The Journey to Self-Love Begins With Self-Discovery: 5 Tips to Get You Started
In my last article, I emphasized the importance of self-love and developing a solid relationship with yourself in order to break free of toxic relationships and begin the journey of independence and self-development.
However, you may have realized that there was one key issue in the previous article: there were no tips discussing how to learn more about yourself to begin strengthening that personal relationship.
Self-love is difficult enough but self-discovery can be even more challenging for those who are just introducing themselves to the path of self-development. After all, there is no instruction booklet that tells you who you are and what you’re supposed to be doing with your life! (Heck, I even lose myself at times and have to do a complete reset and analysis of who I am!)
For those who are wondering how to start this process and move forward with self-discovery, here are five valuable tips that will help you figure out who the person in the mirror is and how to progress from here!
1. Evaluate Each Area of Your Life and Figure Out What You Want
Trust me, I have been there before. That crushing moment when you have no idea who you are, what you want to do, or how to even tackle the mess that you have made of your life. I have been the person without goals, without plans, and without direction.
If you can relate to the above, the most important step you can take to begin with is identifying the most important areas of your life and setting goals based on your own personal desires and needs.
One of my favorite personal goal-setting methods is Zig Ziglar’s Wheel of Life, which you can see above. Using the 7 different life aspects above, you can identify which needs you need to meet in each aspect and then set goals related to each of those individual aspects. While there are some methods that further break down these 7 aspects, this one tackles all of the major life sections and will help you to figure out what you want in your life. (We’ll talk about setting and meeting goals in depth later on!)
2. Identify Your Talents, Passions, and Dreams
A life without passion or dreams is one that you will definitely tire of quickly. No matter what you are doing, you need to find a way to implement these burning goals into your life in order to spark your creativity and help you learn more about what drives you.
For example, I love music. I love performance and I love being able to express myself in front of people. Have I incorporated this into my life yet? No. In fact, I just realized that this is something I definitely do want to pursue. (See, we’re learning already!)
Whatever it is that scares you and excites you is something that you should pursue. If it’s creative, that’s an even bigger bonus since that will help you dig into the deeper aspects of yourself that you may not see on a regular basis. However, don’t limit yourself to one passion, dream, or talent. We are multi-faceted beings and our numerous abilities will reveal to us who we are.
3. Identify Your Purpose
Purpose is something that many people struggle with. Every day, I still struggle with it a bit and I’m constantly asking myself, what am I doing and is it ultimately going to assist me in my journey?
The truth is that we never know what we’re working towards but having at least a vague purpose will help to set us on a path of fulfillment and happiness.
For example, my ultimate purpose is to help others.
No matter what I do, I try to do it in a way that is beneficial to others. Whether it’s volunteering, writing, or any other hobby, I try to figure out how to put a spin on it that helps someone on the other side.
A purpose will definitely kickstart the self-discovery process on help you carve a path that is unique to you.
4. Start a Daily Journal
I love writing but I despise journaling. It’s honestly one of my least favorite things in this world and I wish it would just go away. Now that I’ve got that out of my system, let’s talk about how a journal will help you with self-discovery.
Journals are perfect for learning more about you because they give you a safe place to express your feelings without fear of judgement. These expressions will allow you to evaluate your thought patterns as well as patterns in your behaviors and actions when you look back on previous entries.
In addition to these benefits, you can also utilize journal prompts to help you learn more about the deeper parts of your personality.
However, if you’re like me and you really aren’t fond of journaling, you could always opt for a medium that is similar to journaling but more exciting. For example, I love poetry and I often find that writing helps me learn more about my feelings and needs.
No matter what you’re chosen activity is, make sure it helps you to evaluate yourself regularly.
5. Actively Seek Out New Experiences
When we get comfortable with life, we often stop learning and exploring ourselves. The solution? Push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Make an effort to try something new every day and don’t hesitate to engage in activities that scare you. (However, don’t do anything that is unnecessarily life-threatening just for the sake of gaining more experience.)
What you’ll discover as you push yourself further out of your comfort zone is that there are things out there that will spark a fire in you or trigger a new desire or need that you didn’t know you had. On the same not, you will find things you didn’t know you hated that you now know to avoid.
The point here is that you absolutely have to try new things in order to continue learning about yourself. Otherwise, you are going to get too comfortable and fall into the same habit of losing yourself time and time again.
Finding yourself is a difficult process but it is well worth it if you seek to improve your life and your relationship with yourself. If you’re trying to learn more about who you are, use the five tips above to help you discover yourself and grow into the person you’ve always wanted to be!
