In my last post I have mentioned the importance of building a deeper knowledge about ourselves as the foundation to take further meaningful steps in life.
Today’s post will be short, practical and straight to the point.
The first step for personal discovery is to develop your self-awareness. Despite having no control over external events, we may tune in to what we’re looking for and initiate an active search, increasing our chances to find it.
Knowing ourselves, our personality, our values, our strengths, our flaws, and even how others perceive us is precious information. This knowledge becomes powerful when pursuing something specific in life – may it be a career, a relationship, and making decisions that might be important to us.
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself.” - Rumi
Gaining knowledge about ourselves is within our power, it’s within our control, and it is the first step for the external events to start unfolding. I hope the following tools will give you a head start.
Tool #1: The Johari Window
A good starting point is to find out what you know about yourself, and what others know about you.
The Johari Window model is a psychological tool developed in 1955 by two American Psychologists - Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. This tool helps people better understand their relationship with themselves and others, it helps exploring the unknown areas and blind spots.
Each person is represented through four quadrants or window pane. Each four window pane signifies personal information, feelings, motivation and whether that information is known or unknown to oneself or others in four viewpoints. For further information click here.
Tool #2: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test is based on the theory of personality types from the psychoanalyst Carl Jung.
Although the official MBTI-branded version of the test is paid, you may find its free version helpful - 16 Personalities - Traits based Personality test NERIS® model. This free personality test will give you an idea of your main personality traits.
(Please note that taking a personality test on its own without further consultation or other means of psychological assessment is not effective to predict someone’s behaviour.)
Tool #3: Personal SWOT
I always tell my clients that the starting point for a coaching journey is to explore who they are, what’s important to them. Likely important is to list their abilities, skills, assets, flaws, and identify resources (or opportunities), and eventual blockages (or threats).
A personal SWOT analysis is a simple yet effective tool that helps you start bringing that knowledge to the surface. You can find further information about what is a Personal SWOT Analysis and a template here.
Of course that there are many other tools out there to help you gain further knowledge about yourself. As mentioned, I wanted to keep this post simple and practical. I hope this helps you to take action. Happy findings!
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About Eva:
Eva uses her experience and academic knowledge in Psychology, Human Resources, Coaching and Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) to coach her international clients through both personal & professional transitions, helping them figuring out what's next.
Her mission is to be the catalyst for her clients' change, for their personal development, while building their confidence and improving their self-awareness.
Get in touch to understand how you could build your path together. The first conversation is free, so what do you have to lose?
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