Self awareness the past

examining how the past has affected you and what's been holding you back.

Knowing others is intelligence.
Knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength.
Mastering yourself is true power. - Lao Tsu

Everything is a result of what's gone before. Your level of confidence is mainly the result of the way you responded to those who raised you and the environment in which you grew up. But it is not the whole story.

Genetics – nature – accounts for around 25-35% of your character. Your past experiences and your interpretation of them – nurture – the remainder. When you were born you didn't lack confidence – this came later, when you began to relate to other people and the world around you.

Confidence, or lack of it, is learned, mostly in the first few years of childhood. It developed when you were weak and mentally and emotionally vulnerable, then, as you grew up, it became self-reinforcing. So the better you understand what happened and how it affected you, the more effectively you can take charge of your present-day feelings and actions.

You may find that some of the exercises in the next few sections bring painful feelings to the surface, but don't be deterred. Be honest with yourself. You gain nothing by deliberately misleading or deceiving yourself.

One day I finally realised I no longer needed a personal history – so I gave it up. - Carlos Castaneda