The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-Aware People Don't Say, "It's Not My Problem" - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Aware People Don’t Say, “It’s Not My Problem”

/ / Self-Awareness in Leadership / , , ,

You earnestly ask a colleague or employee who lacks self-awareness a question and he or she utters the words that destroy effective communication: It’s not my problem. Think of the power that one phrase has and how easily it completely eradicates any semblance of caring or courtesy. In one fell swoop, the person who says it demonstrates a lack of self-awareness and gives up on being helpful in any way or communicating effectively. These types of interactions happen all the time in our workplaces and can lead to all kinds of unwanted results including reduced morale, ineffective leadership, and lower productivity.

The reason, “It’s not my problem,” has such negative repercussions is that it stops all interaction and does so in a jarring, often disrespectful, manner. There are many variations on this phrase but they all make communication more difficult rather than easier. The challenge in the workplace is to find ways of saying yes instead of no as well as taking responsibility for communicating well rather than putting up walls. Here are ten positive alternatives to saying, “It’s not my problem.”

1.  Lets work on this together to find an answer.
2.  I’ll see what I can do and check back with you.
3.  What can I do to be helpful?
4.  Let’s look for resources.
5.  Who might have the skills to help us with this.
6.  What part can I play to make the situation easier?
7.  This is my concern too.
8.  I hear you and understand what you’re saying.
9.  I can help brainstorm ideas.
10.  Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do.

Think about all the words we utter in the workplace that create unnecessary communication roadblocks. These types of interactions don’t focus on the positive and, consequently, don’t lead to great results. Thankfully, we can shift that momentum by stepping outside our boxes and committing to communicate more effectively.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and promote positive communication in your workplace?

Cheers,

Guy

How Do You Define Self-Awareness? - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

How Do You Define Self-Awareness?

/ / Self and Self-Awareness, Self-Awareness / , , , ,

We are all at different stages of self-awareness. As you plan your journey, keep your own personal definition of self-awareness in mind. Don’t worry about what other people are doing or want you to do. Have confidence in your inner voice and grow in the areas that are meaningful to you.

Cheers,

Guy

Dating and Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Dating and Self-Awareness

/ / Self and Self-Awareness, Self-Awareness / , , ,

People often ask me why they keep dating the wrong people. The answer that they most often come up with after some self-exploration is that they are looking for people based on mistaken assumptions.

Most of us look for people that create a spark, that excite us into wanting to get to know them better. This method creates an initial euphoria that blinds us to understanding clearly what we want from relationships. We become so intoxicated with romance that we are unable to make rational decisions.

What I help people with is building self-awareness. When we understand who we are and what we love and need we tend to make better choices regarding relationships. If we don’t know ourselves very well or don’t like ourselves we tend to attract people that reinforce that. When we understand ourselves better and are healthier we tend to attract more positive people.

There really is no magic to this process. What’s been shown to work time after time is that people who are healthy attract other healthy people. All it takes is some work first on getting ourselves as healthy mentally and physically as possible. Then we attract people who admire us for the wonderful, healthy people we are.

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Consulting and Being Serious about Change - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Consulting and Being Serious about Change

/ / Self and Self-Awareness, Self-Awareness / , , , , , ,

self-awareness consulting is only effective when you’re serious about change. A lot of people go to a professional thinking that it’s a quick fix or that they have some magic formula that will instantly create success or fulfillment. The only way to live your dream life is to consciously decide to take charge of your thoughts, emotions and behaviors and move in a positive direction. self-awareness consulting can help you become happier and healthier by:

  • Offering a professional, outside perspective.
  • Providing caring support.
  • Helping you clarify your strengths and areas for improvement.
  • Building accountability.
  • Monitoring your progress.
  • Cheering you on.
  • Believing in you.
  • Helping you decide what you want to do in life.
  • Getting to know yourself on a deeper level.

For self-awareness consulting to be effective it requires a highly motivated, courageous person who is willing to look at his or her warts and make significant changes. I advise people to only consider self-awareness consulting when they are ready to take on the most difficult challenges in their lives, the stuff they don’t want to look at. Otherwise they’re setting themselves up for failure and disappointment. How serious are you about change?

I love working with creative, kind, open-minded individuals who are serious about finding out who they are, welcoming change and living authentically.

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Means Working through Your Stuff - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Means Working through Your Stuff

/ / Self-Awareness / , , , , ,

It’s important to work through your stuff even if you don’t really want to, otherwise you’ll live a reactive, unconscious life rather than building your self-awareness and enjoying being the real you.

A lot of people spend an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to avoid difficult issues instead of dealing with them openly and directly. It’s painful to look at your inner bruises but it’s the only way to heal yourself deep inside and move forward in life. When you deal with the challenges that hold you back, you open up doors of opportunity that would have been closed otherwise.

It may not be easy, but the process of increasing self-awareness and healing your hurts is the only true path to happiness. It’s like having a toothache, it will never go away until you treat it. One of the reasons I enjoy connecting with people who value self-awareness is that they often are in a place where they’re already comfortable looking deep inside, and that’s where all change begins.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and work through your stuff?

Cheers,

Guy

Simplify Your Life with Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Simplify Your Life with Self-Awareness

/ / Self-Awareness, Self-Consciousness / , , , ,

The more self-awareness you have, the less you complicate your life. Many people devote an enormous amount of time and energy to cover up some lie, ignore some unpleasant thing they did to someone, or avoid dealing with some difficult issue in their past. What they may not realize is that, instead of making their lives easier, they’re adding more challenges than there need to be. It takes so much effort to complicate your life that why not try something that will make you happier instead? Here are some tips to simplify your life:

  • Understand why you do the things you do.
  • Tell the truth.
  • Behave kindly.
  • Look for ways to make life easier for yourself and others.
  • Have compassion for other people.
  • Love yourself.
  • Heal your hurts.
  • Live the life you know you have inside you.
  • Show the world your true self.

When you think, feel and behave in ways that reflect the person you are deep inside, you don’t have to worry about putting on a mask or doing things that make your life more complicated. Building self-awareness means taking the time to examine the things that don’t help you succeed and replacing them with positive alternatives. What will you do to simplify your life?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Going Beyond - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Going Beyond

/ / Self-Awareness / , , , , , , ,

Self-awareness means going beyond your comfort zone and connecting with who you are deep inside instead of living superficially. It’s easy to become used to thinking and behaving a certain way, especially when things are going well. If you’re continuously building self-awareness, you understand that there is no such thing as living statically. Life is an ongoing evolution where you naturally grow and change along the way. Going beyond means you do thing like the following:

  • You don’t get stuck defending negative behaviors.
  • You actively work on healing the hurts from your past.
  • You seek new information and ideas.
  • You’re open to new ways of doing things.
  • You’re comfortable with change.
  • You think and behave in ways that benefit you and others.
  • You live life as the real you.

If you do these types of things, you know how great it feels to learn about yourself and expand your horizons. Building self-awareness isn’t always easy, but it is consistently rewarding because you get to live a genuine and authentic life. What will you do to keep going beyond the average?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy