In my last post, I talked about moving out of my comfort zone to venture out on my own. What would best describe my inner values? For some people it is passion, challenge, love, determination, gung-ho spirit, etc. For me it is “courage”. Why? “Courage’ compels people to go down the unconventional path, take risks, and face difficulties that timid souls will avoid.
I took this word of ‘courage’ further in my recent article. In it I said that courage is the most important attribute that anyone can ever long to have. There are many goals that all wish to pursue, especially those tangible (or materialistic) ones. Go for them by all means, but make sure one of them (and the most important one) is to know ourselves so well that it will help us build our courage.
Many of our life’s goals are temporary in nature. We want a car, house, rewarding career, even a lovely creature to live with ‘forever’. However, they will be taken away from us one day. There is no guarantee of permanence in any of them. Rather sobering, isn’t it? But it is true!
So what is something that has permanence and is 100% worth working towards? It must be a goal that is not dictated by forces beyond our control such as our bosses, the economy, nature or another person. It is this goal: “self-knowledge”. Simply put, it answers the question: “Who am I?”
Self-knowledge is about gaining deeper and deeper knowledge of ourselves or what we are made of. It means gaining so much of our awareness that we discover more and more of who and what we are, and it unfolds more and more layers of our untapped potential so that we can discover and use them to touch more lives.
On the flip side, there are people around us who have been “asleep” throughout their lives, refusing to learn and grow from life’s experiences and stubbornly declaring their innocence, ignorance or even proclaiming that there is nothing else to learn or that they are already living a perfect life and are perfect human beings!
Some questions to ponder:
- What’s your experience in gaining self knowledge?
- How does that help to grow your courage?
- What have you used your courage for?
- What are those that you still are building your courage for?
- What can you tell others of your experience?