Self-discovery is the main factor that builds our personality. As a matter of fact, it is the journey of “finding one’s self” and a process that makes you to truly know who you are.
“Knowing yourself” is the biggest asset to success. It makes you possess a very important skill that provides you with an understanding of what is expected of you.
It affects our lives in diverse ways from our relationships to career, and other aspects of our being. When we realize who we are, we can be able to care less about what others are saying and care more about accepting the way we are.
“The better you know yourself, the better your relationship with the rest of the world.”~ Toni Collette ~
Finding out who you are, helps to unveil your true potentials, purpose, abilities, skills, character, and so on, thus, making you aware of them.
The process of finding oneself self can be easy, though, can come with challenges like doubts, fear, discouragement, and more.
However, when you finally find it, you will find fulfillment, confidence, happiness, and focus.
“The only good thing that we will ever truly know is ourselves; our personal being is the finest creation.” ~Kilroy J. Oldster~
Provided below are the 6 ways on how you can build a strong personality and success by knowing yourself
- Find yourself
To develop a strong and better personality you have to, first of all, find out who you are. This will help you to define yourself. You ought to know your traits, skills, strengths, weaknesses and more.
When you are able to get the reflection of yourself in the mirror of your mind, then you can be able to work towards balancing your attributes.
Finding yourself will make you self-conscious. Pay adequate attention to your inner self, monitor your thoughts, recognize and accept them, just the way they are.
- Know yourself
Finding one’s self is essential but knowing and understanding it is paramount. Plainly, it doesn’t make sense when you discover yourself but yet lack knowledge of what it entails.
It doesn’t even count creating who you want to be without first knowing who you are. Know if you have the capabilities to be what you created for yourself or if you are busy beating around the bush.
Those traits, attributes, etc. that you discovered, are they your features? Or did you notice them because you were told?
You have to read in between the lines and make sure that what you discovered is your true self, not necessarily because you were told because.
In this issue, other people’s opinion does not matter, take note!. “Know yourself. Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.”~ Ann Landers ~
- Identify what makes you stand out
Now, you have known yourself, you can be able to identify those attributes in you. In this case, everyone has good and bad traits but when you know them, you can work on your good side. Build your personality and don’t allow the bad traits to interfere.
This simply means that you have to focus on the values that can lead you towards the right path. This may include boldness, integrity, fun, self-confidence, accountability and so on. This is probably what will make you stand out.
One of the mistakes people make is trying to be who they want without realizing who they truly are. Definitely, it will lead you to a lack of fulfillment, low self-confidence, and regrets.
Do not allow what people say or think about you to influence you, because those are forces that will work against building your strong personality.
Focusing on your core values will not make you less of what you were, or make you lose your identity. Instead, it simply shows that you want to be the best you can be by utilizing what makes you special.
- Be yourself
When you have discovered who you are and identify those positive traits, then, you act it. List out all you have discovered so that you can easily remember, or have them in your heart. And allow them to show through your actions.
This is also a part of you that you have discovered, though it might make you different from what you use to be. That notwithstanding, it will make you unique in your way.
If you are who you realize you are, without copying anyone or being influenced by others, it will help in building your personality. When these abilities are natural, everything flows with ease.
For example, someone with a good sense of humor can make people laugh uncontrollably without difficulty because that’s who he is, he’s not forcing himself to do so.
When you are yourself, you don’t need any extra effort to do the things you are naturally good at, they just flow easily.
Being yourself can also make you channel your energy to the right path. In the end, you will be more productive and yield success.
For example, if you find out that you are good at art, you can draw and paint even without being under no supervision, then when you channel your energy into it, you are far better to succeed than when you engage in any other thing.
- Observe yourself
There is no way you can tell if you are making progress if you do not observe it. Although people around you may have noticed, if you weren’t told, then there is no way you can know you are making an impact.
So, in the absence of anyone telling you, you can observe a quiet time. Try to engage your activities for the day including your encounters and how you reacted to them.
Did you meet any situation that brought out any of your personality? Did you let your personality out? Were you fulfilled?
If your answer to the above questions is yes, then you are improving, but if it’s NO, then you have to know where there was a loophole, apply corrective measures and move forward.
“Observing yourself is the necessary starting point for any real change.”~ Chalmers Brothers ~
- Create a positive identity
One of the things that may affect your personality is when you are being judgmental. We all have our good and bad sides but let not the bad side overshadow you.
Defining yourself in a positive way doesn’t mean that the negatives ones don’t matter. However, when you want to build a strong personality that people can look up to, you will not allow the negative traits to define you.
But you can also learn from the negative experiences you have encountered, as it will make you act better.
“Don’t spend all your time to FIND yourself. Spend your time CREATING yourself into a person that you will be proud of.”~ Sonya Parker ~
Signs of a weak personality
- Minding what people say about you, thereby allowing them creates your personality for you.
- Listening to what they have to say about you, it will only weigh you down when you continue giving them a listening ear.
- Believing not in yourself, this shows you have low self-esteem and one which such attribute can’t develop a strong personality
- Having a feeling that others are better than you (inferiority complex), while you are supposed to be courageous and see yourself as superior.
Personality! Natural or acquired?
Personality may be both or any of the two; it’s just different in every individual.
Those personal traits that define you can be natural or acquired, while some of these traits can flow easily because it comes naturally, others require time and patience to develop and improve them.
For example, some with a good sense of humor can work without ease, but someone who lacks self-confidence can work towards building it, though it doesn’t come naturally through perseverance such as a person will develop it.
So what matters isn’t about being natural or acquired but making good use of whatever traits we have to make your personality strong.
Summary
People can define you based on what they know and see, such as your race, experiences, and religion, but do not be deceived by that because who you are is not on the outside, rather it’s focused on what’s inside. Note, the inner being is what defines you.
Also, when defining yourself with what’s inside, do so with the positive traits. Your personality is built upon the positive traits, your bad traits can only serve as an experience path towards making you better. Be mindful not allow negative traits to define you.
