Becoming self-aware of who you are means that, you have a deeper understanding of your core identity. It is about knowing what exactly drives you to do things the way that you do them. Your values and beliefs are the things that make up your character which in turn influences your choices, actions and results in life.
Values are the factors that a person considers important in their life and they un-consciously shape your behaviors, preferences and style. Understanding yourself at the core is an important aspect as it controls your decision making, determines your priorities and influences your judgment power.
The core identity of a person is solely determined by their beliefs of what is right or wrong and are adopted right from childhood about who they are in the world inside of them. Self-awareness helps you to build a solid foundation that you can rely on in moving forward into the future, and determines if your life is headed in the right direction or not.
Who Are You at the Core?
Most people spend their lives attempting to be somebody they aren’t, but the real power comes from accepting the truth of who you are and running with it to the very best of your ability – Kain Ramsay.
The natural order of things dictates that a person be described by what they do in the world outside of them. However your true identity is not what you have achieved on the outside, but the values that lay inside of you. Such traits include things like kindness, caring, loving, creative, honest, trust worth, bold, calm, accurate, reliable, peaceful, careful, fun etc.
There are three sides of a person, who you are, who you believe you are and what you want to be in future. These make up the three components of self that every person should purpose to be aware of.
- Self-worth
This is the value you place upon yourself. When you are not confident in whom you are as a person, then you are not free and you may find yourself living a life trying to prove your significance to other people. You must never compare yourself to others nor consider yourself not good enough.
Understanding your self-worth helps you to control what happens inside of you. It also prevents you from looking down upon yourself as useless, not capable, weak, not deserving or not important.
Unlike people of low self-worth, those who regard themselves highly do not feel enslaved to work for a minimum wage or care much about the tittles or labels given to them by others. Instead their worth acts as a positive motivator to take them closer to the things they wish to have or be.
A person whose self-worth is low, believes that his/her value is dependent on their achievements i.e., People’s approval, social status, material possessions or wealth.
The limiting belief that people are defined by what they do or whom they believe they are, prevents them from appreciating their qualities and talents.
This creates a barrier to their progress towards attaining their goals. Progress is determined by your fundamental core motives.
- Self-esteem
It is a composition of the feelings you adopt about yourself and is determined by the beliefs you have about your importance or value as a person. People act and behave depending on the things they believe to be true or false about them.
When you are fully self-aware of whom you are at the core, you become free to do the things you want without fear to be judged. How you choose to conduct yourself or the choice of things that interest you depends entirely on yourself. Self-esteem is a trap that you get yourself into un-consciously and it greatly influences your progress.
As your self-esteem develops, you learn to respect and believe in yourself aside from the things you’ve achieved and you quit depending on anyone else to make you feel secure.
- Self-concept
No one is perfect. People seeking self improvement have the will to grow themselves on all or certain areas of their lives. What they are committed to become, defines their self-concept. Adopting limiting beliefs is the surest way to procrastinate or fail in life.
Choosing to let go of any dis-empowering beliefs, will help you to feel less worried, stressed or unhappy and will enable you to work towards the things you want.
Mistaken beliefs are where negative self-talk stems from. They are deep rooted beliefs or assumptions that you hold about yourself, other people and life in general.
Most often, such beliefs are incorrect and completely unhelpful. They are usually learned from your parents, peers, teachers, and the larger society that you grew up in. Most people tend to take these beliefs for granted and don’t even realize that they’re beliefs at all. You just assume that they are true!
Mistaken beliefs that you hold about yourself and the way life is, are the root cause of the anxiety you experience and the biggest reason why you have no determination to improve yourself.
Conclusion
There is a relationship between your core identity and who or how you relate to others, what you do in life, how you react to circumstances, and what you want or need to achieve in future. Therefore, being self-aware will help you control the way you behave and conduct yourself with other people.
However, if you choose to place a higher value on what you do rather than who you are, you might end up identifying yourself through what you produce, create or the results you get. This places you at risk of putting more emphasis on the role that you play at home, work or in the community you belong rather than who you are and lead you to experience internal conflicts.