Throughout the ages, visionaries, sages and thought leaders have encouraged us to “know thyself.” In the words of Pythagoras “Know thyself; then thou shalt know the Universe and God.” What does he mean by this? Aristotle also stated that “knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Could answers to these questions help us better understand Pythagoras and Aristotle’s thoughts: Why are we here? What is the purpose and meaning of our life?

What is the significance of our habits of thinking?

One of the aims of the great teachers since the beginning of time is to awaken us to the awareness that we have an innate power, which has unlimited capacities and potentialities that we can use to create our own reality. More importantly, their teachings indicate that we are responsible for everything that happens in our lives. This includes our experiences of success as well as our challenges. If we believe someone or something outside of ourselves is the cause of our challenges we will always look outside ourselves for the solutions. We may have adopted this position because we do not know ourselves, and that the answers to our challenges lie within us. Therefore, to unleash our inner power, it is important that we become knowledgeable about ourselves.

What we will not affirm as true of ourselves we can never realize.

The key to finding true answers to our successes and challenges lies in studying ourselves, especially our habits of thinking. The attitude of mind or our habits of thinking is directly related to our successes and challenges as there is power in the thought rightly controlled and focused. Everything depends on our attitude towards ourselves. According to William James, considered to be the Father of American psychology, “the greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind. As you think, so shall you be. “What we will not affirm as true of ourselves we can never realize, as that attitude alone is the necessary condition by which we realize our desires and goals. By “knowing thyself” or becoming knowledgeable about who we are to unleash our inner power involves developing self-awareness, which is an understanding of our beliefs, abilities, habits and self-image. Knowledge about ourselves also includes our sense of self-worth, self-esteem, and self-confidence.

What is the importance of self-image?

Self-image is our mental and spiritual concept or the picture of ourselves that we hold in our minds, which becomes the key to how we choose to live. Our emotions, feelings, actions, behavior and habits as well as our abilities are consistent with this image that we have formed of ourselves. This picture of our behaviors, perceptions, beliefs, and habits may have been learnt from as far back as childhood and conditioned into our subconscious mind. Our self-image and current conditions are a direct reflection of our thoughts. In the words of James Allen, a British philosophical author, considered to have opened the door to what is now called the human potential movement, “you are today where your thoughts have brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” If you want to be, do, have and give more or pursue the purpose for your life, you can.

Change your thoughts, keep it changed, and change your life.

Your current self-image, habits of thinking, conditions or circumstances should not limit your belief of what is possible for you or what you are capable of becoming. You are not doomed to live the life you now have. You possess within you the power to unleash your potential, change your life, achieve wealth and make your life a masterpiece. You have an inner infinite power to create and achieve any experience you desire. You also have control to unlearn the habits of focusing on limiting beliefs by changing your thoughts and using the unlimited power of your imagination to create the lifestyle you desire. The key step in unleashing your inner power is to change your thoughts from limitation to abundance, keep it changed, and change your life.

You have unlimited power to develop all of your capacities to their fullest. You are confined only by the walls you build yourself. If you want new circumstances, new opportunities, new environment it’s available to you.

Wherever you are now in your life, you can develop new habits, skills, mentors, friends, social circles, and daily routines to achieve your desires and dreams. A deep understanding of yourselves and the world around you are crucial to create anything meaningful and sustainable. Your skill sets today have nothing to do with whether or not you can accomplish your dreams. What matter are the skill sets you need to start acquiring now to achieve your dreams, which you can develop.

The Power of Imagination

The source of creativity and fountain of wisdom are potentially infinite. Thought and imagination are the foundation of our abilities to create. You create your own lives through the choices you make, which collapse new potentiality into actuality. The genie of true creativity is bottled up in all human beings – to liberate it is to become the architect of your own lives. Understanding what human creativity and imagination entails, what role it plays in your own self-development, how your creative thought processes work, and where your motivation comes from, will help you scale the barriers to your own captive self in order to experience joy and abundance while making a difference in this world. Is it possible for your creativity and imagination to express itself as potently as Einstein’s or Gandhi’s? Is it possible for you to unleash your inner power? It is entirely up to you.

The creative faculty of imagination is not restricted to geniuses.

Theoretical quantum physicist, Amit Goswani, in his book Quantum Creativity: Think Quantum, Be Creative highlights that creativity is not restricted to geniuses; all of us have the potential to be creative, and at any age. Will you start by developing an understanding of who you are and by accepting that you have within you, infinite powers to become whatever you choose to be, do and have. Know that it’s never too late to discover your purpose; to know thyself. Responses to these questions should help in discovering your purpose: What am I passionate about? What can I share with the world that is emerging? What can I give? What can I contribute?

Would you like to unleash your inner power?

Here are the key action steps I have used to unlock my inner power and achieve my burning desires. I encourage you to test and prove this inner power.

1. Decide on a definite desire you intent to achieve or person you want to be.
2. Through visualization, use your imagination to form a mental image, a picture of the burning desire you intent to achieve.
3. Visualize the mental image in your mind’s eye of the desired state you wish to achieve with the feeling and belief that your desire is already fulfilled.
4. Focus your attention on the desired state, and hold this mental image, picture in your mind’s eye until it becomes your habitual pattern of thought.
5. Keep the mental image continuously in your thoughts with the assume feeling of joy and belief as if you have already achieved that which you desire.
6. Continuously experience the assumed feeling of joy as if you have already achieved your desire, until the desired state becomes a physical reality.
7. Take courageous actions and remember, never, never, give up.

In the words of Viktor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, “life serves as a reminder to all, no matter how difficult the path may be, choosing to give up, before it has had the chance to fly, only holds the human spirit back.” While Ralph Waldo Emerson in this pearl of wisdom shares that “the only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”

Will you choose to ‘know thyself’ and become what you now know you can be? I encourage you to start behaving the way you want to believe.

The Author

Rose M. Thompson, DBA (Accounting), MBA, CPA, CGMA is a Management Consultant, author, speaker, certified life and master business success coach, founder and CEO of Mind Mastery 4 Wealth, an innovative research and educational company that focuses on financial, human potential and empowerment education. Dr. Thompson is committed to the idea that every human being has genius capabilities. She is the creator of the Signature Training Program: Possibility Thinking: Change Your Mindset to Create Wealth. Rose collects quotes from great minds, visionaries and sages. Her forthcoming book on quotes is entitled: Inspiration from Great Minds: A Guide to Mental Liberation and Resilience.