Self and Self-Awareness

Self-Awareness and Fixing a Family Problem - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Fixing a Family Problem

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Self-awareness can help you fix a family problem because, when you understand how everyone’s emotions, thoughts, and actions, affect each other, then you’re able to work on solutions to even the most difficult situations.

For much of history we have viewed the family as a unit that helped us
with survival. We depended on each other because there was strength and
security in numbers. Recent developments in society and technology have
allowed us to experience the family differently than we used to. We now
are able to work on making our families as healthy as possible—a
concept that our ancestors never even contemplated.

With this new ability to improve the health of our families comes a great
opportunity to enjoy our family relationships like never before. We
also get to face challenges in new ways. In the past we let conflict
fester and continue throughout our lives. We didn’t have the tools to
actually fix things. Now we do and consulting gives families some tools
they can use to increase the happiness in their homes.

Some basic things you can think about when a family problem arises include:

  • What is the problem really about?
  • Do you know what each family member thinks about the problem?
  • Have you all worked together to come up with possible solutions?
  • Is everyone’s voice listened to and given equal weight?
  • Does everyone know how to listen to other points of view?
  • Can people deal with conflict without escalating?
  • Is conflict an opportunity for change in your family?
  • How are your communication skills?
  • Do you have a consistent system for resolving problems in the family?
  • Do you ask for neutral help or advice from uninvolved third parties?

Resolving problems in the family has a lot to do with the skills and experiences we bring to the table. A lot of us repeat the patterns we saw at home but we now have the benefit of new strategies to actually resolve
problems rather than perpetuating them. Consider some of the following
ideas to help your family increase self-awareness and move forward positively:

  • Develop a conflict resolution strategy.
  • Develop communication skills.
  • Develop listening skills.
  • Work together.

It’s amazing how those four basic elements can help families resolve
problems. Most of our families are not set up to fix problems, just
make them go away temporarily. I enjoy consulting for parents to create
new ways of actually fixing problems in the family, so everyone involved can feel included and valued.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and fix the problems in your family?

Cheers,

Guy

Achieve Your Dreams with Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Achieve Your Dreams with Self-Awareness

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You can achieve your dreams with self-awareness because, when you understand and can manage your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, you’re able to consciously move in whatever direction you want to.

The mistake we often make is that we live our whole lives putting our dreams on the back burner. There are several reasons this happens including fear, paying the bills, lack of planning and not believing that our dreams will come true.

People often think that thinking of their dreams is too unrealistic. The truth is that our lives tend to follow the patterns that we establish. If we think something cannot be achieved that will tend to happen.

As yourself this: What can I do today to start living my dreams? If you start believing and acting on the assumption that you can actually achieve your dreams you will begin to structure you life to make it happen.

The main message is don’t give up, there is always time to start working on what you want in life. What will you do to develop self-awareness and make your dreams a reality?

Cheers,

Guy

Live the One Life You Have with Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Live the One Life You Have with Self-Awareness

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I always encourage people to live the one life they have with self-awareness because it will help them navigate all the challenges they will face. Once you understand your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, you’ll be able to live a deeply fulfilling, meaningful existence.

Perspective frequently makes the difference in the choices you make in life. If you feel a sense of urgency, you are more likely to try to accomplish a task. People motivate themselves in different ways but a key characteristic of those who create movement is a sense that they have to get it done.

You only have one life to live so you might as well make the most of it. Why then is it that people spend incredible amounts of time and effort on everything but what is truly meaningful to them? It’s almost as if someone told them along the way that they couldn’t accomplish what they wanted in life. So they settle for what comes their way, focusing on subsistence rather than growth.

A positive way to improve self-awareness and begin redirecting your thoughts is to ask yourself, “If I only had one week to live, what would I want to do?”

Life is a precious and finite gift. Why would anyone choose to live it without doing something they really love? Think about your own situation and think about what you really want to do in life. Then put some thought into increasing self-awareness and what you can actually do to incorporate your dreams into your everyday life. As you begin working on your dreams, you will begin feeling happier and more balanced because you are connecting with who you really are. Life is just funner when you’re doing stuff you like.

Build in some urgency starting today. What will you do to improve your self-awareness and live the life you really want to?

Cheers,

Guy

Using Self-Awareness to Be Successful - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Using Self-Awareness to Be Successful

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You can use self-awareness to be successful because you’re able to clearly see what your strengths and areas for improvement are. People try to achieve success in different ways. Some people believe a workshop will create success in their lives, others rely on some outside person to make them successful, some think if they work way too many hours it will bring success. There are a couple of characteristics I have noticed in successful people that I thought I’d share with you.

