Today marks the last day of my appointed cycle for Know Thyself. Over the past week or so, crises have intervened in my posting habits, and I have struggled to find more new things to talk about. Surely this is not all there is to me, is it?
I could say that I am stubborn. I don’t have an easy time admitting that I am wrong. I am also a creature of habit, and I find it very, very hard to change the way I do things. I tend to eat the same things for breakfast and lunch every day, do the same things when I get up in the morning even if they are counterproductive, etc. There are things that I do that I would like to do differently, but I haven’t summoned the will to change yet.
I could say that I like to know things. While systematic study tends to not be my thing, I love to know what’s going on. If something needs to be repaired, either I’ll want to study how to do it myself, or I’ll sit and watch the repairman and ask lots of questions. If I go to the doctor, I will expect to be spoken to as if I were another doctor, and I will want to read the relevant studies and body of knowledge. If my kids are learning something, I want to learn it, too. I like to think of myself as an autodidactic polymath, although I certainly don’t know as much as some, and I encourage my children to be the same way. I generally don’t do well at learning things unless I am actively involved in using the knowledge in some way.
I have a hard time maintaining focus (although that could fall under laziness or follow-through). I tend to start lots of things, but not finish so many. I have a hard time maintaining momentum when I am working for somebody else, doing a great job in the beginning but becoming mediocre as time passes.
I tend to stick my foot in my mouth a lot. I blurt things out without thinking, or I misunderstand what others are saying and take a conversation to places they didn’t want it to go. I don’t know when to shut up. I’m pretty sure I covered that already, though.
None of those seemed worth a whole post of their own. I certainly don’t have any more out-of-the-closet type of revelations or anything.
This will be an ongoing project, of course. I’ll change and grow. Hopefully I’ll become more comfortable in myself and be able to articulate more things. When I make new discoveries, I will share them. Making these daily posts and being able to discuss them a little has kept me honest, though. I like that.
My assignment for the next cycle is daily meditation. Maybe that counts as a shocking revelation in itself, that I don’t already do this, but I don’t. This will be a difficult assignment, as finding time for anything resembling meditation, alone and uninterrupted, is next to impossible, but I will need to find a way. It’s not a very blog-worthy activity, so I won’t be mentioning it much, other than to check in. I have some other things to talk about, though, that have been waiting their turn while this cycle passed.