Personal development isn’t about ignoring our negative traits. It’s about becoming conscious of them and channeling them in more constructive ways.

But the thing is…it’s hard to identify our own negative traits because our ego is constantly trying to hide them from us!

Here are four practical steps you can take to become aware of the dark, repressed aspects of yourself.

Here’s a life principle that is profoundly true—and also profoundly annoying:

“That which you most need will be found where you least want to look.”

In other words, it’s the very things we are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with that we must practice exposing ourselves to so we can learn to tolerate—and maybe even enjoy—them.

For example, I used to be terrified of criticism.

As a person whose “love language” is words of affirmation, criticism would trigger me and cause me to feel extremely defensive.