The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-Awareness and Your Quality of Life - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Your Quality of Life

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Your level of self-awareness greatly affects your quality of life. The more you’re in touch with why you think, feel and do the things you do, the more consciously and happily you can live. Consider these two examples of people with different perspectives:

  1. Person A goes through life appearing to be confident, is outwardly successful, seems to have everything anyone would dream of having but is deeply insecure and realizes it’s all a mirage.
  2. Person B lives life with confidence, sometimes has doubts and shows vulnerability, but when he (or she) looks in the mirror, he knows he’s looking at a real person who is living authentically.

The difference between these two examples is that one person has to pretend to be someone else. Genuine fulfillment and happiness arise from looking at your strengths and areas for improvement and continuously working on being the real you inside and outside. What will you do to live a quality life?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Can Help You Change Your Life - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Can Help You Change Your Life

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People often ask me how to change their lives. The answer is to build up your self-awareness, which enables you to heal the hurts from your past and focus on positive emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to move forward. Changing your life requires deliberate action over time, there are no quick fixes.

The next time you are wondering how to change your life, try using the following steps to transform your situation.

1. Think of what you want to change.
2. Devise a strategy to change it.
3. Pick one goal.
3. Pick one task you can do to start achieving your goal.
4. Check in with yourself in a week to see if you achieved the goal.
5. If the goal needs revising, do so. If you’ve completed it, move to the next goal.
6. Reward yourself each time you complete a goal. No overindulging please.

It’s one thing to want to change your life, it’s quite another to actually do it. It requires a plan and conscious action over time. Put one foot in front of the other and strive to complete your goals. It’s normal to feel like giving up, just keep taking one small step at a time. You’ll eventually see the results.

No life change is easy. They all take deliberate effort but people achieve their goals all the time. There is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do so as well. What will you do to develop your self-awareness and change your life?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Your Thoughts on Diversity - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Your Thoughts on Diversity

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When I train leaders and organizations I often listen for their thoughts and attitudes on diversity. Leaders who possess self-awareness tend to welcome diversity and are open to finding ways to use it to improve their workplaces. If leaders believe that diverse people can get along and work together well, then they promote diversity; if they think that people can’t be trusted and don’t welcome a variety of viewpoints, then they will be suspicious or fear it.

You get results based on the thoughts you bring to workplace. Some of the words (which come from thoughts) I’ve heard people say that may hinder diversity practices include:

  • They’ll never get along.
  • They are different than us.
  • It’s always been that way.
  • Diversity’s a joke, let’s just do it my way.
  • I don’t trust that person.
  • I bet they’re talking about me.
  • I’ve tried everything and nothing works.
  • They have an attitude.

As thinking human beings, we have a choice as to how we approach almost any topic including diversity. Think about the phrases above and what kind of results you might get in the workplace if you thought that way. Now think about what kind of results you might observe if you increased your self-awareness and thought along the following lines:

  • We can work on this.
  • We’ll figure out a way to bring them together.
  • I’ll start a conversation with him/her.
  • I value different opinions.
  • We value all people in this workplace.
  • We focus on promoting collaboration, not conflict.
  • I’m going to trust that person.

What kind of results would you get if your thoughts were more like these? Think of the effect that might have on your workplace. Diversity is really just a state of mind. What you think about ends up being what you see in your workplace. If you’re self-aware and open to new things, then diversity will be an excellent tool to help you build a high-functioning organization. How will you improve your self-awareness and use diversity as an asset?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and the Secret to Effective Communication - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and the Secret to Effective Communication

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People often ask me what’s the secret to effective communication.  There really are no hidden mysteries, it just requires having the self-awareness to communicate with people in a way that makes things easier for everyone in the workplace. Try these ideas and you’ll be on your way to communicating more effectively and getting more done with less effort.

  1. Build up your self-awareness so you understand how your emotions, thoughts, and communication style affects you and others.
  2. Think before you talk.
  3. Speak calmly or don’t speak at all.
  4. Listen more than you talk.
  5. Try not to react to what the other person is saying.
  6. Ask open-ended questions.

