The 3 Pillars of Self-Discovery

There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled.
You feel it, don’t you?
— Rumi

Self-discovery is not a journey to discover someone new, it’s a journey to break down the barriers within yourself to discover who your soul always knew you were. Your journey of self-discovery will guide you toward kindling the candle in your heart and filling the void in your soul.

While there isn’t one way to approach your journey of self-discovery, I do believe there are common themes to the art of discovering yourself. I found these themes in my own journey as I removed myself from my bubble and traveled solo across Europe for three months.

I understand not everyone has a chance to put themselves in a situation like that, so I’ve committed myself to teach others the lessons and tools I gathered on that trip that helped me discover myself and becoming my best version.

What Is Self-discovery?

Self-discovery is a process of understanding your own character and becoming aware of your potential and motives. If you discover yourself, you’re able to tap into your passions, figure out your life’s purpose — the reason you get up in the morning — and learn what motivates you. Ultimately, discovering who you are and what you want to do allows you to unlock the best version of yourself.

Without discovering yourself — understanding your purpose, passions, potential, and motives — you’ll never achieve something better than what you have now. You’ll choose to live a life inundated by unconsciousness and the pain that comes along with it.

The 3 Pillars of Self-discovery

1. Awareness

The first step in discovering yourself is cultivating awareness.

Awareness is the ability to recognize what’s happening internally and externally. It will allow you to understand your character, feelings, and what inspires you. When you have that awareness, you’ll discover more about yourself and your identity will come to the surface.

Here are five ways you can become more aware today:

• Take up a journaling practice
• Start to notice the small things in life
• Ask yourself hard and honest questions about who you want to become
• Use a meditation practice to look within
• Look for signs that indicate life wants you to evolve and change

If you want to discover yourself or re-invent who you are, you’ll need to become wildly aware. You’ll begin to realize and accept the things that move you physically, emotionally, and mentally, which will lead you to your most authentic self.

Nothing can change without awareness.

2. Comfort Zones

As humans, it’s in our own nature to want to live within safety—our comfort zones; we choose comfort over discomfort. Your comfort zone is a behavioral space where you can easily minimize stress, risk, and failure. While it provides mental security and you benefit from low anxiety and stress, it keeps you from your greatest potential.

Whether you believe it or not, achieving any goal—especially the goal of discovering yourself—will require you to put yourself in some sort of uncomfortable situation or position. Living outside your comfort zone will give you an opportunity to learn more about yourself, require you to grow, and flood your life with purpose.

Now, you don’t need to go on a solo backpacking trip to achieve this lifestyle choice. You can simply do the following:

• Break your normal routine
• Learn something new that interests you
• Face your fears
• Accept a challenge that presents a potential failure
• Get comfortable with being uncomfortable

True living exists in places of discomfort, and everything in life begins to flourish outside our comfort zones. That’s where the magic happens.

3. Intentional Living

Intentional living is putting purpose behind your choices and actions. When you live intentionally, you align with your core values, beliefs, and goals. This alignment sets you up to make decisions that naturally guide you to who you want to become; you’re constantly choosing to only do things that push you in that direction.

In other words, when you live intentionally, your choices and actions become selective. When your choices and actions are selective, you ensure they always support your journey of self-discovery and becoming the best version of yourself.

Use these five tips to start living intentionally:

• Embody a positive mindset
• Hold yourself accountable and put purpose behind every action
• Make decisions that align with your values
• Become self-aware
• Learn to say no, and be OK with it

The second you stop going through the motions and start living intentionally, you decide to step into your power, commit to becoming the best version of yourself, and discover who you were always meant to be.

Alright, Here’s the Truth About Self-discovery

I’m not one to BS you. I teach from a place of personal experience, so everything you learn from me is honest and genuine. With that being said, I’m here to tell you that your journey of self-discovery does not have an end destination.

This doesn’t mean you’ll never discover who you were meant to be. It just means once you start discovering more about yourself, there will always be more to learn and ways you can dive deeper into your journey. As you venture down your path, you will move through different stages. Each stage will challenge you to learn more about yourself.

Through the three pillars of self-discovery — awareness, comfort zones, and intentional living—you can flood your life with consciousness, step into your power, and become the best version of yourself.

Are you ready? I believe in you.