Personal Development Lecture Imagine yourself looking into a mirror. What do you see? Do you see your ideal self or your actual self? Your ideal self is the self that you aspire to be. It is the one that you hope will possess characteristics similar to that of a mentor or some other worldly figure. Your actual self, however, is the one that you actually see. It is the self that has characteristics that you were nurtured or, in some cases, born to have. The actual self and the ideal self are two broad categories of self-concept. Self-concept refers to your awareness of yourself. It is the construct that negotiates these two selves. In other words, it connotes first the identification of the ideal self as separate from others, and second, it encompasses all the behaviours evaluated in the actual self that you engage in to reach the ideal self. It is believed that the words “Know Thyself", which were written at the entry of the oracle at Delphi by seven Greek philosophers, statesmen, and lawgivers, became the cornerstone of Western philosophy. For Socrates, the most important thing to pursue was self-knowledge, and admitting one's ignorance is the beginning of true knowledge. For Plato, one of Socrates's students, the beginning of knowledge is self- knowledge. Other ancient philosophers from other culture saw the wisdom in knowing oneself. The ancient ...
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