Top 12 Motivating Ways To Learn More About Who You Are

There is so much value to be gained when we take the time to learn about ourselves. The amount of growth and development as a result of the insights we uncover can help us achieve goals and progress in life.

Knowing where to start in order to achieve this self-learning can be difficult at times. However, this process is not as difficult as it may appear. There are a variety of ways to facilitate the process of learning more about who you are. This article highlights ten of the most effective ways to go about this process.

1. Ask for Feedback

One valuable way to achieve insight regarding who you are is to enlist the assistance and input of others. People on the outside have a unique perspective regarding who you are and your specific characteristics/traits that you can be blind to.

Asking people for their honest feedback can help you learn more about your strengths and weaknesses, as well as assist you in uncovering areas where you could use improvement so you can work towards growth.

Consider consulting family, friends, and colleagues for feedback as these individuals tend to be the closest to you and engage with you the most frequently.

This means they can provide the most honest and realistic feedback.

2. Personality Test

Taking a personality test can also provide some quality insight regarding who you are. Personality tests are designed to assess and measure characteristic traits and can reveal aspects of your character that you were not previously aware of.

These test and/or assessments can help you gain insight into your dominant traits and how they might affect your everyday life.

For example, if you discover that you are an analytical person, you might want to consider seeking out more structured careers or educational paths that will allow you to use this skill.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that these quizzes should only be used as a starting point for learning about yourself and should not be taken as gospel.

Try to use the results of these quizzes as a way to start a conversation with yourself about who you are and the qualities that are important to you.

3. Reflection

The process of reflection requires critical self-analysis and high levels of awareness that allow you to learn about various aspects of yourself.

Via self-awareness and intentionality in looking at your own behaviors as well as examining your emotions and choices, you can learn about what drives you and learn about the experiences that have shaped and motivated you.

Reflection is an essential part of learning about who you are because it establishes an openness to learn and grow.

4. Journaling

Journaling is a very specific way that you can walk through the process of reflection, which can help you to learn more about who you are.

The process of simply writing down your thoughts, feelings, and insights can be quite revealing when it comes to learning about your values, motivations, and beliefs among other things.

Journaling allows you to be raw and transparent in a way that feels safe and protected, which is something you may not encounter via other forms of expression and self-analysis.

Journaling can be structured and involve specific prompts or it can be more free form. Either way, you can uncover things about yourself that can lead to growth and development.

5. Meditation

Engaging in the practice of meditation is another way to learn more about yourself. Meditation involves a deep focus on something specific (i.e. sentence, phrase, word, or even a specific outcome).

Meditation can help you to tap into deeper levels of consciousness than what you are able to access at a surface level.

This deeper focus and self-study can then allow you to see aspects of yourself that you were not previously consciously aware of.

Also, meditation can help you to uncover specific experiences or motivations that you may have buried beneath the surface level.

6. Account Your Accomplishments In Life So Far

Making a list of all the things you have accomplished in life so far can be an effective way to gain more self-knowledge.

Reflecting on your past successes, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem at first, is a great way to remind yourself that you are capable and worthy of achieving your goals.

This exercise can also provide a valuable reminder of the hard work and dedication it takes to become successful and can help you recognize areas where you can improve in order to reach higher levels of success.

As Eric Thomas said: “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”

7. Consider Therapy

Many people overlook therapy as an option to learn more about who they are, but it is a highly effective strategy for doing so.

Therapists are equipped with tools and knowledge to help you access and process information about yourself in a meaningful way.

Therapists can help you to understand more about who you are as well as the factors and experiences that have contributed to you becoming the person you are.

Additionally, their background can assist you in dealing with these things, especially if they are negative, in a safe manner while also giving you healthy strategies for improving and developing.

8. Write down everything that comes to mind

When it comes to getting to know yourself, an effective exercise is to write down everything that comes to mind about yourself without censoring. Writing down your thoughts and feelings is a great way to start the process of becoming more self-aware.

This exercise can help you develop an understanding of how you view life, other people and your own abilities and limitations. To help this process further, try to be as honest and open with yourself when writing down these thoughts and feelings.

Eric Thomas suggests asking yourself “Why” each time you finish a thought or feeling and answering the question truthfully in order to gain deeper insight into your core values.

Doing this will allow you to learn more about how you think and feel about yourself, which will provide a greater understanding of who you are.

9. Step Outside Comfort Zone

When you go outside the realm of what you are comfortable with it reveals aspects of yourself you didn’t know existed. This is because new experiences require new skills and test you in ways unfamiliar to you. You can learn things, both good and bad, about your thought patterns and behavioral tendencies just from stretching yourself a little bit further than you have in the past.

10. Ask Questions

If you are aiming to facilitate some deep introspection and reflection, asking and answering questions is an essential part of this process. When you ask strategic questions about yourself you get to target your learning about who you are to those specific areas.

Questions that explore your motivations, your behaviors, your feelings, and your relationships (among other areas) can foster a deep understanding of who you are and aid you in approaching life with more purpose and intentionality.

11. Document Your Responses

The way you respond to certain people and scenarios can give you a lot of insight into yourself. Your reactions are driven by factors such as your motives, values, and personality. Thus, if you notice a pattern in how you react to certain people or situations, it can point to something deeper regarding your motives, values, and personality.

12. Track Your Thoughts

Your thoughts serve as the underlying driving force behind your attitudes and actions. Thus, keeping track of your thoughts can help to uncover destructive or negative thought patterns that ultimately lead to poor decision making. When you take a thorough look at your thoughts you can identify those thought patterns that need to be adjusted and those that serve you well so you can continue moving in a positive direction.

Final Thoughts

Learning more about yourself can prove to be an asset that you can use to facilitate further growth and development.

Implementing just one or even a series of tools listed above can help you as you seek to learn more about who you are so that you can become your best self and give the best of yourself in all you do.