The More You Know!

I had a cousin email me today to ask me all about my family medical history.  Since she had recently become ill, she was doing a genetic survey of all the ailments on our side of the family tree.  I dutifully filled out the information she asked for and hoped that it would help her find some of the answers she was seeking.

It got me to thinking about the past and wondering if we are doomed to repeat the same illnesses and failures of our ancestors or if we can somehow avoid them simply by being informed.  My guess is that there are some things that we can avoid like over weight and maybe lung cancer, if we don’t adopt the same habits of over eating and smoking as our parents may have had.  So it would follow learning a little about ourselves and our personal inclinations might also be good for the rest of our lives too.

Obviously there are things that we simply can’t control about ourselves, our height, eye color, shoe size and so on are pretty much etched in stone, but there are things about ourselves that we can improve with some knowledge.  If we can understand ourselves a little better, we may be able to use that information to make our futures a little brighter.  Although there are many things about us that are “hard-wired” so to speak, understanding and accepting them can produce some positive changes.

I encourage people to find out about their strengths and weaknesses and then understand how their personality affects their lives.  Does your shyness help you in your work and social life or do you feel hindered by who you are?  Does your aggressive nature make people want to work with you?  Do you feel like others always seem to get ahead and you are ignored.  Have you every examined your personality lately and looked at the wonderful strengths you have and examined how your weaknesses might be holding you back?

Like my cousin, I believe that knowledge is a powerful tool in life and if you can figure some things out about yourself that will make your life better, maybe it is time to go on a little journey of self exploration.  To get started, figure out your personality.  You can go to my web site and do that for free.  The more you know, the more you can control.  Knowledge is power, get more powerful!