Working hard on yourself. Become your own observer.

Working hard on yourself means harmonizing the multiple parts of human nature: the mental frameworks, the emotional needs, and the heart’s whispers. It’s all about how we think and feel about ourselves internally. It’s a daily endeavor of observing idle thoughts and emotional patterns.

Why is self-work hard? Because working hard on something entails going into detail, beyond the usual effort. It’s a focused, consistent, and vigilant observation of ourselves. But it becomes even more challenging when insignificant idle thoughts become significant, and unseen emotions that are supposedly unimportant are revealed to be truly vital.

In this article, I write with the intention of awakening the heart’s perception by simply drawing attention to ourselves. I discuss the concept of working hard on yourself through the practice of self-awareness in daily life. A good starting point is simply questioning our own body-mind, allowing the voice of the heart to speak louder than the intellect.

Are you willing to look inside?

How many people are willing to truly look inside their hearts and work on themselves? Observing, understanding, and transforming without judging or blaming anyone or anything?

Work on myself? What do you mean?

I work out at the gym, take a vacation every year, afford to eat at nice restaurants, and spend as much time as I can with family and friends.

All these things bring comfort, but in the long term, they still mean striving for things and situations. Instead, one should seek harmony within oneself.

Jim Rohn, an entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker, was an advocate of working hard on oneself through continuous self-education and self-empowerment. His life philosophy was to work harder on yourself than you would for any job. Jim Rohn succinctly summarizes the lows of an average life into three aspects, which he refers to as the ultimate low points of life.

“Being broke is bad, being stupid is awful. What is really bad is being broke-and-stupid. Unless you’re sick. Being broke-stupid-and-sick is the ultimate low. There’s nothing worse than that. ” – Jim Rohn

Working hard on yourself

Work hard – Become your own best coach

In the first place, it’s important to realize that in our daily lives, overwhelmed with information and saturated with noise, we are always searching for something — getting the body fit, getting money, getting a job, getting recognition, getting the house, finding the doctor who can cure a disease, finding the partner who will love us. It’s all about searching outside of ourselves.

Only if there’s a place where you are your own motivator, your own personal coach, your own doctor, you give yourself an auto-suggestion, and then you’re ready—you get clarity and act with confidence.

Sounds like a Superhuman, doesn’t it? Is it even possible to have such qualities and attributes, such methods

• Of creating, not making?
• Of being and not doing stuff?
• Of truly living and not striving?
• Is it possible to change my habits?

So then, Working Hard on Yourself means, as the ancient Greeks and the Bible say, “Know Thyself.”

When we truly know ourselves, it is like having the divine compass in life. We can steer through life’s storms without doubt and fear but instead with faith.

During the last few years, I’ve been into studies of self-development and self-transformation, and the deeper I go, the more I realize that personal development truly means spiritual development. I ran into readings on self-transformation by Joseph Murphy and many 20th-century authors like Florence Scovel Shinn, Julia Setton, Orison Swett Marden, Conny Mendez, and Charles F. Haanel.

I discovered exactly the same secret for self-transformation  – “know thyself” – meaning Study Yourself. The approach is that we as humans are made up of four parts: the physical body, emotional nature, intellect, and the spiritual essence.

“You are here to discipline yourself, so that your intellectual, emotional, and physical nature are completely spiritualized.” – Dr Joseph Murphy

Work hard – Overcome your own self ignorance

As I have said, a human is divided into four planes of expressions or consciousnesses: body, mind, soul, and spirit. And through these planes, we all function through instinct, reason, inspiration, and intuition. Ordinary humans consciously develop one or two planes of expression but rarely all four.

Knowing thyself means the constant self-work on all four levels of development: instinct, reason, inspiration, and intuition.

For instance, it’s so normal to hear people dissatisfied with their jobs and life situations. They may tell you that they wish for a better job, a new car, a new house. But how often do you hear someone saying, “I wish to be broader in my character, in my spirit, and in my heart?” Or, “I wish to be in perfect health?” Hmm, doesn’t this make you wonder about ordinary human nature?

The ordinary human looks at the outside circumstances and has an instant opinion, reaction, and interpretation. But the extraordinary human really looks and works inside, and this is tough work.

In my opinion, the opposite of self-work is unconsciousness or self-ignorance, which means:

• By ignoring your body, you will begin to get sick.
• By ignoring your thoughts, you will begin to think and act negatively.
• By ignoring your emotional needs, you will begin to feel self-doubt.
• By ignoring your heart’s desire, you will begin to lose interest in life.

The way to overcome this self-ignorance is to have frequent and honest heart-to-heart talks with yourself.

Questions about personal frame of reference:

• What is your own internal frame of reference? Your dominant ideas? Your values? Your wishes?
• Look inside first. What kind of world would you like to see inside? Fear? Conflict? Despair? Or understanding and love?

Look into your own heart and take account of everything. Learn to identify the strong and weak points. Analyze yourself as you would be your best friend willing to help out, without judging but just observing with curiosity!

Sounds too easy, doesn’t it?

Question your body-mind

So far, you have been quite successful in keeping yourself distracted day and night with the wrong questions.

Remember, working hard on yourself  means being aware of the wrong questions that gain momentum in your own mind. Sooner or later, they will begin to press against you until you feel stuck and even sick.

