How Knowing Yourself Improves Your Quality of Life

 
There is so much value in knowing who you are. Truly understanding yourself gives valuable insight into your inner being - your underlying thoughts, feelings, motives, actions, and behaviors. Having that information and applying when and where necessary can radically improve your life.

Below are some specific advantages that come from knowing who you really are and how it can improve your life.
 
Clarity
Many of us walk around confused because we lack the self-knowledge needed to guide our lives. Knowing who you really are can offer a lot of critical information about yourself. Processes such as self-reflection and introspection can help you learn about your inner self - your thoughts, feelings, actions, behaviors, and motives.
 
Clarity also opens the doors to your strengths and weaknesses, and your goals and ambitions. This clarity about yourself can give you more direction and a more insight on the path forward so that you can move forward with your ambitions and reach your goals.
 
Confidence
Knowing your whole self can help you uncover the good and the not-so-good about yourself. When you know your strengths and weaknesses you know how to leverage them to your advantage. In knowing your weaknesses you can learn to embrace those aspects of yourself as you also learn how to make changes and adjustments that will help you improve in those areas. From there you can confidently move forward with deeper understanding of yourself and greater self-love (Jansen, 2013).
 
Empowerment
With clarity and confidence you become empowered to make the best decisions for yourself. When you understand yourself better, you are in a better space to control your thoughts, emotions, actions, and behaviors in a way that best serves your goals and ultimate dreams.
 
You are also better equipped to use your strengths and pull from your confidence to get closer to the vision for your life. Similarly, with the information you have about your weaknesses and areas that do not serve you well, you can make decisions about how to improve upon those weaknesses and/or make the necessary changes that will remove those things that don’t serve you. It is your knowledge of self that helps you make the changes you need and leverage the good things to propel yourself forward.
 
Freedom
A final way that knowing yourself helps is, it frees you from seeking the opinions and approval of others. When you don’t truly know who you are that information is often sought from others. We look for other people to define us or tell us about ourselves as a means of finding identity and worth.
 
However, when you understand yourself, you don’t need other people to define or affirm you. You will move freely through your life without feeling the need to please others. In other words, other's opinions won't make or break you. 
 
Knowing yourself is the key to clarity, confidence, empowerment, and true freedom. Knowing all of yourself  empowers you to make the necessary changes that will free you from the pressure of living up to other people’s expectations, and be confident to go about living a life of value and purpose. This will allow you to be happier and more fulfilled in the short and long-term, and what more could a person truly want?