Hindrances to Self Knowledge, Part III

enlightened couple

Hindrances to Self Knowledge, Part III

I want to welcome back all readers to the Hindrances to Self Knowledge Series. The goal of this series is to help readers recognize ways in which they may be hindering their own success. Many of us go on with our lives oblivious to the fact that we have the ability to do more for ourselves. Some might be satisfied with their lives as they are, but majority of people are still looking to do more. Some have become complaisant; ignorant to the fact that they are truly unhappy. These are the individuals that I am hoping that I will reach with this series. This week, we are going to look at how pride and the ego can cause some issues with true knowledge of self.

Webster Dictionary defines pride as a feeling that you respect yourself and deserve to be respected by other people, and a feeling that you are more important or better than other people. Now I believe that everyone deserves respect and should also respect other. The issue with pride comes when looking at the second half of this definition. When one starts to feel like they are more important or better than other people, they begin to lose focus on what is important in life, which is growth. The moment you feel you are better than others, you instantly put yourself at a disadvantage. You are so busy comparing yourself to others, that you forget the fact that you have things in you that needs to be worked on. You begin to only note the positive aspects of self. I want to reiterate that it is important to have pride in who you are; it is also your responsibility to remain humble and realize that as great as you are, you might need some work in certain areas of your life. Pride can blind you in more ways than one. Pride itself can be one of the biggest blind spots that a human being can have.

If pride had a relative, its name would be ego. Ego is defined as the opinion that you have about yourself. In psychology, ego is seen as a part of the mind that senses and adapts to the real world. Having a healthy ego is necessary to live a productive life. If we did not think much of ourselves, we would not be motivated to do anything . Having a healthy ego involves knowing your strengths as well as your weaknesses. Where many run into problems, is when we become focused on our strengths and diminish our weaknesses instead of working on them. It is understandable why we don’t want to focus on our weakness; who wants to face the fact that they are not good at something. It takes humbleness and patience to want to improve oneself. It takes putting away your ego and your pride and focusing on those things that are not as “desirable.”

I encourage readers to start checking their pride and their ego. This will take time and effort; it will be ugly and painful, but the rewards are everlasting.