Self-evaluation is the evaluation of the reality in all its aspects. A concept that resonates deeply within the human experience, yet self-evaluation remains one of the most challenging and often unpopular tasks we can undertake.
The act of evaluating oneself requires a level of introspection that many shy away from, preferring instead the comfort of external validation or the avoidance of uncomfortable truths.
Realistic self-evaluation, in particular, demands a comprehensive examination of the self in all its facets — emotional, psychological, social, and moral.
At its core, self-evaluation is an introspective process that involves assessing one’s desires, thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and motivations.
However, the self is not a singular entity; it is a multifaceted construct shaped by a myriad of influences, including culture, upbringing, personal experiences, and societal expectations. This complexity makes it challenging to arrive at an objective understanding of oneself.
Moreover, self-evaluation requires confronting aspects of the self that may be uncomfortable or even painful. Many individuals harbour insecurities, regrets, or unfulfilled aspirations that they would rather ignore than confront. This avoidance is often rooted in fear — fear of judgment, fear of failure, and fear of change.
As a result, many people opt for superficial assessments, focusing on external achievements or societal standards rather than delving into the deeper, more nuanced aspects of their identity.
The unpopularity of self-evaluation can be attributed to several factors.
Firstly, our society often emphasizes external validation over internal reflection. Social media, for instance, creates a culture where individuals curate their lives for public consumption, leading to a distorted sense of self based on likes, shares, and comments rather than genuine self-understanding. In this environment, the act of self-evaluation can feel counterintuitive, as it requires stepping back from the external noise and engaging in a solitary dialogue with oneself.
“When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.” (Nietzsche)
Secondly, the fear of vulnerability plays a significant role in the reluctance to engage in self-evaluation. To evaluate oneself realistically means to acknowledge one’s flaws, failures, and limitations. This vulnerability can be daunting, as it exposes individuals to the risk of self-criticism and the potential for emotional pain. Many prefer to maintain a facade of confidence and success, avoiding the introspective journey that could lead to greater self-awareness and personal growth.
When it comes to our parallel thinking, evaluate the reason and the ways we ride a motorcycle reveals all the challenges and opportunities outline above. Or maybe it increase the difficulties.
Sport motorcycle are ego-machines emotionally selected and mostly used for image building. If you count out the people using the bike as intelligent tool of transportation and the ones doing competitive sport, the rest of us like the image and the feeling that a two wheeler can instantly deliver.
One can transform the self in a different person, accountants turn into explorers, assistant transform into adventurer and timid employees into daring pilots. Motorcycle is a personality transformer, and it makes difficult to conduct “a comprehensive examination of the self in all its facets — emotional, psychological, social, and moral”.
Nevertheless this is the road to maturity, a training plan more difficult than the simple acquisition of technical skill.
Evaluate correctly the level of competence, the motivation to ride and the readiness of tools at disposal is the simple way to use motorcycle to improve the self.
The key to this process of evaluation and education is a simple and honest “why?” It is the discipline of interrogating the self mentally (or loudly inside the helmet) at any instant on the saddle: asking the reasons for the good move and the reasons for the bad ones. And then we need not to be happy with the first answer, we need to go deep and discover inside what we have in values and virtues that generates the bad and sustain the good: not only on the road but in any aspects of our life.
We need to debug our software and keep testing it for linear response.
Very true, like the approach.