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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

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

Developing Self-Awareness to Get Rid of Fear Instilled by Parents - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Developing Self-Awareness to Get Rid of Fear Instilled by Parents

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As you build self-awareness you’ll find it easier to leave behind some of the negative beliefs your parents may have instilled in you. Many well-meaning parents project their fears onto their children by offering “helpful” guidance and suggestions about what they should do with their lives. This leads to many kids growing up doubting themselves and following career paths that make them miserable.

Parents want their children to succeed and not get hurt but these caring instincts often stifle creativity, squash dreams, and force people to live inauthentic lives. Thankfully, you can pursue your bliss regardless of what your parents say now or have said in the past.

It isn’t just parents who limit our horizons, it’s other caring people like teachers or good friends, all of whom project their own fears onto us and make us second-guess whether we can pursue our dreams. The irony is that it doesn’t matter what anyone else says, you get to follow your dreams if you so desire.

The key to living with self-awareness and enjoying a fulfilling, meaningful life is to kindly thank people for their advice and then do what you really want to do deep inside. Chart your own course and live as you wish.

What will you do to increase your self-awareness and move past the fear instilled in you by your parents?

Cheers,

Guy

How to Develop Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

How to Develop Self-Awareness

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People often ask me how to develop self-awareness. Here are some ideas on how to do it.

Heal Your Hurts

Self-awareness means getting to know and understand yourself, which starts with looking deep inside to see what makes you feel, think, and behave the way you do. One of the main reasons people practice negative behaviors is that they are functioning from their inner hurts, the unresolved issues that lead to less-than-desirable outcomes.

Take the time to heal the hurts from your past, it will allow you to be a mentally healthier person who is able to live life positively. You’ll feel better inside which will lead to much more favorable emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. The way you do it is to go to a professional therapist, someone trained to help you heal the challenging issues from your past.

Look Inside

You can’t be self-aware without looking inside. Make the effort to look deep within to understand your strengths and areas for improvement. Be honest and candid with yourself, work on improving the things that you need some help with and celebrate the positive things about yourself.

Looking inside doesn’t mean beating yourself up, it’s just the process of being aware of the areas you need to fine tune and improve. The idea is to be aware of how your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors affect you and others.

How to Develop Self-Awareness

So, you’ve worked on healing your hurts and continually looking inside to improve yourself. Now what? Self-awareness is an ongoing process, you don’t just do it in a one-day workshop or after one try, it takes continuous practice and effort to master. Each day is an opportunity to develop your self-awareness by working on improving the things that don’t yield positive results in your life.

The idea of self-awareness is to always be working on becoming the best version of yourself, a person who is comfortable with herself and feels, thinks, and does positive things. You don’t have to be perfect, all you have to do is always be working on being comfortable with who you are and making sure others also feel the same way around you.

There’s no big mystery to self-awareness, it just means working on yourself so you become a high-functioning, happy person who treats herself and others well. What will you do today to develop your self-awareness?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy