Man, know yourself.

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

A famous Oracle is engraved on the lintel of Apollo Temple in Delphi, Greece: Man, know yourself! Such a simple sentence, after thousands of years of changes and historical changes, can still bring people rational vigilance and thinking.

There was a great thinker and educator in ancient Greek history. The motto of his life is this proverb. He regards self-knowledge and self-discovery as an important part of exploring and exploring the value of life. He is Socrates. In Socrates' view, knowing yourself means having your own independent thoughts, and you can clearly recognize your abilities, preferences, advantages and disadvantages after carefully examining yourself. Know what you are suitable for and what you are not suitable for; What are the strengths and weaknesses, so as to be aware of them.

China's ancient sages naturally did not know the existence of the proverb in the ancient Greek temple, nor did they know the existence of western philosophers and thinkers like Socrates. However, regardless of the cultural differences between the East and the West, their views on self-knowledge are very similar, and they all advocate an objective and comprehensive understanding and evaluation of themselves.

Anyone familiar with The Analects of Confucius knows that it is recorded in The Analects that I live in three provinces every day. This sentence has long been an inspirational motto, inspiring generations of self-respecting and self-loving people to constantly reflect on themselves and cultivate their minds. Laozi also said in Tao Te Ching: People who know others are wise, and those who know themselves are clear. This paper expounds the truth that people who can deeply understand other people's thoughts and behaviors are smart, and people who can recognize their own advantages and disadvantages are wise.

Sages and sages are admired by the world, and the fire of wisdom is passed on to future generations in the form of quotations and words. It is precisely because they realize the importance of knowing themselves that they often look back and analyze themselves, and then improve themselves step by step from the aspects of personality, morality, cultivation and knowledge. They even regard knowing themselves and changing themselves as a part of knowing and changing the world.

As the sages advocated, everyone who yearns for a breakthrough in life should first pay attention to self-knowledge at any stage of life. Only when we have a clear and full understanding of our own personality, abilities, preferences, advantages and disadvantages can we reshape ourselves and plan the future. And those paranoid people who don't have serious self-awareness and self-reflection and don't know how to correct themselves are afraid that the road of life is doomed to be bumpy.

Napoleon was very savage and willful when he was young. He once wrote in his autobiography: I am a stubborn, reckless and indomitable child, and no one can control me. I scared everyone in my family. It was my brother who suffered the most. I hit him and called him names. He didn't wake up, so I rushed at him like a wolf. Not only that, Napoleon often surprised older children for no reason. Napoleon, who was short and weak, often made the attacked people feel chilling. His family hates iron and can't produce steel, so there's nothing they can do about it. Outsiders regard him as a licensed local ruffian and an out-and-out hooligan.

It is such a hooligan who keeps his family on tenterhooks all day, believing that one day he will either go to prison or die on the street. Suddenly, he began to grow up, no longer keen on challenging the strong and bullying the weak with his fists, but indulging in meditation that his peers could not understand.

Napoleon was crazy about all kinds of complicated imagination and plans, and began to try to control his language and behavior calmly and rationally, instead of being impulsive and irritable as before. He was surprised to find his excellent thinking ability, and he really knew himself for the first time: although stubborn and reckless, he sometimes even lacked self-control and ran amok. But I am determined, quick-thinking and full of fighting spirit, which many of my peers around me do not have.

At this point, a brand-new cognition ignited his enthusiasm for life. Napoleon told himself clearly as if he had found God: Yes, your children have outstanding military talents, and the supreme power is something you should strive for and obtain. Once a sober self-awareness and cognition are formed, it will greatly promote a person's thinking and behavior, and most of this promotion is positive and effective. It was this that prompted Napoleon to cut through the thorns on the road to success and eventually became the French emperor.

Imagine if Napoleon had no self-knowledge when he was young, how could he find himself an excellent strategist, and how could he be sure that the supreme power was what he wanted? He will still bully the weak in the street as before. It can even be considered that it is the profound understanding and analysis of self that made Napoleon clear his ideal and mission and laid a solid ideological foundation for his later achievements.

No matter who you are, you can only set out in the right direction if you have a clear understanding of yourself. Self-awareness is an important prerequisite for self-improvement and self-discipline. A person doesn't even know what he wants, what he lacks, and what his strengths and weaknesses are, but he keeps urging himself to rush forward at a fork in the road, only to deviate from his original intention.

The so-called knowing ourselves and ourselves is not to let us sit in front of the mirror and greet Byakki Smoker with a cheeky smile: Nice to meet you, buddy. You have been with my brother for more than 20 years. It's really a snap of your fingers. I have the opportunity to study you carefully today. Oh, you have a few more pimples and stubble today. Come on, let me help you clean up.

It is important to know yourself. You should reflect on yourself objectively, fairly and comprehensively. In the process of self-reflection, we should focus on personal thoughts, personality, knowledge, professionalism and behavior habits. Seeing what advantages and strengths you have is conducive to the progress of your life and career and needs to be maintained and carried forward; And what defects and deficiencies need to be corrected and made up in time.

Knowing ourselves and ourselves does not make us blindly arrogant, only seeing our own advantages or advantages. It is not arrogant to think that others are inferior to themselves. What is this? If it's not childish, what is it? You know, there are many people who are better than us. Standing in line together can circle the earth several times.

