Do you think you know yourself?? Self-awareness??

[basscatcher]

I often wonder how many people can honestly say they know themselves well. I have had several people tell me after we have talked about ourselves say, "You know yourself very well!.." I believe I do...I have spent endless minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years trying to figure out myself. I have looked at my past, my actions, my choices, my desires and experiences and I believe I have come up with a very good understanding of myself. I am comfortable with who I am. I know I am constantly evolving and growing with every experience including my interactions here on LS.

 

I wonder if other people think they know themselves?

 

Do you know what you want in a partner?

Do you know what you are searching for in life?

Do you know what you really like and don't like?

Do you know know what you want? Realistically!!

Do you know your morals and values?

Do you know what would make you happy realistically?

 

I think it is easy for all of us to DREAM (fantasy) about what we would like and want in our lives but can you come down to earth and be realistic about life and truthfully know what it is that makes you who you are as a person and what you seek in life?

 

The bottom line is "Do YOU Know Who You ARE?"

[alphamale]

For me it is a matter of survival to know most of what I want, desire, need and like. I dont' know it all, however.

 

"You can't always get what you want...but if you try sometimes....you'll find, you get what you need..."

-The Rolling Stones

[basscatcher]

For me it is a matter of survival to know most of what I want, desire, need and like. I dont' know it all, however.

 

I can see that in you. I think you are a work in progress of getting to know yourself better like the rest of us.

 

From reading your posts you have some strong opinions and ideas then in others you are searching yourself out.

[JS17]

I think you actually have a really good question here. Self Awareness is a BIG thing that I learned to look for in potential mates. It is a strong sign of maturity.

[Moose]

I may not know all about myself. But Mrs. Moose does, and probably more so than any other human......she hasn't had any complaints lately, so I must be doing all right......

 

I don't fantasize about being someone else. I'm happy being who I am. I have everything I ever wanted, and I know where I'm going. At the present, my purpose is to finish raising these, "cling-ons", to be respectful human beings who love God.

 

Yup, things are hunky dory on Moose Ranch......

[Hot Coco]

This really IS a good question and it's kind of come up in another thread. My stance is that before one is 30 we don't really know who we are. I'm generalizing here because I really believe that's true for MOST of us..not all. We evolve a lot in our 20's and then it kind of levels out after that, even though we evolve and change throughout our life time.

 

Am I making sense?

 

That's why I've maintained that it's not a good idea to get married when you're under 30. I mean we can still pick the wrong person AFTER 30 but we have a better chance since we know ourselves better by then.

 

I think I know myself VERY well NOW but when I was in my 20's I only thought I knew. I wasn't really the person then, that I was to become.

[slubberdegullion]

What an excellent set of questions.

 

Now, how does one go about actually answering them? I've been to a couple of workshops on this - Myers-Briggs and True Colours, to name two - and while they're good as far as they go, IMO they are too easily skewed depending upon what is going on in one's life at the time.

 

While our fundamental personality types probably don't change to any significant degree, how other people perceive us and how we perceive ourselves seems to be in a constant state of flux, determined by outside influences.

[basscatcher]

In my late teens and into my 20s I knew what I seeked in a relationship with a man. I knew what I wanted but I thought it was only a dream and would never come true. I tried to settle for whatever and nothing ever worked out with that philosophy. I had to experience many things in order to make sense of what I was going to accept.. I have always known what qualities, morals and values I seek in a partner because I mirror them with mine.

 

As for what I like in activities and interests outside of relationships with men. That has been the hardest for me to focus in on. I have so many interests. I want to dabble in this and that and not get stuck into one habit or hobby.. I get bored rather quickly with routine hobbies. I want different visuals and ideas. Maybe that is why I enjoy being in nature so much. The landscape is always different whereever you go. The trees grow differently, wildlife each has their own personalities, etc etc. Just like no two snowfakes are identical..

 

There is still so much I want to know and try in life but I have learned my boundrys and limits..

 

I do beleive when we reach our late 20s into early 40s is a time where we start to understand ourselves better. We are able to finally start to put our puzzle pieces together and see the picture more clearly.

[basscatcher]

While our fundamental personality types probably don't change to any significant degree, how other people perceive us and how we perceive ourselves seems to be in a constant state of flux, determined by outside influences.

 

I agree totally with you here.. Our foundations will always be (temperment) but the way people percieve us (based on what we are willing to show of ourselves to others) and who we are in our private world internally are so drastic.. This is the divergence someone once called me on. He said what I do and say are in conflict with who I am and what I feel on the inside. He said I had a huge divergence in myself..

 

He was very very right about me. He had the ability to have a insight on me that no one ever has and it scared the hell out of me. He was able to play/prey on me because that made me vulnerable to him..

 

I don't show all of me to the outside world out of fear of rejection, humiliation, being taken advantage of. I suffered extreme rejection, humiliation and betrayal growing up from my community, peers, teachers, family and especially my father.. I can admit I am afraid that if anyone can see who I really am on the inside they wouldn't like me because I am too sensitive, to touchy-feely, to deep, to imaginative. Sometimes I feel like I am to interpersonal for 99% of people.. I hold myself back so I won't be treated like a freak.. I opened myself up when I was a teenager. I met much harsh criticism from my friends. Years later in our mid 20s those friends told me that I was always right in my thinking and my beliefs. They couldn't accept them because they couldn't understand them. They told me I was way to advanced in personal relationships then they were..

 

So I felt like a freak in society and now days everyone tells me I need to become a Psychologist or at least a advocate councelor.. I don't have the self esteem to do that.

 

So I agree we have a divergence in ourselves and its up to us to chose to face it and find a way around it so we can be true to ourselves.

[3questions]

He said what I do and say are in conflict with who I am and what I feel on the inside. He said I had a huge divergence in myself..

 

I can really relate to this, is there a cure?

 

I don't show all of me to the outside world out of fear of rejection, humiliation, being taken advantage of. I suffered extreme rejection, humiliation and betrayal growing up from my community, peers, teachers, family and especially my father..

 

Does that count if you were previously in a deep relationship?

[basscatcher]

I can really relate to this, is there a cure?

 

My advice " Be honest with yourself and you can be honest with others."

"Be true to yourself and you can be true to others."

 

 

Does that count if you were previously in a deep relationship

 

For me, if I am in a deep and very serious relationship I show all of myself. I reveal everything I possibly know of myself. But I must be in and feel like I am in and know that I am in a very serious and deep relationship with the man before I will reveal my deepest darkest places..

 

I consider myself a open person but there are things that I don't reveal about myself very often. It is rare for me to open all the way up. I have done it 2 times and both times the guys lashed it all back in my face. I still believe there is someone out there who can accept all of me.. I beleive in honestly of who we are.

 

The person I know I am on the inside is still me but the person I show on the outside is only a part of me without the complete union of my inner out and outer self.. What I want and what I do..

[slubberdegullion]

if I am in a deep and very serious relationship I show all of myself...

With or without garters??

[basscatcher]

With or without garters??

 

 

Thats for me to know and maybe Mr. L will find out. lolol ahahaha If not him then someone else will come along sooner or later...

 

Red or Black? Could be white too!!