What is Self - Identity ?

I’ve heard and read too many writers expressing themselves about what self-identity is and how to achieve it. I remember how my Social Studies tutor in Senior High School took her time to explain the types of self. She spoke about the Real Self, the Ideal Self and the Other Self and she said that all three combine to make the Self.

Many authors and speakers have made presentations on, “Who Am I?” as a creative way of treating this topic. I remember the first task given to us during the Speakers’ Bureau Africa’s Emerging Speakers Challenge in 2017; “Me Personified”, the scope of which was to generally check how much the competing speakers knew themselves and how they  understood and related to their environment.

I have no qualms at all with definitions of the term or with how creatively speakers and authors have treated it. My challenge has to do with misconceptions or rather the hidden truths about the topic of self-identity.

In this publication, I share with you, my cherished readers, three facts about ‘Self-Identity’ which you seldom or never hear. I am of the view that these three facts are the most crucial to talk about when touching on the issue of self-identity but players in the field do not touch on these enough.

In no particular order:

Self-Identity is a daily activity.: Too many times we have been made to feel as though self-identity is a one-off event that happens of the accord of the individual. I promise you, you cannot finish knowing yourself until you die. You cannot completely know yourself after attending a conference or listening to one sermon or experiencing one accident or incident in life. Everyday, every time, every experience and every encounter is an opportunity to know yourself a little bit more. But there will definitely come a time that you will know enough about yourself to make informed choices. But then, be rest assured that once in a while you’ll surprise even yourself by doing, saying or even thinking something you thought you could never do, say or think. All it takes it to be conscious of your every move so that you when make a new move, you can identify it as such and add to your self-knowledge.


It should help you understand, adjust to, and accommodate others: As you get to know yourself a little more every day, you must be able to come to a better understanding of people. Self-identity should help you understand the motives behind the actions of some people. That understanding of people helps you to adjust to situations and gives you the strength to peacefully interact with people. If you are aware of yourself very well, you don’t get angered by everything done by everybody and you don’t react to all that people do to you. a good knowledge of yourself helps you to quickly spot situations that might bother your emotions and to deal with them appropriately. For instance, if you have observed to know that a certain food disturbs your system, you won’t eat that at a party or outside home to warrant any complications.You cannot achieve a good amount of self-identity on your own: In your pursuit to come to a substantial knowledge of yourself, you must do this in conjunction with other people. I am not implying that you go around saying to people, “Hey there, I’m a self-identity journey”. Not quite. What I mean is that you must observe people as you much as observe yourself, so that as you know yourself, you get to know human beings the more. The fact is, you are not an island. You interact with human beings and as such you can only identify yourself very well when you seek to know people. For example, you can only know you are good in something if you identify people who bad in that. You can only know you are a certain way when you identify others who are like you and others who are not.

Nobody has a measuring instrument for self-identity. It is only evident in our own actions, people’s reactions towards and other people’s similar actions to ours. your Self-identity may also increase with how much you read about psychological and sociological issues such as temperaments, societies, culture and such related material.

Self Identity refers to the perception or recognition of one’s characteristics as a particular individual, especially in relation to social context. it could also be referred to as the global understanding a person has of themselves. Self Identity is composed of relatively permanent self-assessments, such as personality attributes, knowledge of one’s skills and abilities, one’s occupation and hobbies, and awareness of one’s physical attributes.

#BeInspired #RenewYourMind

Efo Korku Mawutor