The essence of Self Transformation
What is self
Before delving into the topic of self transformation, let us first explore the idea of self.
Self, in a general sense, is defined as a sense of identity, an individual personality type. At the rudimentary level it is usually defined in terms of our appearance and belonging, i.e. ethnicity and association with a particular geographic location, followed by our social status and work we do for a living, i.e. our job/career. The next stage of defining self is with respect to the characteristics or behavioural traits of the personality which includes an individual’s belief systems, thought process, habits, likes, dislikes, actions, reactions, intellectual and social blueprints and so on and so forth.
In essence, self can thus be defined as a sum total of an individual’s extrinsic personality and intrinsic personality.
self = Extrinsic (external) personality + Intrinsic (internal) personality
Extrinsic personality is nothing but the external aspects of an individual, including his physical appearance, ethnicity, qualifications, job, status, etc. We can call this the MATERIAL aspect of a personality.
While Intrinsic personality of an individual includes the behavioural traits, belief systems and the various facets of his emotional being, i.e thoughts, feelings, emotions etc. In essence intrinsic personality constitutes the ‘mindset’. We can call this the SPIRITUAL aspect of a personality.
In the worldly parlance, self is mostly defined in terms of our extrinsic personality wrapped with certain striking nuances of our intrinsic personality.
For example, in a crude sense we refer people as — Mr. X is a software engineer and a successful serial entrepreneur from Delhi, or, Ms Y is an olympic medalist from North East India who coaches girls from her state and is a role model for them.
From a philosophical point of view however, self has a different meaning altogether. It is associated with our true nature of being, and has little or nothing to do with the external aspects of our personality. It really entails uncovering the layers of our intrinsic (inner) personality through self-enquiry to find answers to the deeper existential question of “who am I?”.
The essence of Self Transformation
Now that we have looked at the definition of self, let us try to understand this further in light of what is meant by self- transformation.
Self, as we saw, is the sum total of an individual’s extrinsic (material) and intrinsic (spiritual) personality. Unfortunately, all our lives our focus is on enhancing and transforming our material personality with little or no attention directed to enhance our inner spiritual personality. The few individuals who are successful in the material sense of the world become our role models, and we blindly follow them, emulating their path and thinking that this is going to give us happiness and success. We are conditioned to strive hard right from our childhood, and so, we put in efforts to change our extrinsic personality for more material growth, however, most of us end up failing.
Why?
Because we are putting efforts in the wrong direction.
Our approach is not balanced. It is not the extrinsic transformation that guarantees you success and growth but the intrinsic transformation. Self Transformation is not about changing your physical appearance to look attractive, or learning skills that could land you a promotion or your dream job, or becoming an entrepreneur to earn money and social status, or going after things that will make you successful and famous. The more you chase these directly, the farther they seem to go and the more disappointed and delusional you become.
Self transformation is an inner journey of emotional transformation laid on the foundation of a mindset which helps you discover your highest potential.
It is about confronting your nature. It is about enhancing your intrinsic (inner) personality because this is what will shape your extrinsic personality. It is about developing your mindset which will build your emotional and spiritual intelligence. True transformation in the real sense is an emotional transformation which automatically reflects in your character and reveals the power in your personality.
This inner transformation is what translates as the sought after extrinsic qualities in a person such as leadership, emotional intelligence, empathy, clarity of purpose, decision making ability, sportsmanship, creativity, courage, etc. Without an emotional and spiritual transformation a complete manifestation of these qualities is not possible. While efforts put in to develop our extrinsic personality can give material rewards, the true rewards in life, i.e happiness, peace, prosperity, and joy will only come by developing our inner self.
And thus, a change of focus from the outer self to the inner self is the first step in the journey of self transformation.
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