Self and Self-Awareness

People Who Lack Self-Awareness Crave Power and Control - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

People Who Lack Self-Awareness Crave Power and Control

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There is an emptiness to power and control that many people in positions of affluence and influence experience when they increase their self-awareness and realize it doesn’t matter how much they dominate others when they themselves don’t feel balanced and happy inside.

A lot of people seek power and control even though it doesn’t provide them with deep, abiding fulfillment. Sure, it can produce temporary, superficial gratification, but that doesn’t feed the need for meaning. The only way to be truly happy in life is to have inner power and control by healing one’s hurts and being as healthy as possible toward oneself and others.

A lot of people think having power and control means subjugating or dominating others; qualities that are dramatically different from inner peace and balance. The key to living a genuinely happy life is to be so self-aware that it radiates outward and helps others grow and succeed. What will you do improve your self-awareness instead of craving power and control?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Can Help You Be Happy Right Now - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Can Help You Be Happy Right Now

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A topic that often comes up during my self-awareness consulting sessions is how to be happy, preferably right now, as if there is such a thing as easy joy. Achieving true happiness is a state of being that develops over time and requires doing things like:

  • Following your dreams.
  • Taking action each day to make your dreams come true.
  • Being kind to yourself and others.
  • Being creative.
  • Getting to know yourself.
  • Building self-awareness.
  • Healing your hurts.
  • Being the real you.

I’ve found that you can increase your happiness right this moment by making sure you’re doing things that reflect who you are deep inside, which means that you’re increasing your self-awareness and living authentically. What will you do to develop your self-awareness and be happy?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Helps You Be Less Discouraged - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Helps You Be Less Discouraged

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Self-awareness can help you feel less discouraged as you follow your path in life. My clients often ask me why they are not gaining self-awareness at the rate they would like to. I let them know that it’s natural to have an ebb and flow in one’s personal growth. It takes time and effort to work on one’s problems and become mentally healthy.

Developing self-awareness doesn’t happen overnight but the wonderful thing is that, as you work on becoming more self-aware, you learn and grow along the way without even knowing it. Each moment you spend healing your hurts and learning about your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors helps you understand yourself better and move toward living a rich, rewarding life.

It’s really normal to think you are making no progress in your quest for self-awareness . It happens because we get stuck in the day-to-day tasks and events in our lives. Self-awareness emerges over time, it doesn’t happen overnight or without conscious effort. When you feel like nothing is working tell yourself to keep taking action. It’s the action of continuing to move forward that will strengthen you and move your life in a positive direction.

What will you do to develop your self-awareness?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Helps You Choose Courage over Fear - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Helps You Choose Courage over Fear

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Self-awareness helps you choose courage over fear because life has a way of creating challenging situations whether you want them or not. When these difficult circumstances present themselves you have a choice as to whether you think and behave based on fear or courage. Each approach leads you in a different direction and only one helps you live a more balanced, happy life. Lets look at a few examples of the difference between the two:

Fear: I’ve always done it this way.
Courage: I can try something new.

Fear: I hate change.
Courage: I see change as an opportunity.

Fear: That issue is too daunting and complex.
Courage: I can resolve the issue little by little.

Fear: I need to control everything and everyone around me.
Courage: I’m fine with letting go of control.

Fear: That’s unfamiliar and strange.
Courage: I can learn something from it.

Fear: Self-awareness is for people who eat granola.
Courage: I’m willing to learn about myself and others.

Living in fear limits your opportunities while thinking and acting with courage helps you deal with any situation that comes your way. The idea in life is to think and behave in ways that help you be more flexible and resilient, not less. What will you do to develop self-awareness so you can choose courage over fear?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Getting Rid of the Negative Messages in Your Head - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Getting Rid of the Negative Messages in Your Head

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Self-awareness can help you get rid of the negative messages in your head because, when you get to know yourself well and understand your strengths and areas for improvement, you’re able to make adjustments to move in a more positive direction.

Have you ever met someone who seems to have strong self-esteem but depends on someone else for his or her happiness or behaves in ways that don’t lead in a positive direction? We all do things on an unconscious level that keep us from succeeding. The messages you learned early in life can hold you back and keep you from achieving what you want. The good news is that you can change those messages by following some basic steps.

  1. Identify the message. Ask yourself, “Where did this message begin.”
  2. Ask yourself if the message is true. For example, do you really not deserve to succeed?
  3. Think of the opposite of the message and do that instead. Make it a positive message that gets you where you want to go.
  4. Every time a negative, limiting message comes into your head do these steps until it is gone.

It will take you some time to get good at changing your messages but you will do it if you stick with it over time. Plan on spending at least 30 days practicing the new behavior and then check in with yourself to see how you’re doing. You may be very happy with the results. If you’re not, it looks like you have another message to work on. What will you do to build your self-awareness and get rid of the negative messages in your head?

Cheers,

Guy

Using Self-Awareness to Overcome Your Fears - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Using Self-Awareness to Overcome Your Fears

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You can use self-awareness to overcome your fears because, the more you understand your emotions, thoughts, and actions, the easier it is to not be scared of things.

Fear often keeps us repeating the same patterns, even to the extent of repeating behaviors we dislike. We get stuck doing the same thing over and over and don’t see a way out. Overcoming fears is a challenge we avoid because we tend to hang on to the familiar rather than the unknown.

The paradoxical thing is that the unknown can often lead us in new and wonderful directions we couldn’t even imagine when we started out. Facing your fears is a matter of finding out what they are, where they come from and taking action to move in a different direction. Here is what some smart people have to say about the subject.

Bonaro W. Overstreet

Perhaps the most important thing we can undertake toward the reduction of fear is to make it easier for people to accept themselves, to like themselves.

Don Miguel Ruiz:

Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive — the risk to be alive and express what we really are.

Dorothy Thompson:

Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.

Eleanor Roosevelt:

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. What will you do to use your self-awareness to move beyond fear?

Cheers,

Guy

Using Self-Awareness to Improve Relationships - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Using Self-Awareness to Improve Relationships

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You can use self-awareness to improve your relationships starting today because, when you understand how your emotions, thoughts, and actions affect your interactions with others, you’re better able to connect with them positively and understand where they’re coming from.

It’s easy to focus exclusively on our own perspective in relationships. We tend to think of our relationship issues in terms we are familiar with and this often means we keep repeating the same patterns and acting the same way we always have. This works well if we get great results but what happens if our behaviors always lead to less than satisfactory relationships.

We all know people who lack self-awareness and never quite resolve their differences with others, and we watch them repeat the same pattern over and over. I’ve noticed that it is helpful to let in some new information and get a fresh perspective. When we let new information in it’s like opening a window in a stuffy room, we can breathe better and think more clearly. Think about some of the following ideas next time you feel stuck in your relationship.

1. Who can I turn to that is not involved in my situation and can give me impartial advice?
2. Am I willing to let an outside person offer me advice?
3. How open am I to talking about personal issues with an outside person?
4. How open am I to doing the work necessary to move in a different direction?
5. What actions will I commit to doing?

Think about these questions and keep in mind that none of us has all the answers but we all have the ability to improve our self-awareness and acquire new information if we are open enough. Let some air in, enjoy a fresh perspective and start moving in a new direction. What will you do to increase your self-awareness so you can improve your relationships?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy