(Paraphrased from Section 4 Happily Ever After...)
Who Are You:
“So, tell me; Who Are You?” Remember how you reacted the last time someone confronted you with that challenge to your sense of yourself? You most likely considered the inquiry a rhetorical question or maybe a riddle, and because you had no clue how to respond, you just wrote the whole idea off as some kind of mind game. If that’s the case, you may find it ironic that when a marriage councilor posed the question to me, during a session in 1993, I decided that I would take the question seriously and actually figure out Who Am I. In a further twist of irony, it was my quest for Self Awareness that started me on the journey that resulted in my book, HappilyEverAfter…
The Reward:
So, right about now, you’re probably asking yourself, “Why should I bother to put myself through the soul-searching, gut-wrenching dose of reality I’ll need to endure in order to become self-aware?” You’re undoubtedly thinking, “There better be a significant reward if I am to undertake the gambit I’ll have to deal with in order to achieve your precious state of Self-Awareness, Mr. Paul J.!”
Facing Demons:
Hey; I get it. Believe me I felt the same way after my EPIPHANY (Section 1 of Happily Ever After…) when I decided that Self-Awareness would prove to be an indispensable element in any plan I developed to help me completely change my personality and hopefully succeed at saving my marriage. I was not thrilled with the prospect of: facing my demons, taking them on, and, hopefully, emerging victorious in the process. But then, when I dedicated myself to the undertaking, the most frustrating aspect of my quest for enlightenment was that I wasn’t able to find any useful knowledge in book stores or on the internet, when it came to the topic of Self Awareness. As I began to develop my Awareness program, it struck me that, in Western Society, there is no emphasis placed on Self-Awareness. How can it be that such a vitally important issue doesn’t even receive lip service in our culture? Could it be that we are so self-absorbed that we don’t feel the need to understand even the most basic details concerning our: character traits, our personalities, and our intimate inner being? After all, don’t the Hollywood offerings and advertisements we see let us know what we should want and how we should feel about pretty-much every aspect of our lives?
Life-Changing Info:
What if there was a way to figure out what makes you tick. How about if you could find a book that showed you how, and to what degree, you display your character traits? For instance: how Considerate, Loving, and Trustworthy are you? And how much of a Bully, a Coward, or a Liar are you? Taking the concept further; what if that book could help you find out which pleasures brought you the most Happiness and then showed you how to prioritize your Purposes so you could determine which ones gave you the most Satisfaction/Pleasure? I think you can see how that book could be Life-Changing. I know my book, Happily Ever After… changed my life to the point where I’ve become the man I always knew I could be; the man who can Love and Cherish his wife the way she deserves to be. Most importantly, with my new-found skills, I’ve become a partner who can sustain a rewarding relationship.
So, in answer to the question you posed in the 2nd paragraph of this blog entry, the rewards for finding out Who You Are (Self Awareness) are as follows:
Confidence:
Once you have a good idea of how you display your character traits (Who Am I and What Am I: Section 4) you’ll develop an elevated sense of self-confidence based in reality.
Pleasure Quotient:
Then, you’ll go on to find out what really makes you happy (Definitive Pleasure Quotient Scale: Section 5),
Instincts:
Once you become aware of how your Instincts influence everything you: think, say, and do (MAS/FEM Scale: Section 6), and go on to find out how your mate’s Instincts influence of each part of her life, the insight you’ll gain will help you deal with issues that would always make you throw up your hands in frustration and beg the Almighty for divine guidance; guidance that never manifested itself.
Happiness:
And finally when you come to realize which of your Purposes provide the most Meaning/Satisfaction in your life (The Meaning, Section: 7), you’ll find that you’ll be able to overcome the obstacles you’ve encountered, in your pursuit of Happiness, to the point where you can finally achieve that ultimate goal.
The Curtain of Denial:
The truth is, that until you come out from behind your Curtain of Denial (Emotional Façade/ Inadvertent Role-Playing: Section 8) and become Self-Aware, your Pursuit of Happiness will have you chasing shadows and pinning your hopes on wishes and fantasies.