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In ancient Greece, people troubled by problems and drama in their lives would make the trek to the Oracle at Delphi seeking answers. Two simple words sat above the entrance to the Oracle: “Gnothi Seauton”. Know thyself.
If only they could have fully grasped the meaning of those two words, they would not have needed to go in.
We must go in, though. That is, we must look inside ourselves if we are to know.
Knowledge is the first step towards acceptance. And acceptance paves the way for love – love of the self and love of others. Without deep acceptance, love is transactional and conditional. It can’t even really be called love. Unconditional acceptance and love, rare as it is, leads to true peace and abundance.
So… if it is more peace and abundance that we want in our lives, in our hearts and in the world then there are some practical steps to follow. Know, accept and love.
The first of these is KNOW.
How do we know ourselves? And how do we know others?
There are many tools out there to help us with this step. Psychological tools that experts have spent years perfecting, which allow us to peer into the inner workings of our own personality, our ways of thinking, strengths, preferences, values and deeper sense of purpose.
I’m just going to list a few tools that you can check out. Some of these are free, some are not. I have no affiliation with any of these tools. But I will say this: they are just tools. It’s how and whether you actively use them to understand yourself (and others) that counts.
Myers-Briggs is a great personality test with a long history (it was launched in 1962). It breaks people up into 16 personality types. Here’s a link to a free test and this site also has good analysis resources: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test
The Enneagram is a very ancient personality profiling system that has more recently had a testing methodology added to it. There is much to the Enneagram – some people spend their whole lives studying it, so it’s certainly a deep rabbit hole. Here’s a link to a free test:
https://enneagramacademy.com/enneagram-test/
Roger Hamilton has developed a profiling system called Wealth Dynamics that is specifically aimed at people who are trying to grow their wealth and succeed as entrepreneurs. This one costs money ($97) to do: https://www.wdprofiletest.com/home/ but there is a ‘light’ version you can do for free that’s called The Genius test: https://www.geniusu.com/my-genius-test (check out the cute intro video on the page before you skip to the test, because the video is really good.)
Dr. John Demartini has a great values determination process to figure out what’s really important to you. That way, you’ll know where to focus attention in your life so that the results you get are in areas that you actually care about. You can find his values process here (just create an account to use it, it’s free): https://drdemartini.com/values/login
The DISC profile is one that’s often used in a professional context. It’s a quick and easy way to understand your strengths and those of the people you work with. Here’s a free test link: https://www.123test.com/disc-personality-test/
When it comes to love relationships, they way we like to give and receive love may be different to the way our loved ones like to give and receive love. The 5 Love languages talks about this. https://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile/
The whole idea of personality profiling is to stop looking at your weaknesses, stop judging them to be ‘not good enough’ and stop focusing on how to improve those ‘weak’ areas… and instead start looking at your strengths. What you’re good at. What comes easily to you. So you can focus your efforts in the direction of your natural ability and flow. And allow others to do the same.
Stop fighting yourself. Seek to understand and accept yourself instead. Stop fighting others. Seek to understand and accept how they are instead. Growth is still possible, this is not about staying stationary. Understanding and acceptance is about realizing that the maximum growth potential comes from working with (and not against) your natural inclinations.
Understanding and acceptance leads to greater love, peace and abundance. It’s as simple, and as complicated, as that.
As always, scroll down and let me know in the comments if this post has helped you in any way.
To YOUR Abundance,
Julie Ann Cairns