How many of these concepts do you practice on a regular basis?  Once you master these skills you’ll be on your way to enjoying communicating with others.  Effective communication is achievable, you just have to be conscious of what you’re doing to make it happen. What will you do to increase your self-awareness and communicate effectively?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Organizations That Welcome Diversity - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Organizations That Welcome Diversity

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I’ve consulted with organizations where leaders and employees are genuinely puzzled by diversity, there is a palpable sense of resistance or worry that this diversity thing will throw everything into chaos. Other organizations welcome diversity. So what’s the difference? Self-awareness. Companies that have self-aware employees and leaders tend to welcome new information and variety of approaches because they are comfortable with themselves and others.

The bottom line with diversity is that it’s not scary, it’s simply a way to use the diverse talents and experience of your employees. If we move away from thinking of diversity of something creepy we can use it to make ourselves and our organizations more successful. What if we thought of diversity in the following ways?

  • Diversity will help us use all the talents of our staff.
  • Diversity will help us reduce conflict.
  • Diversity will help us work collaboratively.
  • Diversity will help us create stronger teams.
  • Diversity will help us compete more effectively.

Diversity is as effective as we make it. If we choose to see it as a nuisance or a threat we’ll get predictable results. If we view it as a tool then it can help us succeed. Self-aware leaders and employees appreciate diversity because it gives them more tools to work with and succeed, they see it as an asset rather than a threat. What will you do to increase the self-awareness in your workplace and view diversity positively?

Cheers,

Guy

10 Ways Leaders Who Lack Self-Awareness Lose Employees - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

10 Ways Leaders Who Lack Self-Awareness Lose Employees

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Leaders who lack self-awareness do a lot of things that alienate their employees and then shake their heads and wonder why things got out of hand when the person leaves the organization. One of the key elements of inspirational leadership is to remember that you’re there to interact positively and make things easier for the people around you. The less challenges and obstacles your employees have, the better you’ll look and the less time you’ll spend trying to put the pieces back together. Here are ten ways that leaders lose employees:

  1. Treat people uncourteously or disrespectfully.
  2. Don’t recognize or put to use people’s talents and abilities.
  3. Put people in jobs they hate and give them no opportunity to grow.
  4. Don’t listen to people.
  5. Inability or refusal to fix things when they go awry.
  6. Regularly get into a conflicts.
  7. Insist you’re right and they’re wrong.
  8. Read the employee the policy handbook instead of working with them to resolve an issue.
  9. Not knowing how to communicate effectively.
  10. Lack of follow-through.

The secret to enlightened leadership is to do the opposite of these things. Treat people like they really matter and show them you care deeply about their well-being and growth and you’ll create a workplace where individuals feel important and work accordingly. If you currently do any of these things, think of ways to replace the behavior with one that leads in a more positive direction and you’ll be on your way to creating a more positive workplace. What will you do to keep your employees happily working for your organization?

Cheers,

Guy

How to Develop Self-Awareness: A 10-Step Plan - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

How to Develop Self-Awareness: A 10-Step Plan

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Here is a ten-step plan on how to develop self-awareness:

  1. Decide that you’re willing to look deep inside yourself. Don’t start this process if you’re not committed to being fully honest and working hard on developing self-awareness.
  2. Make a list of all the great things about you.
  3. Make a list of the things you feel, think, or do that are detrimental to your well-being.
  4. Make a list of all the things you’d like to improve.
  5. Pick one item from your list of things you’d like to improve and decide on one action you’re willing to take to work on it.
  6. Take action and then evaluate what benefit it had on the thing you’d like to improve. If it worked, move on to the next thing you’d like to improve; if it didn’t, choose another action.
  7. Once you have found the appropriate action to resolve the issue, start the process again. It’s important to do this because your lists will change whenever you change in some way.
  8. Keep working continuously, one item at a time. Don’t overload yourself by trying to do several things at once. Choose one thing and work on it deliberately.
  9. Whenever you resolve an issue in your life, celebrate and praise yourself for the great work you’ve done.
  10. Continue to identify and resolve issues throughout your life.

Developing self-awareness doesn’t happen overnight, it requires sustained attention and effort over time. Try this ten-step process and, as you do it, you’ll be gaining insights into yourself and living a healthier, more balanced life.

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy