How Well Do You Know Yourself?

Who are you? Do you know yourself? How much do you know about yourself? Some would say "I know myself more than anybody else". But do your really know yourself?

This is one of the lessons in my Speech and Communications Class in the university during my college days. Since then, I never forget what was discussed by our professor.

He introduced to us the Johari (Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham) Window or what he simply called as the 4 Windows of the self.

The Open Self

The Open Self is the area which is both known to us and known to others or what can be called as the public area. Your friends and colleagues knows your personal information, your name, where you live, which company you work for, the job that you do, the sports that you do, your interests, your behavior and attitude towards certain situations, what you do on weekend, how you spend your leisure time and all information that we put on Facebook and other social websites are categorized in the Open Self. These are the information that we are willing to share with our friends, relatives, colleagues and the rest of the public.

The Blind Self

The Blind Self is the part of you which you do not know and others know or others can see in you which you are completely unaware of. It could be an ability or talent to write or make a report on certain topics that made your boss impressed the way you presented it; or taking photographs in different angles that gives life to your subject; or cooking a particular food that when your friends tried it, they would ask for more. On the negative side, we could be acting like a child if things didn't work the way we expected; or we might be uttering words that get other people offended; or we may be projecting an arrogant or snobbish attitude to people around us. These personal characteristics displayed or projected by a person whcih he or she is totally unaware is part of the Blind Self. There is a saying in my country that says, "remove first the dirt on your face before removing the dirt on other people's face". Many of us easily criticize other people's faults but they themselves has a lot to correct in their ways which they do not know. This is the Blind Self, the person himself doesn't know these information about him but other people know.

The Hidden Self

The Hidden Self is the part of us which are known to us and not known to others or simply called the private self. This area contains information that we can share after some time when the trust is built. I have been dreaming to have a Sahara Wrangler Jeep so i could drive through the mountains, over sand dunes and wadis; or I may have experienced the sweetest love story in my life; or I could be suffering the life of a battered wife from an alcoholic husband; or a husband whom he caught his wife sleeping with another man; these information will be hidden and remain hidden unless I reveal it to you after a certain amount of trust has been established between two persons.

The Unknown Self

The Unknown Self is the area which neither you nor myself knows. These could be talents and abilities which remain unexplored as the person himself has not attempted to try doing. I haven't tried any kind of water sports in my life as I can't swim, but if I will do swimming lessons, maybe I could be a good swimmer, no one knows.

With the Johari Window Model, it shows that we knew only half of ourselves unless the Blindspot will be brought to our attention and the Unknown will be explored.