Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Victorious Living

Home
Family, Parenting and Religion
Self-Assessment (How Are You Doing?)

Self-Assessment (How Are You Doing?)

Last updated on: April 6, 2021 at 5:00 am by Victorious Living

Self-Assessment (How Are You Doing?) 2021-03-18T16:44:15-04:00 Victorious Living

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The counselor at the school we work at often encourage staff, faculty, and students to do a self check-in during the day. Just a deep breath and the legitimate question: how am I right now? Take off the mask. No need to perform or fear an imagined future. Just honestly self-assess.

I have to confess this is something I don’t do very often. I don’t often take inventory of myself.

On the other hand, I am constantly measuring others. I am obsessively weighing the justice of other peoples’ hearts. My church, politics, the people hogging the New York sidewalk. I am constantly assessing them. Why don’t I look at myself as closely?

Avoidance

My poor attempts at self-awareness often go like this: how am I feeling? Angry. But I am angry at today’s politicians and biased news reporting. They should just tell the truth, stop trying to spin…..and I’m off into a blame mindset, a victim mentality.

We avoid self-assessment because we assume a lot about ourselves. We assume we have good intentions and that this matters more than our faults. We assume others are doing better than we are and owe us something. We assume our points of view are correct. And all this assuming leads to defensiveness rather than true assessment.

We create a fortified wall around our true sense of self–erected with pillars like sports fandom, net worth, political and religious affiliation, geography, etc. Our ego-centered “self-assessment” becomes a refortifying of the battery. We make our rounds to the old familiar columns and shore them up so that we feel better protected.

Not the same thing as true self-assessment.

This, like our blame strategies, are all about avoidance. We don’t want to ask hard questions of ourselves, we want to assume we’ve got it right and get others on board. We don’t want to acknowledge our own faults, we want to fix the faults of others and the circumstances we dislike.

Get Real

True self-assessment begins with the question: what can I do better? What have I been doing wrong and what have I been ignoring?

We are so hyper-aware of what is going on outside of us, out in the world, yet so woefully unaware of our own self. What we truly want. What truly matters to us. How we feel and why. What we are stewarding well and what resources we are wasting. What we have to be grateful for.

Now is a good time to get real with ourselves. In this day and age, with biased news reporting and a myriad of voices, one which inevitably tells you what you want to hear, we are consumers. Very few are producing well. Very few of us are doing well. Mental health and suicide are prevalent because we are, relatively speaking, ignoring ourselves.

It is time for an honest check in. You won’t break yourself by asking yourself hard questions. You are not a house of cards. Maybe your perspective is; the false reality you’ve carefully constructed. But who you are at the core is stronger (and probably better off and better positioned than you realize). But you’ll never get there without taking intentional time to inventory your own life.

Previous Post

April 1, 2021

Faith or Fool

Next Post

April 8, 2021 The World is Taking a Dive

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Choices Conflict Resolution Culture Change Emotions Failure Faith Fear Freedom V Growth Healthy Communication Hope Identity Influence Leadership Learn Mistakes Mood Curve Ownership Perspective Power Relationships Self-Awareness Self-Governance Systems Thinking Three Things You Control Transformational Leadership Trust Truth Uncategorized Values Vision

Select a Month January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How did God speak to Moses at the burning bush?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Symbols from the fire By name Through wind Through lightning

Books by This Author Books by Victorious Living

See All Titles »