Self-Consciousness

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

Getting Rid of Destructive Pride with Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Getting Rid of Destructive Pride with Self-Awareness

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A lot of people who lack self-awareness believe that pride means being as outwardly tough and invulnerable as possible. They’ll insist they’re proud of doing something or being a certain way even when they’re not. This type of thinking produces people who can never back down, admit being wrong, or change their minds. They present a strong facade but are internally shattered and don’t possess the self-awareness to change direction.

True pride is not how much bravado you project or how strong your shell is, it’s how you actually feel about yourself deep inside and how genuinely self-aware, balanced, and fulfilled you are. People who are willing to take a look at who they are and make the necessary adjustments are much more likely to live happily than those who only focus on projecting invincibility.

Being proud really means being at peace with yourself by living life as the real you, not just pretending you’re doing it. Constructive pride is the ability to feel great about who you are as a person at every level, without any rationalizations or qualifications. What will you do to develop self-awareness and move beyond destructive pride?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Rigid Beliefs - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Rigid Beliefs

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If you have a high level of self-awareness you will tend not to have rigid beliefs. A lot of well-meaning people try to convert others to their way of thinking or impose their ideas upon them when the true path to happiness and balance is to know themselves so well that they’re comfortable in their own shoes and don’t feel like they have to change others.

When you genuinely like yourself you will discover that you are open to other people’s ideas, even when they’re different. The trap many people fall into is thinking that their way of seeing the world or perceiving situations is the only acceptable view. They see the world through a single filter and, because they’re trying to convert everyone to their beliefs, are certain that everyone else is trying to do the same.

Genuine self-awareness allows you to let go of trying to change other people and focus instead on becoming the happiest, healthiest most balanced and genuine individual you can be. As you become more flexible, you open the door to all kinds of new and wonderful ideas and perspectives and you become a more complete person. What will you do to let go of rigid beliefs?

Cheers,

Guy

The Path to Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

The Path to Self-Awareness

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The path to self-awareness reveals itself to you as you’re ready for it. Here are some examples of how you can tell that you’re on your way:

  • You look at yourself without criticism or judgment.
  • You realize that there are things about you that can be improved.
  • You understand that life is a journey rather than a finite goal.
  • You have the courage to examine and continue healing your hurts.
  • You keep growing and learning throughout your life.
  • You see results in your life based on your thoughtful, kind, compassionate thinking and behavior.
  • You actively work on making your dreams a reality.
  • You live life as the real you.

If you do things like these, you know how great it feels to live authentically and share your gifts with yourself and the world; if you don’t, you have a wonderful opportunity to visit many interesting places.

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

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

Smiling and Self-Awareness

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When you increase your self-awareness, you’re much more likely to smile because you’re more balanced and happy deep inside. Many years ago I encountered a person I hadn’t met before at a workplace of mine who looked directly at me and asked why I was smiling. Her facial expression and tone of voice indicated that she wasn’t joking, she genuinely wanted to squash my smile and do it quickly.

What happens when you encounter someone who doesn’t smile much? What’s the feeling you get from them? Countless people live lives of sadness, desperation, and resignation. They’re stuck in a depressing place and can’t see the positive alternatives available to them. I’ve found over years of working with people that it’s possible to overcome negativity and move in a more joyful direction, but it requires conscious effort and dedication.

It takes a lot of self-awareness and courage to smile, especially in the face of sadness, anger, fear, or uncertainty. The reason I smile in even some of the most difficult situations is because I ask myself, “What’s the alternative?” which is, by the way, what I said to the woman.

Building up your self-awareness is like smiling, it reflects your inner light and makes the world a better place. What will you do to develop self-awareness and smile more?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Your Work/Life Balance - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Your Work/Life Balance

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Self-awareness means living meaningfully instead of frantically. I was coaching a highly driven, successful leader recently who told me she had a very full schedule and felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of activity in her life. She felt empty and exhausted at the end of the day and wondered why she wasn’t happier even thought she worked so hard. After describing her situation for a while, she confided that she had been juggling so many different tasks that she was unable to take the time to look at her life meaningfully or even begin to understand what balance means.

It’s easy to get sucked into living a fast-paced life and forgetting to enjoy the journey. The key to living a happy life is to have the self-awareness to evaluate what you’re currently doing and introduce some new ideas to become more balanced. Let’s look at how reflecting, prioritizing, and relaxing can help you create balance between your professional and personal life.

It’s important to reflect on what you’re doing so you can identify what really matters to you in life. When you reflect consciously you can make adjustments that will help you feel better. It’s up to you to decide what you want to focus on in life. Do you want to work fifteen hours a day at the office or spend more time with your significant other? Will you regret taking on anther work project instead of spending more time with your kids? You have the ability to prioritize your efforts and decide which ones merit the most attention and you get to choose whether you live meaningfully. Take the time to reflect on what’s really important to you and make a conscious decision to move in a positive direction.

The next balance-increasing idea is to prioritize. If you work too much you might consider increasing the amount of time you devote to your personal life. If you don’t work enough you can make an adjustment to increase your activity level. The idea is to be somewhere in the middle between all work and all play. You don’t have to be perfectly balanced all the time, but it is more enjoyable to spend your time in the middle where you’ll feel more calm and relaxed instead of struggling with extremes.

It’s also important to relax regularly. Taking frequent breaks is beneficial to your body because is helps you replenish your energy and brain power. Although you might be able to endure arduous activity for long periods, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is good for your body or mind. You weren’t designed to go at top speed permanently and you aren’t built to process and endless stream of overwhelming information. Relaxing means not doing anything for a period of time so you can function more effectively overall. You can relax by taking a walk, doing non-strenuous exercise, meditating or breathing mindfully. The idea is to interrupt the non-stop action going on in your life.

When you possess a high level of self-awareness you realize that life isn’t a perpetual rat race where you constantly exhaust yourself. The discomfort you feel when you’re out of balance arises because you’re missing a stable center point. Experiencing too much of anything has a tendency to marginalize the other areas of your life. To restore balance you just need to take the time to adjust your life by incorporating more of what’s missing. If you work too much, relax a little; If you are always napping, take action more often. You don’t have to do everything at once, just make small adjustments to balance things out. What will you do to find balance?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy