Be Yourself (Not What You Should Be)

“Conquer yourself rather than the world.” - René Descartes

I’d like to ask you a few questions;

What are you good at?

What are you bad at?

How do you learn new things?

What are you passionate about?

What do you dislike?

In other words Who are you What’s your DNA Sure, biologically we’re all more or less the same. We all have organs, bones, blood, nerves. We also all die. Why is self-knowledge important I never had a clue.

In all my years in school, no one ever talked about knowing yourself and why it matters. But itmturns out that a lack of self-knowledge is the reason why I made the wrong decisions in my life.

The jobs I had.

The girls I dated.

The things I chased.

The decisions I made.

The people I spent time with.

It didn’t match with my strengths, values, skills, and desires. My ex-girlfriend wanted to travel the world and live in different countries. I hate that idea. I want to stay close to my family and best friends. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on something if I don’t live in other countries. Having a home is what makes me happy.

When you’re in a relationship with someone who has different values, it’s a zero-sum game. One person always loses something. We broke up. I’ve worked in boiler rooms, selling foolish products to people who didn’t need them. Why did I have a job that made me feel bad about myself I don’t know. My best guess is that I wanted the money. I thought that’s what you do. But I didn’t know myself.

Today, I know myself better than I did ten years ago. And in ten years from now, I’ll know myself better than I do today. Knowing yourself is step one.

Step two is acting on that knowledge. Sometimes opportunities come my way and I feel like saying yes too quickly.

But I have to take a step back. And ask myself Is this really me Very often, the answer is no. I’ve found that most things in life are not for me. Most jobs, opportunities, countries, people, parties, lifestyles, books—they’re all not for me. It’s about finding the things that are for me. Believe it or not, that’s a very small list.