Aristotle, a Greek philosopher once said “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
As young people, we receive the opportunity to learn something new about the world every single day. We are presented with an overwhelming quantity of new stimuli on a regular basis. We have the chance to experience new situations, meet new people and see new places. With this being the case, it is quite easy for us to forget that the world around us is not the only place where we can make new discoveries.
There are several things that we may not fully know about ourselves, and a very important part of our youth is discovering our special talents and true capabilities. The importance of introspection is often overlooked. However, knowing ourselves is the only way to ensure that we can handle everything that life brings us in the best way possible. More importantly, knowing ourselves can also help us to understand what we need to do to express our finest qualities.
A very common struggle that young people face is deciding what they would like to do for the rest of their lives. They are unsure about their future career, or even what they would like to study at a higher level. This is not a reflection on young people’s decision-making skills, but an indicator that as youth, we simply do not spend enough time understanding ourselves. After all, how can we decide what someone wants if we do not even know them? When making a choice about your future, it is important to know yourself not only because it can help you make a choice that ensures that you will be satisfied and happy, but also so that you can offer your best to the world.
The first step to knowing yourself is accepting that several aspects of you are always evolving and growing. For instance, when you were a small child, what was the highest height you could reach? What was the heaviest weight you could carry? Have the answers to these two questions not changed over the years? Your limits and capabilities are never the same. Constantly testing yourself and being willing to make new attempts at hobbies and activities that did not previously work out for you can reveal new skills from within you.
We must be able to recognise what gives us joy and make choices that we can remain passionate about for the rest of our lives. Sometimes, the goals that we have set for ourselves do not reflect what we truly need, but instead represent a future that we believe that we would like to have. There are some professions that are often associated with an easy and successful future. However, if you are an artist forcing yourself into a field that has nothing to do with art simply because you believe it will be easier, then you will find yourself becoming unhappy quite soon. Apart from this, you will also be depriving the world from all that you have to offer.
The idea of choosing your future can be difficult and daunting but it always helps to remember that if you make the wrong choice despite your best efforts, you will always get a chance to remake your decision in some form during the course of your life. Better yet, you may begin to develop a passion for the job that you initially believed was not right for you.