Success Secrets of Self-Aware, Successful People

  • Have a goal in mind.
  • Keep going even when things get tough.
  • Believe in themselves even when others don’t.
  • Set realistic and manageable goals.
  • Set themselves up for success.
  • Do things to understand themselves honestly.
  • Are open to outside help and scrutiny.
  • Understand that success is something you create.
  • Work intelligently, not just to be busy.
  • Follow their passion.
  • Always work on improving their self-awareness.

Try a few of these ideas on for size and see what they do for your success quotient. Successful people are those who follow their dreams and keep walking even when the road seems impassable. What will you do to increase self-awareness and move toward success?

Cheers,

Guy

Increase Your Self-Awareness to Stop Going out with Losers - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Increase Your Self-Awareness to Stop Going out with Losers

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If you’re always lamenting going out with losers, you might find it helpful to increase your self-awareness. The more you understand how your emotions, thoughts, and actions affect your relationship choices, the more easily you’ll be able to pick people who will treat you well.

We often actively contribute to getting stuck in negative patterns and we label the other person as a loser rather than looking at ourselves.

Ask yourself these questions next time you’re wondering why you are stuck going out with less than marvelous people:

1. What does being with this person say about me?
2. How can I move in a different direction?
3. What can I do to improve myself so I don’t attract these people?
4. What can I learn from this?
5. Do I have a plan for change?

Everyone is capable of attracting good people. There really are no losers at all, just people who are stuck in negative patterns. Good luck finding your positive pattern. What will you do to build your self-awareness and stop going out with people who don’t value you?

Cheers,

Guy

Use Self-Awareness to Attract Positive People - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Use Self-Awareness to Attract Positive People

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Self-awareness helps you attract positive people and build fulfilling relationships because, when you know yourself well and are content with who you are, you’re able to connect with people in a genuine, healthy manner.

People often ask me why they keep dating the wrong people. I usually ask the person to do some self-reflection and the answer they most often come up with 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 try to 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.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and attract positive people into your life?

Cheers,

Guy

Developing Self-Awareness to Be an Effective Leader - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Developing Self-Awareness to Be an Effective Leader

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When I consult with organizations to help them develop self-awareness, employees often describe a leadership style that is pervasive in many workplaces: It usually consists of a leader who is a good person, works really hard and means well but is constantly overwhelmed and reacting to events. This creates a leadership dynamic where the leader is in survival mode and really doesn’t have the time or perspective to lead in any other way. Working frantically isn’t the same as actually being productive. Very often, these decent and caring individuals end up being the dreaded bad boss or ineffective leader. It’s not because they’re horrible people, they just lack self-awareness and don’t know any other way of doing things.

When it comes to leadership, I think in terms of increasing self-awareness in order to practice positive behaviors that generate beneficial results. When we do positive things it tends to create more positive results. If we choose to focus on the negative we get different outcomes. To begin evaluating whether you’re an effective leader see if you recognize the following behaviors:

1.  Always checking up on employees.
2.  Constantly asking employees for updates.
3.  Feeling rushed or pressured.
4.  Feeling out of control if things aren’t done a certain way.
5.  Running from one fire to another.
6.  Constantly reacting to events instead of planning beforehand.
7.  Living with constant stress or tension.
8.  Telling employees what to do instead of listening.
9.  Not really happy at work.
10.  Needing to dominate others.

Do you do any of these things? It’s not horrible if you do, it will just create a certain kind of workplace dynamic than if you were to refocus and practice the following self-aware alternatives:

1.  Lets employees do their work independently.
2.  Trusts employees to keep him up to date.
3.  Feels calm and balanced even under pressure.
4.  Lets people do things in ways that make sense to them.
5.  Doesn’t create or add to the fire.
6.  Plans proactively to minimize emergencies.
7.  Relaxes at work.
8.  Listens to employees and values outside input.
9.  Happy at work.
10.  Doesn’t need to dominate others.

When you look at these two lists which one sounds more like you? Effective leaders tend to be more like the second list and enjoy happier work lives and fewer heart attacks. There’s no secret to behaving this way in the workplace. All it takes is letting go of the old way of doing things and replacing it with more productive behaviors. How will you start developing self-awareness and being a more effective leader?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy