Challenge Day 1: Who Am I? Discover Your Inner World

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Editor’s note: This is part of  30-day challenge series written by Hanane Anouna.   You can follow along and read the full series here.

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“You know the worth of everything on earth, but not what you yourself really worth”– Jalal al-Din Rumi

A lot of people struggle with issues related to self-confidence, a negative self-image, sustained negative self-talk, jealousy, grudge, lack of motivation, inner conflicts, anxiety…, and when they become conscious and willing to improve, they tackle these issues from the surface while most of the solutions are within us, in the invisible part of the iceberg.

These people don’t manage to get positive results to their concerns as they focus on the effects instead of going back to the roots; they look at the soil and not the seeds; they blame their circumstances and experiences but not their thoughts and beliefs.

To improve their lives, they keep taking rational decisions to make changes but decisions not in accordance with their emotional brain, that’s why they feel non coherent with who they are.

really (like my brain tells me to do this and my emotions recommend me that.) This inner conflict is the source of resistance, lack of self-esteem, non congruence…and many other problems that may involve other people.

Whatever you resist, it will persist until you decide to accept yourself the way you are, and love yourself with all your imperfections. In order to accept yourself, you need to know about your inner world, your dominant thoughts, and understand your emotions.  

That’s why my approach for the coming 30 days of challenges is to initiate a journey that will start from within each one by guided reflections that will allow you to discover who you are, to identify your own limiting beliefs, unlearning old patterns of thinking, and taking responsibility of your mental, emotional, social and spiritual growth. This will enable you to teach yourself how to remain positive even in the most negative situations, how to bounce back when faced with adversity, how to gain in confidence and raise your full potential, and synthesize all these to create a new vision of yourself.

These 30 days of challenges will enable you to turn your challenges, pain, crisis, obstacles into great opportunities. I am challenging myself too to keep focus on positive things and not on the fake news about this pandemic that keeps consuming our energy. These 30 days are intended for self-awakening and empowerment independently of the status of the person.

We will go over many reflections and exercises that tackle three major areas all interconnected: self-awareness, emotional awareness, the importance of setting up clear goals and its impact on the brain and our health. These inner reflections are evidence-based on research in positive psychology, neuroscience, mindfulness, and also inspired from my own experience in handling my own challenges and pain that lasted more than five years.

Each day is about an independent challenge but it is complimentary to the coming challenges. They are like puzzles; they will make sense at the end when drawing the whole picture of who you are and who you want to become. Your commitment is crucial to each activity and writing your own answers is highly recommended.

Are you ready for the journey, for your first challenge?

We were told at school, at home, at the university to be realistic when defining our goals but not to dream big, to be logical avoiding to be emotional, to look for stability ignoring self-fulfillment and to succeed but never learn from failures. We were preached to respect the rules but not to respect our values, to earn and achieve more but not to learn and become more.

Today, I would like to challenge the status quo, and I invite you to dream big when defining your goals, to focus on what you would like to achieve but never ignore what you would like to become as a person, what you would like to offer and give to the others. No one will give you your exact value unless you give it to yourself.

Self-awareness is the core step to tap into both emotional intelligence and leadership. It is one of the keys of personal growth and success. It provides you with more authenticity, motivation, and confidence. It is a great skill that you can develop when the right tools are combined with consistent practice. It gives you power and comfort. People who are more self-aware are more creative, better communicator, and perform better at work.

There is no right or wrong answers as it is about you, who you are, your goals, and dreams. It makes us detached from what others expect from us as we start caring more about our own expectations and dreams.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle

When we end up watching a movie, the first thing most of us will say “it was a great story” or “very sad story” Also ask yourself : wat about your own story? what do you keep telling yourself? what are the life metaphor that you use to describe your life story?

Take a snapshot of how you view it in general. Consider the metaphor you use to describe it. Do you consider your life a disaster, a burden, a challenging JOURNEY, a gift, a treasure, or a mission in the DARK. A lot people don’t notice the words they are using daily which can be the source of their problems.

It is never late to change your life metaphor. Changing your words will impact your emotions and then your results.

I also recommend you these two free psychometric tests that I tested myself. It will take you few minutes and you will receive a description of your personality type:

• https://www.16personalities.com/
• https://www.viacharacter.org/Account/Register

I learned to see the good in every situation, even in the most negative ones. I always used.

adversity as a catalyst for change and self-improvement, combining my rich life experience with gained wisdom and understanding.

I believe that regardless of past accomplishments or failures, we can always upgrade our vision and evolve. Everything is possible when commitment is timely coupled with courage, perseverance and positive attitude.

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