Being aware of our weaknesses and strengths is important in determining which types of things we must focus on to become great at it. As what I mentioned a few weeks ago, I have still been consuming Gary Vaynerchuk’s content in Youtube and I noticed how he was so big on being aware of ourselves.

However, even if we all knew that it was important, a lot of people still fail to really focus on figuring out what they might be naturally good at. Usually because they are overwhelmed by the opinions of others around them that their inner voice had become drowned out. The problem is, other people are not us. We do not have the exact same opinions and capabilities as they. So, if we compare ourselves with what those people are doing, it may be completely different with what we actually want to do. I am aware of this because I believe that I was born in a family that is the complete opposite of my personality. I am creative and one of the most open minded people you will ever meet and my mom and her side of the family is the typical Asian family who cares about grades and reputation. They are also religious and I was able to understand in myself that I do not believe in the religion as much as they did. It is not easy to counter the opinions of the people you grew up caring for and sometimes you just think for yourself if you’re taking the right steps. I don’t know anyone else growing up who felt the same way as I did. Until I gradually grew courage to google search about it online and read about other who were going through the same thing I did.

When I started journaling, I felt anxiety of having someone else open it and read the deepest darkest (I thought) part of myself. I think when I was young, my cousin and I would try to dig out dirt on each other and tattle on the other person if we found something. That had made me afraid to continue it again around fourteen years old. Another excuse of mine was: I am already fourteen, only elementary students write on their diary. Good thing I did not completely stop doing it. For years, I was on and off about writing on a journal but I am glad I still tried to. Especially during the times when I was struggling the most about my social anxiety. Now, I look back at it and I use that as a motivator during my bad days to tell myself that I can get through what I am going through because I have gone through something more fear inducing. Journaling can also help out in becoming more clear on what you really like. Not anyone else. After all, it’s just you, and your thoughts on the journal.

Sometimes, what people are afraid of can be their own thoughts. They are afraid of standing up for something and realizing they were wrong all along. It would step all over their ego because, heck, who wants to be wrong big time?! Because of this, we become afraid to try new things, to fail and have others around us laugh at us. And because of that, we fail to try out things we thought we would like and stay where we are, confused and helpless. Not to say there are others who somehow just know the things they would enjoy or not. If that is you, kudos to you but for the others who are uncertain whether they would like an activity or not, please go out there and take calculated risks and fail, then get up and try again.

This is something I learned while watching Gary Vee. Internet is here. It’s easier to find a community online that we could belong to. We just have to be proactive in finding it.

In summary, I think that we have some control over whether we decide if we want to become aware of ourselves or not. It’s not going to be an easy journey for sure, but it’s going to help us with being great at something we want to be doing.