“Know yourself” was inscribed over the oracle at Delphi. I have put a sign with the same wording over the door of my office so I’m often reminded to make knowledge of self a high priority.
There are many ways to do this: travel to some place new, have a frank conversation with someone you trust, keep a journal, read something you totally disagree with, do something bold/take a risk.
Let me suggest another practical way to grow in self-knowledge. Complete a high-quality self assessment and discuss it with someone trained and experienced with the tool. I recommend the TriMetrix coaching report. It includes a high-powered version of the DISC assessment that describes a person’s behavior style (how you prefer to communicate, take action, respond to situations). It also profiles your key motivators, the things you find most engaging and interesting as well as the things you aren’t thrilled about that others around you are. Learning this is part of the key to effectively influencing others. Understanding your true motivators is crucial to grasping the source of real satisfaction for yourself.
Finally, TriMetrix gives you a kind of “eye test” of your value vision. You see people, tasks and systems with differing clarity, and these value dimensions largely shape your overall sense of judgment. Good judgment is the key to good decision-making and producing results that matter. TriMetrix will reveal more about you in an amazingly short time than several years of deep exploration and soul searching (how many of us are planning to do that?).
However you do it, choose to gain some greater self-awareness and learn how you can be more effective by applying your natural talents.
