Keen judges of the human condition throughout history have understood a timeless superpower.

The big secret of this power is that it’s no big secret at all; it’s an ability available to any of us with the courage to find it.  

It’s the power of knowing thyself. The ancient Greeks inscribed it at the Oracle at Delphi, reading “Know thyself and ye shall know the Gods and the Universe.” The most famous line from Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamlet, references this same idea, with Polonius saying “This above all, to thine own self be true.” Hell, Tupac and Ghostface Killah both released tracks titled “Stay True”, respectively.

You may be thinking we heading down the road to bullshit-town right now, so bear with me.

Without self-awareness and self-mastery, we will never be able to maximize our skills and abilities. And we’ve known this for a long-ass time now. But how do we tap into this power?

Here are three powerful ways to “know thyself”.

1.       Find your learning style: Some of us are visual learners, some auditory, some learn by doing. It doesn’t matter what, why, or how. Find out how you best learn, retain and reuse information and you’ll gain a crucial advantage on the rest of us.

2.       Identify and admit your strengths: And then develop those strengths, they are what makes you unique and valuable to the world.

3.       Think deeply on what goals are meaningful to you, and why: Then make a plan. Once you have a plan you can chart a course and begin moving towards it. After that, things get interesting.

No big deal, right?