KNOW YOURSELF
Are you, YOU? DO YOU KNOW?
(I MEAN THE REAL YOU AND NOT AN IMPOSTER OF SOME KIND?)
Do you even know?
Have you thought about it lately?
This is important because if you don’t know who you are, how are you going to know what to do after high school? Or college? Or the military?
What college or other educational institution will you go to?
Will you work instead? What kind of work?
If college, what program will you enter?
Why that one and not another one?
(This is part 2 in our series on the self. Part one is below.)
ARE you, YOU?
Self-Knowledge’ is crucial to determining who we are and what we want on earth.
It doesn’t get much attention.
BE YOURSELF, EVERYBODY ELSE IS TAKEN.
-Oscar Wilde, playwright.
Wilde’s instruction is terrific unless you haven’t a clue as to who you really are.
Then you’re up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
Who are you?
What are you doing here?
Ask yourself–
- Why am I in this school? or job?
- Why am I in this relationship?
- What do I want out of school, or myself?
You know, as in before you die.
Most people have no idea who they are.
Most people never try to find out (for various insufficient reasons).
For those who try, there are different ways to do it, most of them not very successful.
- Some people who try want to optimize their chances in life.
- Some want to know how to correct errors they made in life.
Lack of self-knowledge causes wrong decisions.
They have come to see that not knowing who they are causes them to make the wrong choices in life–about almost everything.
They are right.
It’s because they don’t know themselves well enough to make the RIGHT choices and decisions about themselves.
Maybe you have to decide now about what you are going to do next.
Are you still in high school? Then what?
Are you in college ? In a program you like?
If not, now what?
Are you falling behind at school?
Have you dropped out or are you thinking of it?
It’s because don’t know yourself well enough.
Are you really you?
In the sixties and seventies, everybody talked about “going to find myself.”
It became the subject of jokes and cartoons.
People would laugh and ask them “Are you lost?”
“Well, kinda,” their friend would reply.
“I don’t know what to do with my life.”
“Every decision I make– whether it’s a about dating someone or school, or getting a job, seems to wind up in the dumpster.”
(They’d usually use a different word there at the end.)
It’s because they were fed up.
Frustrated at not getting to where they thought they should be in life.
So they went away to find themselves.
Metaphorically or actually.
The problem is that everywhere you go, there you are.
You cannot get away from yourself.
You couldn’t then and you can’t now.
Even if you try–maybe especially if you try– it backfires and you learn later, to your regret, that you simply can’t do it.
Far better to begin the journey and figure it out.
About which, more later!
For more on this immediately, sign up to DROPOUT TO DEAN’S LIST for all kinds of good things–many of them free, including the two you get right away when you register (free)!
YOU GET TWO PAPERS:
Why do so many students drop out and what can we do about it.
AND
HOW COLLEGES LIE ABOUT CLASS TIME
(And they do! )
The box is just below.
I’ll be with you.
Frank
NEXT:
SEARCHING FOR YOURSELF? FLYING BLIND? NEED A NEW SEARCH PARTY? TRY YOU!
HERE’S A LINK TO THE PREVIOUS POST IN THIS SERIES.
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