In the previous article of "Paths to success through 21st century skills" column, we highlighted 10 key areas of focus. In this edition, we dive into first topic- "To know about yourself"

Why is knowing about self vital?

Knowing about yourself is knowing what you're good at and what you are not! Why is this helpful? Success is when you are happy where you are at in life which can be most easily accomplished by just going full fledged on what you are good at and learn how to strengthen your weak areas for betterment. This puts your self esteem on top gear. Having the self-esteem to know that you bring value to the table in one way or another, helps you to see that everyone else has a unique value too - says one of the influential entrepreneur, investor and a motivational speaker, Gary Vaynerchuk.

A good example of this is Steve Smith. If you are a cricket enthusiast, you might recognize this great Australian test cricketer, Steve Smith, for his batting. However, he was selected in the Australian team for this leg spin bowling and was batting down the order. But he discovered his batting skills and improved further to become one of the best test cricketers of all time with a splendid batting average of about 60 and is compared to the great Don Bradman.

Well, then how do you know yourself?

It doesn't happen overnight and stop, it is a continuous process - you discover and rediscover yourself, when you observe yourself and self interrogate. You must also continuously adapt and update to understand yourself better.

When you know yourself

• you know where and who you want to be in future
• you know about your personality and limits to your future goal
• you can chalk out your personalized plan appropriately

Understanding your strengths and weaknesses, will condition you to have more good qualities and overall strengthen you as a person and help understand your purpose in life, get direction and fulfill your personal life goals. There are personalities who have outplayed their weakness and played to their strength - one of them is the great physicist Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with motor neuron disease at an early stage but this did not stop him from becoming one of the great physicists and a popular author (his book 'A Brief History of Time' was rated at the top for a record breaking time).

Discovering and rediscovering oneself will go a long way in one's personal and professional life.