Know Yourself Centre

Journaling

Friend: I journal every night. That’s how I know myself.

You: When you read back your entries from six months ago, do you ever cringe and think, “Wow, I was totally blind about my motives back then”?

Friend: All the time.

You: So the journaling helped you see that your past self was deluded.

Friend: Yes.

You: Does that mean the entries you wrote last night might also be deluded, and only the future you will spot it?

Friend: …Damn. So journaling is always one step behind real self-knowledge?

You: Or it’s the step that keeps you moving. Which do you think it is?

Self-Knowledge Learning

Know Yourself Centre

Client: You keep telling everyone “Know yourself,” but Thales said knowing yourself is the most difficult thing in life. Why bother teaching the one thing that’s basically impossible?

Know Yourself Centre: Do you agree with Thales that it’s the most difficult?

Client: Obviously. People spend decades in therapy and still get surprised by their own reactions.

Know Yourself Centre: Exactly. So if it’s the hardest thing, shouldn’t it also be the most important thing to try?

Client: Maybe, but if it’s truly the hardest, most of us are doomed to fail. Why set everyone up for failure?

Know Yourself Centre: When you learned to walk, did you succeed on the first try?

Client: Of course not. I fell a thousand times.

Know Yourself Centre: And did your parents say, “Walking is too difficult; better not try”?

Client: No, they kept encouraging me.

Know Yourself Centre: So even though walking was impossibly hard at first, the trying itself is what made it possible. Is knowing yourself any different?

Client: I guess not. But at least when you fall while walking, you see the bruise. When you fail to know yourself, you don’t even notice.

Know Yourself Centre: True. So the first step of knowing yourself is noticing that you just failed to know yourself. Isn’t that already a tiny bit of self-knowledge?

Client: Okay, fine. But most people think they already know themselves pretty well.

Know Yourself Centre: Do you think you know yourself pretty well right now?

Client: Better than most, yeah.
Know Yourself Center: A minute ago you said people are constantly surprised by their own reactions. Which one is it you, or “people”?

Client: (quiet) ….

Know Yourself Centre: See? The moment you claim “I know myself,” something inside already starts proving you wrong. That discomfort you just felt; isn’t that the beginning of actually knowing yourself?

Client: So you’re saying the path starts the second I admit I’m clueless?

Know Yourself Centre: Exactly. Thales didn’t say “knowing yourself is impossible.” He said it’s the most difficult. Difficulty is not the same as impossibility. The first act of self-knowledge is agreeing that the job is hard, and that you haven’t finished it. Have you taken that step yet?

Client: I’m taking it right now, aren’t I?

Know Yourself Centre: Yes. And that tiny admission just made you wiser about yourself than ninety-nine percent of people who are certain they’re already done. Welcome to the hardest, and therefore most worthwhile, work there is.

Know Yourself Centre
-knowledgelearning

“I challenge what I know, yet to know is to know that I know nothing” Know Yourself Centre

Student: The goal of life is to be successful, and success means being rich.

You: Does that mean a billionaire drug lord is more successful than a poor but honest teacher who shaped thousands of lives?

Student: No, that feels wrong.

You: Then money alone can’t be the measure. What else belongs in the definition of success?

Student: Maybe impact, happiness, integrity…

You: So is a broke but happy artist who influences culture a failure?

Student: ......

Borrowed Time