Self-awareness Is the First Step for Personal Growth.

 

We are all on a journey of self-discovery.

 

For my 200^th Weekly Email (being written on Christmas Eve), the topic has chosen itself. It’s a topic that I have written about several times over the last 4 years, and it is the key to growing and improving who you are. It is also a topic that up until 4 or 5 years ago I had not given any thought to.

 

“Self-awareness”

 

Sorry about throwing such a “dry-topic” at you on Christmas Day, but it’s a subject that I’ve been thinking about all year, and I just can’t avoid unpacking it any longer.

 

Quick disclosure: if you are not interested in self-improvement, stop reading now. I can’t help you!

 

There is no set path to self-awareness, but it is important that you are heading in the right general direction towards understanding who you are. This is the cruise-ship of self-discovery that we are all on together.

 

“Self-awareness doesn’t stop you from making mistakes. It allows you to learn from them.” Unknown

 

Back in July 2020 in emails # 78 + 80, I started exploring this topic in the context of working from home during the first Covid lockdown. We were all discovering that being disciplined and productive whilst working from home required a new level of self-awareness. I proposed that recognising and controlling distractions when working from home, required a high level of self-awareness. Which was a new realisation at the time!

 

More recently in email # 177, in a more practical application, I strongly reinforced that self-awareness is essential for working safely on a building site.

 

Self-awareness is simply the ability to see yourself clearly and to understand your own strengths and weaknesses.

 

Here are a few dot-point observations about self-awareness.

 

• Everyone is different and understanding yourself takes a lifetime.
• Life is complex and messy. You need to be flexible and constantly adapt your beliefs and self-perception.
• Poor self-awareness puts you at a disadvantage in any stage of life.
• Getting to know yourself better takes courage and hard work.
• It’s all about being present and having an open mind in your everyday life.
• Strong self-awareness reduces the need for constant comparison with others.
• Knowing yourself makes connecting with others more rewarding, makes relationships more meaningful and makes life better.

 

So how can you tell if you are self-aware?

 

Truthfully answer the following questions.

 

1. Do you know what your core-values are?
2. Do you know what your best-traits are and what your worst-traits are?
3. Are your days a bit of a blur? Are you aware of what you did yesterday, last week, or last month?
4. Do you understand why you feel the way you feel?

 

If you answered no to any of these questions you probably have a self-awareness problem. (People with poor self-awareness don’t understand the questions.)

 

The meandering pathway towards self-discovery I have been scrambling along for several years has involved a lot of reading, listening to podcasts and long conversations with my far-more-aware family. But my biggest leaps forward in self-awareness have come from writing all this stuff down on a weekly basis. My Weekly Emails have helped me to organise my thoughts and get them out of my head. Writing has become my vehicle for reflection and self-improvement.

 

“Self-awareness is not a characteristic. It’s a cognitive state.” Unknown

 

The job of self-awareness is to figure out how, when, and why you think and act. The road to self-discovery is paved with soul searching questions, such as.

 

• What is my definition of success?
• What really matters to me?
• What do I run towards?
• What do I run away from?
• What is my greatest fear?
• What is my greatest source of joy?

 

The answers don’t really matter, there is no right or wrong.

What matters is that these questions get you thinking about yourself.

 

These questions can help to shape your awareness of what is beneficial in your life and what is harmful. Once you are aware of these aspects of your life you can start to do more of the things that enrich your life and less of the things that erode your life and make you unhappy.

 

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas.

Stay safe and be happy.

David