Asking – The wrong questions

• How can I survive?
• How can I make more money?
• How can I do all the things that I have to do?

You have a body, and it’s a reflection of your mind. Take care of your mind, and your body will follow suit. “You cannot buy a healthy body with all the money in the world, but you can have health through riches of the mind, such as thoughts of peace, harmony, and perfect health.” – Joseph Murphy

Then, there’s also the emotional nature of us humans. Emotions are neither good nor bad, positive nor negative. Rather, uncontrolled or undisciplined emotions are destructive. It’s like having a powerful vehicle that we can’t seem to control uphill or downhill.

We need to learn how to control our emotions (anger, resentment, frustration, and so on) and not let them control us.

Asking – The honest questions

As a result of the wrong questions, sooner or later, our divine spirit will whisper to us and will try to pull us into our individuality, but unfortunately we begin to hear its voice around sickness, loss, and trauma. Only then do we start to ask the different kinds of questions, the honest ones.

Working hard on ourselves starts with just being honest with ourselves!

Honest questions to ask ourselves:

• What is my purpose?
• Why am I here?
• Am I more than just this situation?
• What is this situation telling me?
• Isn’t there more to life? I must be more than a job, my relationships!

Asking – The deep questions

In like manner, take a moment, pause … and start cultivating a deep self-honesty by simply answering the questions. To give an honest answer, you don’t need to pay for a coach, a therapist, or a doctor. Just deep, true, shocking honesty.

Above all, question all your planes of existence, question your body and mind because we all have an Internal Teacher, it’s called Self-Reflection, but it needs a lot of work to respond back to us.

This time, ask these questions to help you in becoming your own observer.

• Is my body keeping me stuck? Is the body unhealthy, tired all the time?
• Is my environment keeping me stuck? Relationships, job, location?
• Is my attitude keeping me stuck, always in judgment, frustration?
• Who is it that takes charge of me at every moment? My beliefs? My fears?
• Do I ever despise myself?
• And last, but surely not least … Do I think of God? Have I ever hated God?

These questions are about generating awareness within ourselves. Try to give an honest answer, go within and figure it out – and you’ll see how answers begin to stir in the mind, body, and heart. But they will not come all of a sudden, it takes some practice, in this and in everything we do.

Takeaways

In essence, our world is full of lessons to be learned, of constant change, of beginnings and endings, of losses and gains, of constant adaptation.

We seemingly function through external needs, external approval, external possessions, an external love. We seek something, and it becomes a struggle to obtain it. “Most people consider life a battle – but it is not a battle, it is a game. It is a game, however, which cannot be played successfully without the knowledge of spiritual law.” – Florence Scovel Shinn

As has been noted, working hard on yourself is not a job of a few minutes, nor a day or so per month. It’s continuous mental and spiritual work that we must do with the mind, body, and experiences. Only in this way can we enjoy our life, health, and relationships. Only in this way can the heart speak louder than our perceptions.

Working hard on yourself means learning to blend the intellect and emotions. The intellect is all right, but it’s trained to see outside of us; therefore, it should be illuminated with the inner divine wisdom of the heart.

“We were not thrown off as independent, unrelated units of the universe. There is still just as vital a connection between ourselves and our Maker as there is between the branch and the vine. We are a projection of His mind, a definite part of His plan, and our ambitions, our longings, are in a way a reflection of the universal plan. Those who have faith in themselves feel that their ambitions are evidence of the ability to back them by accomplishment, to make their dreams realities. – Orison Swett Marden

Summary

• Working hard on oneself involves harmonizing mental frameworks, emotional needs, and the heart’s whispers. It’s about self-awareness and observing idle thoughts and emotional patterns.
• Emphasize continuous self-education and self-empowerment, consider it more important than any job.
• Knowing oneself is like having a divine compass, guiding through life’s storms with faith.
• Personal development truly means spiritual development, involving the physical body, emotional nature, intellect, and spiritual essence.
• Overcoming self-ignorance requires frequent and honest self-reflection, identifying strengths and weaknesses without judgment.
• Asking the wrong questions, such as survival and money-making, can lead to feeling stuck and even sick.
• Emotions are neither good nor bad, but uncontrolled emotions can be destructive and need to be managed.
• To improve ourselves, we should be honest with ourselves and ask questions like “What is my purpose?” and “Am I more than just this situation?” Self-reflection is crucial, and we should question our body, mind, and beliefs.
• These questions help us become our own observers and generate awareness within ourselves.
• Our world is full of lessons, and we should approach life as a game, not a battle.
• Working on ourselves is continuous mental and spiritual work that requires blending intellect and emotions.

Related articles

• Harmonious thinking. Dare to think with your whole brain!
• From the old to the new version of yourself. 5-tips to change your habits.
• The power of imagination

Recommended readings

• Take Charge of your Life (1991) – by Jim Rhon
• The Game of Life and How to Play It (1925) – by Florence Scovel Shinn
• How to Get What You Want (1917) – by Orison Swett Marden
• Methods of Obtaining Success (1914) – by Julia Seton
• Wisdom Memos – Educational Instagram Channel, sharing wisdom reminders for the mind, body and soul