Know Yourself

Sun Tzu in the art of war said and I quote:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

Let’s assume that your enemy in this context is the interruption, mishaps and disappointments that can prevent you from developing your gift.

You have to begin the journey of developing your gift by knowing yourself.

When you know yourself, you also identify your limits and your limitations.

How do you do that? You identify your strengths and your weakness and identify which you will work on developing them.

One challenge, I see in the world today is people struggling to develop gifts that they don’t have an aptitude for. 

I dedicate today’s article to them. PLEASE READ!!!!!

Growing up as a child, I didn’t attend music class nor know how to play any musical instrument.

In-fact, on a scale of 0 to 10, my musical gifting was a 0 meaning I had a weakness playing musical instrument. So I never bothered developing that gift.

However, I had two to three great gifts that came naturally:

1.    Reading books (I have read over 1,000 titles ranging from Geography, Technology, Business, and Self-Help etc.)

2.    Teaching (I believe that as you teach, you reinforce your learning)

3.    Speaking for a Cause

On a scale of 1 to 10, I was averaging 8 and above in these areas, so I spent time, money and every resource that I could lay my hand on in developing these gifts.

I attended conferences, read books, sought the face of mentors, advisors and coaches to help me develop this gift.

Moral of Today’s Article: Know Yourself!! Develop your Strengths and stop wasting time building your weakness!!


P.S: This link helps you to know yourself more, it’s a questionnaire that tells you a lot about your personality. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

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