Knowing Oneself

[Trifoilum]

...this is a completely redundant question for INFJs, I think; or INFxs, but I'll shoot; do you try to know yourself?

I do, and my concern (...teenage self-existential angst-like pondering here) is; how can you really know yourself, your fears, your desires, your definitions....Sometimes I've really felt like...either not knowing myself that good, or I've just lacked studying and reading and experiencing. Lots of times I.....went quiet after hitting some personal questions. And they're not even moral dilemmas. Sometimes it's just a simple question as "what are you scared of?" "...I don't have the answer."

What did you do?

 

[Skathac]

I asked myself questions. In the beginning...I lied to myself alot I think, fearing what the answers might mean as to if I'm a good or bad person. After I became brutally honest with myself, and I understood why I found x girl attractive, why I only wanted to eat a certain type of food constantly, and why I had an almost endless source of anger towards the world...I felt I could move forward with growing. Now I would say nothing is unknown to me in regards to who I am. While it may not be easy to just come right out and explain who I am exactly, I'm me...no more, no less.

 

[Gaze]

I know what i think, not who i am which is weird. I analyze myself to death but still i don't know if i know myself especially without thinking about what i've been told about myself. Self definition is haaarrd. Half the things i think about myself may feel honest but may not be true. It's sometimes easier to hold on to a lie than to face the truth. But i have learned to be honest with myself, oddly enough. Gained greater self awareness and comfort in the last few years. But can't say i know myself or that i can ever do so.

 

[SPQR]

All the time. To borrow a clich

 

[driro]

I also analyze myself to death and I always tend to *think* I know who I am- the good, the bad and the ugly :bounce:

 

[deadred]

Time makes a great difference in how well you know youself if you are putting in the time and energy required to know yourself. Even though we can use logic well, life seems to me to be a matter of learning from trial and error. It requires a lot of patience and perserverence to use introspection to its's fullest. Face it, the more complex you are, the more time and work it takes. I would say everyone here is very complex. That's one more reason I love it here.

 

[KazeCraven]

I think the main problem is that we assume that we can know ourselves by coming up with answers to stagnant questions. The answer to what motivates me now isn't the same as the answer to what motivated me two years ago, and my most 'defining' traits only six months ago have been replaced by new discoveries about myself.

I think the other big problem is, as humans, we're complex systems. When one part of us is satisfied, another takes over to get its needs met, and we feel like we've suddenly shifted to a distinctly different person. Thus one day I'm worried about my mortality and the next I'm worried about my lack of knowledge about the world.

That is not to say that I don't agree that we can learn very critical things about ourselves. Indeed, that which exists across time within us is truly at the core of our being.

 

[Quinlan]

I don't really try and know myself, I don't even really know what that means.