Self-Awareness Is Not Important
breaking down the illusion behind one-self
As I grow up, it can be tough to remember what being in the 20s was like. Back then, the only thing I understood whenever something (good or bad) happened to me was just “a luck”, or “that’s what I was meant to be” or “that’s what I deserve” — That clueless and helpless.
Well, it was all ended when The Empire Strikes Back, or The Fire Nation Attacks — whatever movie you prefer. From then, I learned
Everything happens for a reason
The illusion behind every achievements, and failures
Have you ever wanted something badly? Or maybe something you would like to try once in a lifetime? Maybe, things like:
- I want to summit Mount Everest,
- I want to have that kick-ass-dozen-packs flat abs,
- Someday I would like to conquer the world and bring peace
Then you realized all of those things require an action. So you start scrolling your browser, searching:
- Best selfie pics on top of the Mount Everest,
- Painless way to lose 50 kilos in 2 days,
- How to build a kingdom for dummies
I do have that “nice to have” waiting list. And actually, I made my real move to pursue of them, usually started by googling “how-tos”.
After a moment of trying, some of them turned out to be successful, some of them did not.
The question is why?
It was half past midnight
I barely slept, sipped too much espresso when I randomly took an online personality test, Big Fives.
As far as I know, Big Fives or OCEAN points out fives main factors: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism
There were 100 questions, might be very helpful for regulating my caffeine level. So I managed to answer all those questions with a full attention, and the result somewhat surprised me.
I had a 71% of Conscientiousness. Well, nothing seems too special, unless two years earlier, my Conscientiousness was only 15% (I checked on the old mailboxes).
Hence that day, I didn’t realize that I had changed (maybe that much). Seems funny, yet confusing because it left me questions I was unable to answer.
Well I am skeptical that nothing or no one just change like that, not instantly nor randomly. Must be something behind the enigma. Must be a process?
For that reason, the first thing I did was to discover more about that Conscientiousness thing. I found that the Conscientiousness is one factor that describes a person’s tendency to be organized and goal-oriented.
By all means, I was way too unorganized back then and now I’m much more organized (seems to). But wait, what happened? Still doesn’t answer my question, thus I searched for other clues.
That’s when I started to annoy myself, with a tons of questions …
After intensely questioning myself, I found out the reason why. To make it short, I will tell you the rest of the story (hopefully) later.
From now on, let’s just say that I had the answers. (finally!)
What did I learn?
From that story, I’m not saying that now I’m an organized person, no that’s not the point. Until now, procrastination was flowing through my veins, all the time, since I was born, and never truly leaves….
Well, the moment did conclude something: I have changed. And the most important thing is that now I’m aware what is truly happening behind it.
A strategy that really worked well for me, to make a change in my life.
Let’s say that, if I can achieve something that much using that strategy, most likely I can use the same strategy to achieve another goal.
So it was that moment that led me to adopt self-questioning as a daily habit.
Let’s go on a hike!
We know that Mount Everest is the top of the world. But to summit the peak, we will only need to hike.
I know, it is not necessarily that simple. In fact, it is too apparent that we will face countless adversities during (or before, or maybe after) the hike.
Therefore to challenge those adversities, we need a plan.
Adversity #1 : Let’s say that we’re not physically good at hiking
Then we can always make a plan to improve your physical condition before the hike, or to choose the easier routes we will take (if possible).
Adversity #2 : Suppose that we’re an unexperienced hiker
Then asking our hiker-friends to accompany us along the hike would be great. Doing some research first before the hiking day also seems enough.
Adversity #3 : We don’t have the required hiking gears
Then we can start investing your money to acquire them. Or if we don’t have enough savings to buy all of the gears, we can always borrow them. There are dozen of mountaineering-gear rentals out there.
And so on..
But if we aren’t that eager to challenge those adversities, maybe we should try to re-think our intention, and expectations. Are we really going to enjoy the hike? Or just enjoying the illusion of the peak?
Unfortunately, the life doesn’t work that way. Only those who are enjoying the struggle of the hike, are the ones who will reach the peak.
After all, the excitement is not merely for the view on top of the peak. It’s the climb itself, Baby.
Anyway let’s get back to our plan
If we look closely, those plans may differ from one person to another.
That’s why scrolling to a how-to-do-something-faster-and-easier things or reading the most-inspirational-best-selling book is not always working for us.
Just because something works for someone, doesn’t mean that it will work for someone else
And the journey begins
Finally when we are really aware of ourselves, we will have a clearer strategy to conquer the summit, therefore increase the chance to make it happen.
To know what we need, we have to question ourselves. And to ask the questions, we must first aware that there’s eventually something to ask.
That’s why self-awareness is not important. No, it is not. It is Critical.
PS.
I’m sorry if you find this clickbait
See you soon!
