Everyone these days emphasises on developing the right skillset as it is the necessary skills that ensure one’s survival in competitive times like these. According to the society, there are many external skills that you must have if you wish to make a mark for yourself in this world, these include communication skills, digital literacy, problem solving and social skills to name a few. No doubt, these skills are quintessential to attain success but they are not the end all. In order to be truly successful not just in one’s career but in life, the most important skill is to “understand thyself”.
If one lacks the understanding of one’s needs, wants and ambition, life can get chaotic and might seem like an unwanted task. That’s because life is all about making choices and making a choice means giving up something else, making choices deals with choosing one road and not the other one and at the same time being aware of how one’s choices interact with that of others. In this process of making the right choices, understanding oneself plays a key role. Getting the most out of life means choosing wisely and well, that can happen only when one is familiar with the longing of their heart and chooses accordingly. Understanding oneself and being self-aware, makes one independent and opinionated and protects against being too vulnerable to the opinions of others. If you know what works for you - what is good for you and what isn’t, decision making becomes easy and efficient.
If one lacks this understanding, and makes decisions solely based on monetary or social benefits or on the basis of what is right according to other people around them, they would regret their choices every once in a while, and this would severely affect their overall happiness levels as we can only be as happy as our minds are at peace. Apart from this, understanding oneself is beneficial in many ways like it helps in improving one’s relationships with others, helps in overcoming one’s fears, enhances one’s confidence and reduces self-doubt. Due to all these reasons, the Eastern value unlike the Western view has always laid emphasis on increasing one’s understanding of oneself and has also identified many ways to do so including practising mindfulness and Yoga.
The East has produced too many blissful and content saints while the West has produced too many unsatisfied and materialistic people so we must pay heed to the Eastern value system and utilise a part of our energy and time on understanding thyself instead of running away from ourselves as one rightly said “We can be ourselves only when we understand thyself.”
Mahima Singh
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