Knowing self

The topic suggests that this is once more a topic on self. Why do I dwell so much into the topic of self, you might ask? Well because as I have mentioned in my previous post (meeting self), to me knowing myself is more important than knowing any other people on earth. Does this sound very ego-centric to you? Well let me further justify for those who wish to hear a little more.

Knowing yourself allows you to know your strength and weakness. Knowing your strength allows you to shine and illuminate the life of people around you. Knowing your weakness restrain yourselves from bringing the worst in you, and hurting all those around you. Hence in retrospective, I feel that knowing self is not an ego-centric behavior but rather an invaluable knowledge so that you can bring more happiness to all those around you as you bring joy to others through your better self and restrain yourself from others by controlling the worse of your character. I hope I have provided some understanding till this point as I would proceed on to talk about the recent discovery of the benefit of knowing self.

I went to a seminar on branding 2 weeks ago and chance upon this book that talks about the different character of human being. The book carries a survey that let you determine what kind of character you belong to. Yes, I have done a lot of personality test and have known a fair bit of who I am. However this book has a more in-depth analysis of personality and luckily for me, a more thorough explanation of my personality as the author happen to be having the same personality as mine and decided to write more on that. You are going to be disappointed as I am not going to reveal my personality to you as I felt that if you are interested, you should discover about me yourself as good things doesn’t come cheap and don't even mention free! =P

What I will touch on is the benefit that I have gotten after knowing myself. I start to realize who I am and why I am so concern over certain issues that will usually get me into trouble with others. My strength seems to be my weakness and my weakness can be my strength if I know what they are and know how to restrain myself from it. After reading the book and knowing in more details who I am, I found a new energy in me. I felt that I have found the key to a lock that holds many chains which binds a treasure chest. In that chest after finding the key is another new found confidence in handling people as I know who I am and how I can bring the best in me in life.

In recent months, I seem to find out more about who I really am and feel that a person who knows who they are, know their mission on earth. When they know their value and purpose in life, they have more confidence and more energy in the things they do. They engage in activities that bring the best in them and they will not fail in these activities as they are natural champion in the arena- 立于不败之地.

A person who knows himself, values himself. When he values himself, he knows his net worth and start knowing what and who has not been appreciating him at his present worth. He stops cheapening himself and start loving himself more. Like a stock who rise when the net worth of a company rises, the demand for the person will also rise.

Why does knowing yourself appreciate your value? It is because you start to kick off your bad nature and illuminate your better self. You found new value and new confidence. Have you come across people who have that natural charm due to his compelling personality and confidence? I guess you might have chance upon people like this and maybe you don’t know why they are so charming although they are not exceptionally handsome. I feel that it is simply because the person knows his worth, value his worth and let others see what they are worth as they know themselves.

In my case, I don’t use to think that I am charming. However as the years go by and after knowing myself more, I start to find the better side of me that attracts people around me. I start building on this positive characteristic of myself and begin to love myself more and more. I feel that human is like a torch and need a battery in order to shine the light they are capable of emitting. This is analogous to a person who is charged with a battery of confidence when they know themselves, and is able to emit their charming light to others. And I realize that people who don’t know about themselves and keep denying their weakness tends not to love themselves. Escaping makes them foul the air around them with their weakness and blind the people around them from their strengths.

I hope I have illustrated the importance of knowing self to you as although you might not agree with me but I know I am living a better life each day as I continue unveiling myself to me. Although I still have many treasure chests that lays sealed, I shall continue to open more of them as I continue my adventure of knowing the most important person in life
- Mr James Tan Han Teck aka myself!!!


Know yourself and you will increase your worth
~ James Tan ~

Appreciated Blessing

How does one know that they are blessed?
Well you know you are blessed when you think you are blessed. Does this sound too abstract to you? If it does then let me use 2 stories to illustrate what I mean

Blessed Story 1
A business associate of mine received news that his family in Australia just met with a ferry accident. His sister which is an ex-Olympic ice skater was amputated as her condition is in dire state. You might think that she must be devastated over the incident but the 2 sentences that she said summarizes her state of mind

- Wow luckily it only cost me a leg in exchange for my life
- At least now I will be able to find parking space easily and my husband has to buy me the Mercedes that I was eyeing for

Blessed Story 2
A JC friend of mine suffered from an illness and her health is not in good condition ever since. She is a confident lady whose capability far surpassed most of the ladies I know, however due to health condition, she knows that it is not advisable for her to persue her career in the private sector as it may be too straining on her health. She had cried and was depressed when she knows of her condition but has learn to accept it and live life more strongly.

I just went for her wedding celebration and she is now happily married to her husband which is a fine gentleman that fully understands the meaning of love.


Why are these 2 stories related to the subject proper? Let me elaborate further. The ex-Olympic skater didn’t slump into depression when her leg was amputated, she perfectly understands that this incident is not a disaster but a blessing as she manages to live on. She faces life with strength as she thinks and knows that she is blessed as she has managed to stay alive and is still able to receive the care from her other half.

For my JC friend, despite her condition, her humor is still dominantly present and she chooses to face life strongly and happily. She has gone through her tough patch when she learns of her condition, and it is the strength to climb out of the depression that allows her to illuminate her strength and brighten the life of many others. She knows she is blessed as she has not given up to her condition but has accepted it and believing that she can still receive blessing. Believing thus lead to her blissful marriage which I feel is really a marriage that is filled with more than just love, it is a marriage of a genuine appreciation of each other’s existence on earth that have made their lives wholesome.

Hence what I wish to say is that blessing is an appreciation of what you have. If you dwell on things that are already lost and neglect the things that you have, you will never realize how bless you are. So to all of you out there, start counting your blessing by counting the things that you already have and appreciate them.


“Count your blessing as you have none if you don’t appreciate their presence”
~ James Tan~