Curiosity had always been a driver of yours. After you had spent so much time consuming information, it started to become apparent that it wasn’t just about curiosity. It was about your attempt to be better, to learn more, to know more, and ultimately, to share more. Your journey towards a better self began where most curious people started, trying things that interested you. Even though it wasn’t long before you absorbed what you wanted to know and moved onto the next interesting topic. You learned through Tv documentaries, videos on YouTube, from teachers, and peers. You weren’t a particularly fast reader; you could only read at the pace of speaking. Rarely did you read books; more often, it was an article of 1,000 words or less. Later, Your absorption of information expanded with the introduction of podcasts, e-books, and blogs you found online that you really couldn’t remember the names of now. Those sources fed your curiosity and helped it to grow, revealing the numerous opportunities for a better self in all aspects of your life.
Embracing Your True Self
You are by no means finished with this journey, but the past few years have been a deep learning experience of your own acceptance—recognizing areas you excel in and deserve more of your attention, those areas where you aren’t great and need to work harder, and most importantly, understanding your unique style of working, learning, leading, and being. Instead of attempting to fit yourself into a mould you believe to be correct by others opinions, you’ve learned the value of leaning into your own strengths. Doing things your way, by doing so, you have become more successful and internally fulfilled than you had been before, and hopefully this continues.
The Balancing Act
While you’ve now found success in various facets of life and work, there is an ever present tug-of-war between allowing yourself to enjoy your achievements and perhaps too quickly chasing after the next challenge. Often, you find yourself questioning if you truly deserve any of your accomplishments and you take some convincing of this. But growth is not linear. Just as muscles require rest after exercise, your mind too benefits from phases of introspection, questioning yourself and bouts of intense curiosity fuelled learning. These moments of pause, where you seemingly plateau, often come before timely and productive breakthroughs.
Writing To Reflect
The reason I’ve embarked on this writing journey is two-fold. Firstly, it’s an attempt to communicate with a version of myself from 5 or 10 years ago—presenting lessons, ideas and understanding i wish i had known back then. In doing this, I’m making peace and moving on with things i didn’t do well and hopefully crystallising my thoughts and ideas that can continue to help by offering guidance to others. I have found that clarity emerges the more i write and read back my own thoughts. One day i hope to have this clarity manifest into a book. A tangible testament of my journey that can help others be better too, but to start, this project will do.
The Future of Self-Development
An age is coming, marked by abundance, challenges are evolving. In ancient times, we competed with nature and each other for resources, the whole purpose of a life was to just survive. The first jobs were still always an attempt to survive and provide for ourselves and our family, as society evolved, jobs or careers then started to turn to things that were interesting. I believe with automation, technology and scientific advancements our final purpose will shift to be about how we can thrive. I think this shift has begun already, as time goes by, the most significant challenges wont be external anymore. Our basic needs will be fully sustained and our final challenges will shift inward—to understand yourself deeply and evolve into your best self, for your own good and the good of those around you.
Final Thoughts
I hope that you can gain some knowledge from these ideas, i am merely writing down discussions within myself for others to read. This is a way to step into my mind and hopefully a way to inform, challenge or change yours. If there’s one sentiment I would like you to get from this, it’s that the journey of self-development is continuous. Challenges will arise; motivation might ebb and flow, but as long as the curiosity remains, growth is inevitable. I hope also that at some point, you may choose not to read these thoughts any more because you reach a point that your own senses take over. The journey will still remain, understanding, evolving, and always moving forward, becoming your better self is the destination.
BtrSelf 