Can we become increasingly successful while growing less certain about why that success matters? A student enters a prestigious institution, secures an attractive job, earns promotions and achieves financial security. Each milestone brings satisfaction, but another target soon appears. The journey continues, often without asking whether the destination is personally meaningful. We have become remarkably skilled at measuring progress, but perhaps less skilled at deciding what deserves to be called progress.
Modern education prepares us to understand and change the world. We study science, master technologies, acquire professional skills and learn to solve complex problems. Yet we devote comparatively little attention to understanding ourselves. We learn how to perform, but rarely examine the fears, assumptions, motivations and expectations that shape our performance. This imbalance raises an important question. Should education merely prepare individuals to achieve goals, or should it also help them decide which goals are worth pursuing?
Consider two equally competent researchers receiving critical comments on their work. One interprets the criticism as a personal attack and dismisses it. The other experiences similar disappointment but examines the comments, identifies weaknesses and improves the research. Their scientific knowledge may be comparable, yet their responses produce different outcomes. The difference may lie partly in their ability to recognize an emotional reaction without allowing it to dictate their next action.
Self-awareness and self-regulation are not identical. Recognizing that criticism makes us defensive is one thing; learning to respond constructively is another. A person may understand a tendency to procrastinate yet continue postponing difficult tasks. Awareness creates the possibility of change, but change requires practice, feedback and deliberate effort. Excessive introspection can even become counterproductive when reflection turns into repeated worrying.
Understanding ourselves is not about constantly looking inward. It is about developing sufficient clarity to engage more thoughtfully with the world.
Psychological research provides useful insights. Studies of emotional regulation suggest that how we interpret an event can influence our response. A failed experiment may be viewed as proof of personal inadequacy or as information that helps improve a hypothesis. The failure remains unchanged, but its interpretation can influence what happens next. Another relevant concept is metacognition, our ability to examine how we think and learn. A student who recognizes that memorizing answers is not producing understanding can adopt a different strategy. A scientist who questions a favourite assumption may discover an unexpected direction.
The Stoic philosophers similarly distinguished between events and our responses to them. Epictetus argued that it is not simply what happens to us, but the judgements we form about what happens, that shape our experience. Two thousand years later, psychology is exploring much the same territory through the language of cognition and emotional regulation.
The Purpose Question
The deeper value of self-understanding extends beyond emotional control and better decisions. It allows us to question the goals themselves. Academic life offers a revealing example. A young scientist may enter research driven by curiosity and the excitement of discovery. Over time, publications, citations, grants and rankings can become increasingly important. These indicators have legitimate uses, but difficulties arise when they begin replacing the purpose of research. The question gradually changes from whether the work advances knowledge to whether it will receive recognition.
There is a distinction between the intrinsic rewards of an undertaking and the external rewards attached to it. The danger begins when the latter gradually consume the former. A researcher may start out wanting to understand nature and end up primarily wanting to be seen understanding it.
The same pattern appears elsewhere. A professional may pursue promotions long after discovering that the work itself is no longer satisfying. Parents may encourage children towards prestigious careers without sufficiently considering their interests and abilities. Social expectations can quietly become personal ambitions, making it difficult to distinguish what we genuinely value from what others expect us to value.
Psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, through their work on self-determination theory, have identified autonomy, competence and relatedness as fundamental psychological needs. People often experience more sustainable motivation when their activities reflect meaningful interests, allow them to develop capabilities and foster relationships. External rewards have their place, but cannot always substitute for a sense of purpose.
This raises a larger concern. Are our educational institutions and workplaces producing individuals who know how to achieve targets but seldom question whether those targets are worthwhile? When examination scores define learning, publication counts define research and promotions define professional growth, measurable achievement can gradually displace meaningful contribution. The problem is not measurement itself. It begins when the measure becomes more important than what it was intended to measure.
Historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle once observed that a man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder. The metaphor is particularly relevant to a world in which individuals are encouraged to move faster, compete harder and accumulate credentials, but are seldom invited to consider their direction.
Beyond Introspection
Self-understanding does not develop automatically with age or experience. People can repeat the same mistakes for years without recognizing the patterns behind them. What matters is the willingness to examine experience, accept feedback and change behaviour. A teacher who encourages students to analyse an unsuccessful experiment promotes more than scientific reasoning. A mentor who helps a young researcher respond constructively to criticism contributes to professional maturity. A leader who acknowledges an error demonstrates that confidence and humility can coexist.
Educational institutions can cultivate these qualities through mentoring, thoughtful feedback, open discussion and opportunities to learn from mistakes. But turning self-awareness into another examination, certificate or ranking would defeat its purpose. We must also recognize that performance depends on circumstances beyond the individual. Fair institutions, adequate resources, supportive colleagues and genuine opportunities matter enormously. Even a highly reflective person may struggle in an environment marked by insecurity or persistent unfairness. Personal development and institutional responsibility must therefore go together.
There is, moreover, a difference between questioning oneself and blaming oneself. Self-awareness should not become an excuse for ignoring structural inequalities or institutional failures. The individual must learn to navigate the world, but institutions must also create conditions in which individuals can flourish.
Perhaps the most valuable outcome of understanding ourselves is greater clarity about where our efforts should be directed. A scientist may choose to investigate an important problem despite limited prospects of recognition. A teacher may invest time in a struggling student without expecting a reward. A professional may decline an attractive opportunity because it conflicts with personal values. Such decisions may not improve conventional performance indicators, yet they can reflect sound judgement and a deeper understanding of success.
Looking inward does not mean withdrawing from the world. Our actions, mistakes, relationships and unexpected experiences also reshape our understanding of ourselves. Reflection improves action, while action deepens reflection. The purpose of self-understanding is neither endless introspection nor relentless productivity. It is to bring our achievements closer to what we genuinely consider worthwhile.
Perhaps the real question is not how much we have achieved, but whether what we have achieved was worth pursuing in the first place.
(Dr. Mahajan is Professor and Director, RIIL, COEP Technological University, Pune. Dr. Paknikar is ANRF Prime Minister Professor, COEP, and former Director, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune. Views personal.)
