Finding
Know who you are to grow who you are
For those who see themselves – or others – as ‘lost’ along the lines of yesterday’s Daily Paradox (‘Lost’ 30Jul23) there are three main remedies. There are others, too. Farina Ghanie’s ARISE! Sessions (www.arise.care) are bringing sanity to many people exhausted by the intransigence of TAKE. Several physical and mental exercise programmes make contributions to the revival of the spirit. The three main remedies I mention here are the foundations of ‘Finding’, the basis of regaining control and the keys to life, the ‘KPI’. Not the worn-out KPIs you have heard of so many times, they are today’s KPIs – Knowing, Purpose, Inquiring.
The heart of the matter is K – Knowing. We would all like to know everything. The internet makes it unnecessary to do so. We have access to most things that have ever been known. There’s one thing the internet doesn’t know – ourselves. Almost without exception, we fail to know ourselves. There are many reasons for this. The process of growing up involves the opinions and influence of hundreds of people, each with their own biases and all wanting to impose philosophies, beliefs and behaviours they think we should adopt. It leaves us a bundle of other people’s influences and only a bare smattering of self-knowledge.
“Know who you are to grow who you are.”
Getting the answer to this does not involve deep psychological analysis, it requires reflection. That means answering the right questions. We need help to find those questions and with how to deal with them. The answers will, of course, be ours. I suggest how you can approach this at the end of today’s Daily Paradox. I’ve put it there to avoid having a quasi-promotion interfering with our discussion.
Why is it so important to know ourselves?
First, to allow us to be ourselves while living acceptably in a social environment. Second, even more importantly, to enable us to find our Purpose – the P of KPI. Does everyone need to have a purpose? No, only those who want to have a happy, fulfilled and fruitful life. Absence any of these, you don’t need a purpose. The side effects of having a purpose are that you are healthier, live longer, enjoy life more and reach that level of satisfaction that allows you to move on at the end without regret and with a level of hope that makes the next stage the greatest adventure of all.
Of all the things I learnt from good and kind people, having a purpose has proved to be the most valuable. From a poor start in life, with many health problems in my childhood and youth, to very little (and almost no financial) support at critical times, my Purpose was the guiding light that showed the way at every turn. Luck plays a major part in everyone’s life. So it did in mine, too. Having a purpose enabled me to use that luck when it came along. My beacon is still there. It will remain as long as I do.
The third of my fundamentals for Finding is I – Inquiring. We know that life-long learning is part of today’s essentials. Put the way most learning institutions express it, it becomes an ingestion, a taking-in of knowledge. Inquiring has no such limitation. It is the investing of our minds in what the world has to offer and in what we can offer to the world that makes inquiring such an important part of our lives. It ought really to be a double “I”. It’s not just the Inquiring but the Initiative, following Inquiry, that matters. Every learning, every discovery leads to an initiative for the benefit of others.
Finding is the answer to “Lost”. Knowing, Purpose and Inquiring are not three paths, they are one. From a distance it may look like a bleak and lonely journey. When you take it, it is the opposite. It is a walk through beauty and love to fulfilment.
As you take it you realise that you are Finding.
When you reach the end you will have Found.
Good morning
John Bittleston
john.bittleston@terrificmentors.com
AD-endum:
Personality, Abilities, Skills, Dreams, Ambitions, Qualifications
We created the PASDAQ® to take a look at who you are so that you may find your purpose.
It is completely different from all other personality and purpose tests. The work we put in when you have completed its roughly 100 questions is disproportionate to the charge for it.
No other personality enquiry reveals as many aspects of your ability as PASDAQ®.
To get a 3-page summary of it please ask mentors@terrificmentors.com.
31 July 2023