Self and Self-Awareness

Self-Awareness and Not Choosing the Safe Path in Life - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Not Choosing the Safe Path in Life

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There are people who lack self-awareness and spend their entire lives choosing the safe path, which means that they do what they’ve always done, how they’ve always done it. They value feeling safe and secure over all else, including self-awareness, no matter what the consequences. In the process, they lose their true selves and live middle-of-the-road, ordinary, as-uneventful-as-possible existences.

I’ve always wondered why people live like this, and the answer that often arises is: lack of self-awareness leading to fear. When people are scared of stepping outside their comfort zones or of being their real selves, they tend to do everything they can to remain in their cocoon. They never fly because they’re too busy worrying about everything that might possibly go wrong or be slightly different.

One of the reasons I love consulting for people who value self-awareness is that they live more courageously, striving to understand who they are and where they want to go. It’s not that they live dangerously, just that they’re willing to test their own thought processes and face their fears.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and avoid choosing the safe path in life?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Aware People Forgive - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Aware People Forgive

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A big part of self-awareness is learning to forgive, as in:

  • Forgive yourself.
  • Forgive others.
  • Forgive the past
  • Forgive the negative things that happen in life.

Forgiveness means that you are able to let go of the resentments and hurts that hold you back and consciously decide to move forward positively in life. When you forgive, you give yourself the opportunity to be the wonderful person you are deep inside.

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Helps You Figure out Who You Are - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Helps You Figure out Who You Are

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A big part of self-awareness is discovering who you are and what you want to do with your life. Take some time to think about what’s important to you and where you see yourself going. Make sure to be truthful with yourself. Don’t settle for whatever life throws you, choose to move your life in the direction of your dreams.

Why do any of this? Because you’re worth it. Countless people all over the world spend their entire lives living as someone else or doing what others expect them to do. You can be one of the very few who actually breaks the mold and moves forward authentically.

It takes courage to consciously decide to live life as the real you. There is always the chance that you’ll encounter setbacks. Don’t be discouraged. You’re an amazing person who deserves to do meaningful things and follow your own path. All you have to do is determine who you really are and do small things each day to simply be yourself.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and figure out who you are?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness, Empathy, and Better Relationships - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness, Empathy, and Better Relationships

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Self-awareness helps increase empathy which, in turn, helps people build better relationships. When you understand your own emotions, thoughts, and behaviors well, you’re better able to get along with others.

It’s easy to become so focused on our own experience that we forget that other people exist. In relationships, walking in someone else’s shoes is a great approach to really understanding other people and helps us build empathy for others. Empathy is the ability to understand someone else’s experience and point of view.

People who lack self-awareness often ask me why it is that someone does such and such or this and that. I suggest that we can figure out what people are going through and understand them much better if we just put ourselves in their situation. In this way, we can learn about them without projecting our own needs and opinions on them. Try a few of the following things to increase your empathic ability:

1. Listen actively without talking.
2. Put yourself in that person’s situation and imagine you are going through the same thing.
3. Ask questions that allow the person to tell you more about themselves instead of yes and no questions.
4. Keep in mind that what you are hearing isn’t about you; it’s about them.
5. Try to accept anything the person says as simply their reality rather than something you have to react to.

Try these a few times over a period of time. Empathy is about really understanding that there are other valid points of view in the world. Those perspectives may not be ours but they mean as much to that person as our worldview does to us. Once you can connect with someone else’s reality, you’re own your way to really understanding other people and showing them that you respect where they are coming from.

What will you do to develop self-awareness, increase your empathy, and enjoy better relationships?

Cheers,

Guy

How to Tell If Someone Is Self-Aware - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

How to Tell If Someone Is Self-Aware

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How to tell if someone is self-aware? They do things like:

  • Behave with kindness and compassion.
  • Follow their dreams in life.
  • Are comfortable in their own skin.
  • Don’t feel a need to put other people down.
  • Feel great about themselves but not in an arrogant or fake way.
  • Get along well with others.
  • Put out good vibes.
  • Believe in themselves.
  • Understand their strengths and areas for improvement.
  • Live a life that reflects who they are deep inside.

People who possess self-awareness feel good about themselves and help others do the same; they’re genuinely happy and do things to make the world a better place; they’re the kind of people that build others up and do kind things for others. It all comes from their inner balance and well-being. What would you add to this list?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Making Your Life Count - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Making Your Life Count

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Abraham Lincoln once said, “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” Self-awareness helps you make your life count because, when you understand your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, you’re able to consciously pursue your dreams.

Life is what we make of it and I always strive to help people recognize what it is they want to do with their lives. In relationships we often settle for situations that repeat patterns established by our parents or approaches we learned from our friends.

I suggest to people. “Why not try something different if what you are doing is not working?” The reason I ask that question is that we often invest huge amounts of time and energy in situations that don’t make us feel great rather than doing some work to move in a different direction.

I’ve had many people tell me the meaning of life is finding one’s own balance point and living a life of fulfillment and peace. Successful people understand this concept because they are always striving to do the work necessary to work toward peace and balance.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and make your life count?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Means Understanding How Other People See You - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Means Understanding How Other People See You

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A major part of self-awareness is understanding how other people see you. This means that you clearly comprehend how your thoughts and actions affect not only you but others as well. When you understand the impact you have on others you can make the appropriate changes so that you get better results. The key is to be yourself and allow others to do the same. Here are some signs that you possess the self-awareness necessary to understand how other people see you:

  • You’re not constantly in the middle of conflicts.
  • Other people seem to like you.
  • You build positive relationships.
  • You behave with kindness, empathy, and compassion.
  • You don’t do things to hurt others.
  • You don’t care about competition.
  • You don’t have a massive, unhealthy, out of control ego.
  • You do things that benefit others.
  • You behave selflessly, without expecting something in return.

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy