23 Jun You won’t ever be really happy without knowing these 10 things about yourself
It's an age-old concept but "knowing thyself" is still considered vitally important…by philosophers, psychologists and pretty much anyone interested in self-development and improvement.
One can't very well change or improve without first knowing…what is!
So it's pretty easy to understand, then, that for happiness and living a better life, a degree of self-knowledge is important and this thought provoking article lists 10 things you need to know to really enjoy happiness and life…
by Briana Wiest via Though Catalog
As C.G. Jung once said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” When it comes to building the lives we want to lead, we’re taught to start constructing from how we imagine we want things to look. Titles rather than roles, images rather than realities, concepts rather than day-in-and-day-out tasks and duties and practices. It’s time to dismantle the ego-frenzied Western obsession with a Big Life, and break down what it takes to actually exist in a way we desire to. Here, all the things you must know about yourself so you can choose the life you actually want, not the one you think you do.
What do you want your daily tasks to be?
We’re instructed to choose the life we want based on what we think we want to be, but we’re only capable of determining that insofar as we are able to think of what it would mean to have the title of a role. We rarely consider the nitty, gritty daily practice that is required for a peaceful, meaningful existence. Instead of “I want to help people each day,” start asking yourself if the way you really want to do that is by caring for people physically, doing the tasks that actually requires. It all sounds flowery and noble when you think of what you want your life to be about, but you must consider the reality. When you go in choosing what you want each day of your life to consist of – how much paperwork, how much time at the computer, how many hours of leisure – you’re able to actually build the existence you want, from the ground up.
What kind of person do you want to be? (As opposed to: what titles do you want to have?)
It’s not about choosing what kind of adjective you’d like as a preface to your job title, but what kind of person you want to be doing it. It ultimately doesn’t matter whether you’re a teacher, or student, or editor, or construction worker. It matters what kind of person you want to be while you do those jobs. Are you someone who is kind and understanding? Who spends the better portion of their day conversing with loved ones? Someone who is busy from day break to day end? Someone who is distracted? Attentive? Hard-working? You ultimately are defined not by what you do, but how you do it.
What do you want to be remembered for?
What do you want them to say at your funeral? That you wore a small pant size and had a successful job because of which you weren’t able to actually develop relationships? Or that you were loving, and kind, and cared about your work, but cared about people more? Your impermanence is a thing you should meditate on every day: there is nothing more sobering, nor scary, nor a faster-way-to-cut-the-negative-bullshit than to remember that you do not have forever. What defines your life, when it’s all said and done, is how much you influence other people’s lives, oftentimes just through your daily interactions and the courage with which you live your own. That’s what people remember. That’s what you will be known for when you’re no longer around to define yourself…
…keep reading the full & original article HERE