take the test here.
Fun tip: I am a INFP, also known as the Mediator! I even follow Instagram pages and YouTubers who make content specifically on INFP’s, and the extent to which it applies to my personality baffles me every time.
So you could look for content creators who focus on your personality type to have them serve as a mirror for your personality while scrolling through social media.
3. Travel Alone
If you are bold enough, consider traveling solo! When you travel alone, it’s just you, yourself, and the world.
It’s a great opportunity to tune in with yourself and connect with your inner voice. No other opinions to cloud your judgment. Just you calling the shots and following all your internal impulses.
This gives you more space to explore who you are, without the presence of anyone else.
Solo travel will also test your adaptability and resilience. You’ll inevitably face challenges along the way, which will give you the opportunity to experience how you respond in these situations.
It’s these moments that will help you discover who you are, while also creating a stronger spine and more self-trust. Growth only happens outside of your comfort zone, making traveling solo a great way to discover the limits of who you are.
4. Seek New Experiences
If traveling solo sounds a bit too much for you, I feel you! The good part is: You don’t necessarily have to travel to increase your self-knowledge.
You can also seek new experiences in your home town to get to know yourself better. Each new experience you encounter is like trying out a new dish in a restaurant.
After finishing that dish you know more about yourself: you either liked it, or you didn’t. But whatever the outcome, you now know this about yourself and can add that to your container of “self”.
Every new adventure, every challenge, every new activity teaches you a little more about yourself and will increase your self-knowledge. This can help you create a better life for yourself.
If you want to challenge yourself to go for new experiences actively, you can also start to complete a bucket list. There are plenty of options out there, but you can also create your own.
I once watched the movie Yes man when I was a teenager, and it completely changed my life in a positive way. (That reminds me, I have to go watch it again!).
In the movie, Jim Carrey portrays a guy who enters a self-help program centered around the idea of seizing every opportunity with the word “yes”. After this experience, he made an agreement with himself to say yes to everything that came to his path. Overnight, this way of living improves his life.
Now, saying yes to literally everything would be a little crazy. But you can take Jim Carrey as your self-discovery inspiration and make a pact with yourself to say yes to opportunities more often!
5. Overcome Your Fears
If you want to discover who you truly are, one of the most important ways to naturally support this process is by overcoming your fears.
Personally, I am a firm believer that fear plays a massive role in the way we live our lives and restrict our true selves. Not only that, fear can also discourage us from going for things that could considerably improve our lives.
The fear of the unknown could prevent us from going for that job or study abroad. The fear of being judged by other people might halt us from signing up for yoga class. The fear of not being able to perform to the degree of our standards stops us from starting that side business.
However, these experiences would all have greatly contributed to our self-knowledge
Fear can stop us from pursuing the things that could bring us joy, like interesting experiences, social activities, and creating opportunities for self-expression.
This inhibition prevents us from ever finding our true and authentic selves. People usually don’t find themselves by just sitting in their house waiting for life to pass them by.
When we find new ways to deal with our fears and limit them, we free ourselves to discover new parts about ourselves we didn’t even know were there.
In this way, diminishing our fears can massively help us by indirectly gaining self-discovery, as our fears our no longer inhibiting us and we can just go with our inner whims.
6. Write Down What You Discover About Yourself
Dedicate a book to yourself! Jotting down whatever big or small thing you discover about yourself can help with increasing your sense of self.
It helps you stay intentional with your journey towards self-discovery. It also serves as a reminder every now and then, because a collection of everything that makes you, you can induce a solid sense of identity.
You could even divide a notebook into different categories, where you can list everything you discover about yourself. Think of preferences, activities you like to do, words that define you, things you want to do in your life, any dreams or goals you have, your strengths and weaknesses, your triggers and your glimmers, and so much more.
Especially if you’re going through a tough time, like a break up, job loss, or depression, having a book like this can help you feel less lost in life.
7. Realize That You Are Always Changing
One of the foundations of life is that it is in motion constantly, and this same principle applies to human beings as well. You’re going through the motions of daily life, minding your business. But over time, you’ll realize that you start to feel differently about certain things.
At one point in time, you may have concluded one thing about yourself, only to find out that at a later point in life, you are behaving differently from what you thought to be true about yourself.
We humans change over time.
What you desired at one point, might not be what you want 6 months later. How you felt about a certain situation when it happened, might not be how to feel about that exact same situation right now. The way you were going about achieving a certain goal last summer, doesn’t work for you anymore.
This process of change is a natural part of life and is part of its’ beauty if you ask me. There will never really be a point where you can say: “Ahh, now I know everything about myself”.
In other words: Don’t become rigid in your conclusions about yourself. This will only create setbacks for you later in life. You are an organic being, so stay non-biased in how you view yourself.
Take Away
Hopefully, you found some inspiration to kickstart your self-discovery journey and increase your self-knowledge. Don’t forget that getting to know yourself is a slow process. And if you feel lost now, don’t get discouraged! If you want to start right away, you can always start with a journal for self-discovery.
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