Monday Motivation: The 411 on Connecting With Yourself
Understanding your personality and learning to work with it.
Think of someone you really look up to. What redeeming qualities do they have? How do they hold themselves? What do you admire about them? I’m guessing that the person you’re picturing is really, extremely, incredibly, so stinking, very much so...I mean very up close and personal with their own personality!!
There’s no more important tool in your happiness and goal achieving toolbox than knowing and understanding yourself. Hyper self-awareness my friend. Morning person? Great. Extroverted? Amazing. Driven by outside factors? Fabulous.
Do you think you know yourself relatively well? I mean do you know what makes you joyful, what sets you off, how you accept and feel love, or give it?
In our Squadron here in New Mexico for Tyler’s las bit of training, we’ve been having “spouse coffees” about once a month. This past spouse coffee was our last one before all of us student wives (students of the training they are in to be fully ready to fly the jet) move onto our next combat base. Most of the bases we all will be moving to are either in Europe or Asia, so we can take all the advice we can get from the other more seasoned spouses! All of the seasoned wives went around and shared a piece of advice to help us in our first few years at a combat air force base.
One of the tips that one of the other wives told us really resonated with me because it seems like it’s been the theme of my year in 2019. She told us to take some time to get to know yourself. All of us student wives are moving halfway across the world where we’ll live for around 3 years before we move onto the next one, also possibly halfway across the world, where our husbands will be there with us around a year and a half out of those 3 years. Friends, I am over the moon excited for this experience. Every time I think about it I have pinch me moments. Am I really moving to Italy? Do we really get to travel and live abroad? Do I really get to go and have gelato at my dispense on literally every corner (I mean I’m hoping for this haha)? You bet your buttons I’ll be havin’ wellness blogs about pasta and wine and seeing the land by running…Italian balance? So incredibly excited I can’t even tell you!
But I really appreciated and resonated with her advice. Yes, there are so many incredible blessings that come along with our next few years; and, there are also going to be quite a few moments where we might feel lonely, lost, or life just hits ya in the face with a gelato cone instead of hand serving it to you nicely with a spoon. Being a military wife breeds independence. If you’re not already independent, you kind of have to become independent, and being surrounded by so many independent spouses only helps.
Regardless of living a military lifestyle or not, the people who can be independent, or are the most confident and sure of themselves and their identity are hyper aware of their own personalities. They understand what makes them happy, stressed, relaxed, inspired, etc. When you’re confident and sure of yourself, life just seems a bit easier. It’s not that life is actually easy (if only that were true!), but you understand how to navigate through stressful times or crossroads with significantly less stress and anxiety.
+So how do you get to know yourself?
I’ve come across a few ways of doing so this year in my hours upon hours of podcasts in my 2019 morning routine! Here are a few of my favorites:
Myers Briggs - An old classic personality test no doubt! Take a quiz here. I am a consul according to this quiz!
Enneagram - A series of nine personality types defined by a number. For example, a 1 is a reformer or perfectionist. Take a quiz here. I’ve taken this quiz a few times and always alter between 1 and 3. I want to look into this one more for myself!
Human Design - Human design takes into consideration where you were born, the day, and the time to come up with your “human design” which I think of as similar to a zodiac sign but a bit more specific. Human design is used to help you live as the most authentic you. Discover yours here. I am a manifesting generator!
The Four Tendencies - Created by Gretchen Rubin in order to help you better understand what motivates you, so you can set yourself up for success. There is the upholder, the questioner, the obliger, and the rebel. Take the quiz here. I am an upholder! What are you?
Obviously, the point is not to live every breathing moment in accordance with your test results! They’re not going to all be 100% accurate to you, but 90% self aware will get you a lot further than 40%!
You probably can see some overlap in each of the quizzes suggesting what helps you thrive and live your best days. It helps you understand if you feel happier with more socializing or less, bigger goals or smaller, more outside accountability or none, etc. Do you need Wednesday nights out to dinner with friends? Or maybe Friday nights of face masks and Netflix to wind down. Maybe you’re currently depleting your energy and happiness without even knowing it. This might help you learn to work with yourself, find more happiness, and ultimately live more fulfilling and authentic days!
I can totally see how this would make being an independent military spouse so much easier. But I wanted to share this with you too because I’m sure you can see how something as simple as understanding yourself can help you find more happiness in every day!
Until next time, love.
XO, Di.
P.S. if you’re serious about getting to know yourself, becoming the best version of you - mind, body, and soul - and living your best life, I wrote the book “To Kale And Back: Ditch The Rules And Learn To Thrive In Food, Fitness, And Life” specifically for someone like you, love! If you haven’t yet, go ahead and order or download it here. I can’t wait to see who the best version of you is!