“Knowing Yourself” is a great chapter! I was completely fond of reading it. A lot of interesting concepts, some of which I have already known, some of which I’ve learned from other philosophical books like Tao Te Ching, yet all of them have reaffirmed and reminded me to look back and reevaluate myself and my past experiences. I’d like to reiterate the four lessons of self-knowledge presented by Bennis:
- You are you own best teacher.
Emulation, Role taking, Practical accomplishment, Validation, Anticipation, Personal growth, Scientific learning - Accept responsibility. Blame no one
Marty Kaplan’s drive to learn as much as possible from existing masters of the trait, take the best of it and marry it with personal desires and preferences - You can learn anything you want to learn.
Full deployment of yourself to fulfill all your passions - True understanding comes from reflecting on your experience.
“Reflecting on experience is a means of having a Socratic dialogue with yourself, asking the right questions at the right time, in order to discover the truth of yourself and your life.”
Finally, I’d like to quote the selfhood equation, which is
Family + School + Friends = true you
you
