What is self-awareness? The textbook definition of self-awareness is having “knowledge and awareness of your personality or character.” When you’re in tune with yourself, you have an accurate and clear understanding of your nature, gifts, flaws, and word view. You know your preferences and dislikes. Self-awareness also includes an understanding of how others see you.
A false sense of self-awareness can lead to an extremely frustrating state of being!
Your degree of self-awareness can impact your interactions with others, professional development, and contentment:
- Self-awareness is vital for maintaining control of your life. Your life’s journey is related to your thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and reactions. Self-awareness creates a foundation to foster understanding and navigating these competencies.
- Self-awareness exposes misconceptions and emotional hindrances that stand in your way and enable you to make adjustments in order to avoid pitfalls.
- Self-awareness clarifies valid explanations for past mishaps and challenges. We often dismiss our failures as beyond our control or due to poor timing. It’s much more likely that you failed to analyze the situation, others, and your abilities accurately. It’s much easier to see the reasons behind social, career, and other obstacles when you can reflect and conduct a self-evaluation.
- Do you consistently encounter adversity at work or in your relationships? It’s only logical to surmise that you could be contributing to these unfortunate events. It’s possible that you might be doing something ineffectively.
- Those who have a blind spot in the area of self-awareness are often surprised by their negative outcomes or point the fingers at others for their misfortunes.
3 Self-awareness is an essential character trait for leaders. One study concluded that a high degree of self-awareness was the best predictor of success for executives.
- Executives that have an understanding of their areas of vulnerability are able to develop a team composed of members that fill those weaknesses.
- A deficit in self-awareness places limits on a leader’s effectiveness.
Self-awareness is the foundation for personal growth. Without it, any personal development efforts will be severely stifled. Achieving greater self-awareness won’t happen overnight, but by making small purposeful adjustments, over time will make a world of difference.
How to Develop Self-Awareness
Develop your self-awareness gradually:
- Write your own vision for self- improvement. Reflect and write down where you feel that you are. Create a goal statement. List things that you are willing to do in order to reach your goals. You might be shocked by what you write. This is a great initial step toward the introspective approach needed to develop self-awareness.
- Compile a list of your strengths and weaknesses. What are your gifts? What proof do you have regarding your gifts? What are things about yourself would you like to change? Why would you like to change them? Avoid embracing false self-perceptions. You may have always believed that you’re a hard worker, but are you? Avoid making comparisons to others. Search for evidence that supports your views before you make any concrete decisions.
- What do others say about you? Consider how your spouse, children, friends, neighbors, family, co-workers, and supervisor would describe you. What would they suggest you should improve about yourself? Then ask them and see how accurate you are. Do you know how others perceive you? Based on their feedback determine how perceptive you are. If the results aren’t what you thought they would be, don’t beat yourself up. Just use the results as a gauge.
- Reflection is all about developing a better awareness of the present moment and yourself. Quiet reflection is an ideal activity for enhancing self-awareness.
- Quietly reflect at least once each day. Spend the remainder of the day observing the actions of yourself, others, and your surroundings. You can develop a higher degree of self-awareness by careful observation.
- Question yourself throughout the day. “What are my goals?” “What emotions am I currently experiencing and why?” “What impact am I making on others?” ”What emotional triggers must I avoid in order to reach my goals?”
Self-awareness is the cornerstone of success and self-improvement. Without self-awareness, personal growth is impossible. Wisdom is a principle concept in order for knowledge to be applied effectively. It is wise to seek an understanding of your beliefs, propensities, strengths, and weaknesses to reach your full potential. Don’t assume that you’re self-aware. Delve deeper into your habits and reactions to daily encounters. Give it some time and thought.
Life is more pleasant when you’re self-aware. You can start developing your self-awareness, and enjoying the rewards, today!