Of course, knowing yourself does not mean completely denying yourself. Always compare your own shortcomings and shortcomings with others' advantages and strengths, and feel how inferior you are to others, belittle yourself to nothing and feel inferior and cowardly. This is also an immature performance. As the saying goes, no one is perfect, and everyone has shortcomings and deficiencies. The key lies in whether they can face up to their shortcomings and deficiencies and correct and improve them in time.

To know yourself, we should take objectivity and justice as the basis, look at ourselves from the perspective of outsiders and evaluate ourselves comprehensively. The shortcomings and advantages of 50-50 split personality, the advantages and disadvantages of 50-50 split working ability, and the tactfulness and shortcomings of 50-50 split people. The more objective and rational a person knows about himself, the clearer and more comprehensive he can grasp the advantages and disadvantages of his existence, thus encouraging the excellent and correcting the bad.

Know your strengths and specialties.

Einstein once received a letter from the Israeli authorities inviting him to be the president of Israel, but Einstein politely replied and refused. He wrote in the letter: I have been dealing with objective materials all my life, lacking both natural intelligence and practical experience in handling administrative affairs and treating people fairly. Therefore, I am not fit to accept such a high office.

In Einstein's view, he did not have the advantage of strategizing in politics and was unlikely to become an excellent national leader, so he refused. But he also saw his talent and advantages in physics research, so he made proud achievements in the field of physics.

Everyone has his own advantages and specialties. Only by fully discovering and understanding them and gradually consolidating and strengthening them can he stand out in his own field more quickly.

On the contrary, even if you give up your natural advantages and specialties and seek survival and development in areas that you are not good at at at all, it is difficult to make great achievements.

It's like letting Tai Sen play the piano, letting Lang Lang box, letting James sing a play and letting dwayne douglas johnson dance ballet. Think about it. It's all goose bumps.

Know your own shortcomings and bad habits

When chatting with a friend, he told me that he admired a person. I asked him what kind of people he admired, and he said that he admired people who would seriously reflect on themselves before going to bed every night. I agree with what my friend said.

This kind of person is terrible. Their terrible thing is to live awake every day, instead of being led by the inertia of life every day. They will not only reflect on their mistakes in their work and life, but also reflect on the strength of their plans and the progress of their goals. Everything is under their control, even if there is a little deviation, they will try to make adjustments in time.

They will not complain about the social atmosphere and the preconceived hidden rules in all walks of life, nor will they complain that they are born in poverty. Because they know that these are established facts, and no matter how they complain, nothing can be changed. They only pay attention to their own growth, and will check how much progress they have made and what aspects are insufficient from time to time.

A friend introduced me to a course, saying that the speaker of this course is a best-selling author, and the topics of recent speeches are mostly related to reflection and change. As soon as I came as I pleased, I went to rest with him on Sunday.

I won't mention the author's name, lest people say that I am advertising his work. To tell the truth, it is also the first time that I have contacted this writer and listened to his lecture for the first time. But after listening to it that day, I felt that the way and content of his lecture were not stuffy at all, but humorous and friendly. I didn't elaborate my point of view from the quotation, but first told an anecdote about his college days:

What I have achieved now is entirely due to a little inspiration when I was in college.

At that time, I was too casual and often couldn't control myself. I shouldn't sleep late, I shouldn't delay my study, I quarreled with my friends and stayed up all night, trying to quit smoking, but I couldn't.

One night I was lying in my dormitory bed and thought, if this continues, I don't think I will achieve much in my life. When I was bored, I somehow thought of a Buddhist book I had read before, which contained comments on Bazhai.

I changed these eight precepts, aiming at my own shortcomings, and changed them into new eight precepts. In order to warn myself, I changed my WeChat name to Bajie, and left specific comments in the signature column: the so-called Bajie is impetuous, lazy, procrastinating, hypocrisy under temptation, arrogance, indulgence, decadence and indifference.

Every morning when I wake up, I will send this note in my circle of friends to warn myself. I think this is very meaningful, as if completing a solemn ceremony.

This is inappropriate, and even some perverse practices made a lot of jokes at that time. There was a time when my close friends would tease me like this when they met: Bajie, why don't you go and study by yourself? Pig Wuneng, are you going to play ball? Brother, why don't you go to the canteen to eat? What's more, he patted me on the shoulder behind me: idiot, eat my old grandson!

Although I was teased by many well-meaning people, I was indifferent to what happened to me at that time and was bent on correcting these main shortcomings in myself. What others think is someone else's business. Anyway, I will be tied to my eight shortcomings. Later, what I never expected was that this move was recognized and imitated by many students, which also caused a wave. Many people use these eight commandments to restrain themselves.

Of course, what they need to take as a warning and need to be corrected and changed in time may be different from mine, because everyone's personality characteristics are different and their own shortcomings are different.

But in any case, for everyone who wants to change himself, it is necessary to find out his shortcomings and bad habits in life after deep reflection. There is a simple reason. I don't know what shortcomings and bad habits I have and how to correct them. It's like an archer being blindfolded when shooting an arrow and not knowing the location of the bull's-eye. How can you make him aim at the bow?