A while ago, I started to notice a pretty universal issue in people's lives: they seem to walk around assuming they know themselves pretty well. The problem with this is simple: we live in a world where speed is crucial. The faster you get things done, the higher the quality of the rewards. Due to this, we barely have time to participate in the simple things, such as calling back our mom after a long work day or petting our cat who has been stuck in our apartment more than 12 hours. That being said, the importance of self-discovery and quality personal time has decreased greatly, and people look at their virtues and dreams in a superficial way.

What makes us think we know ourselves thoroughly when we can't even give ourselves time to really think about us and evaluate our thoughts?

Take the arachnophobia, for example. Yes, many people are afraid of spiders and aren't afraid to publicly scream if one falls inside their shirt. But what about loneliness? Would we go to a park, approach a stranger and let them know how lonely and sad we feel? More importantly, would we even know that we fear loneliness? If you haven't taken the time to reflect on your fears and their causes, then the answer is probably no. In fact, many times we have "hidden fears" within us that we don't acknowledge or consider until we sit down and realize how scared they actually make us feel.

After some reflection, I realized the problem may not be that people don't take the time to discover themselves, but that they don't know how to do it. We all took personality tests in high school to discover our career tendencies and a good deal of the population has opened a Cosmo issue and taken a cheap quiz to find out what kind of partner they should have in a relationship. But how many of us have actually sat down with a pen and a paper and thought about the characteristics we look for in a person that attracts us? Or what our strengths and weaknesses really are?

The two observation I mentioned above gave me the incredible idea of creating an article series entirely based on self-discovery. Therefore, the next chunk of articles I will write will be specifically focused on the different components of the statement "Who Am I" in order to help you, dear readers, undergo a successful and thorough process of self-discovery. From fears to strengths to life purposes, I am determined to help you dive into the depths of your soul and discover who you really are, at your own pace and in your own way.

It is important to mention that the past couple of weeks I have undergone this process step-by-step and have come up with incredible results. I have discovered things about myself that I never would´ve considered as "me" and have looked deeper into the roots of the obvious characteristics I see in myself. Therefore, I am sure it will be a life-changing growth experience for anyone that participates in this adventure.

Just think about it this way: it is easy to accept the idea that we are different from the person sitting next to us, but the real question is: can we really identify that one thing that makes us so different from our neighbor?