A Self-Awareness

How to Achieve Goals and Increase Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

How to Achieve Goals and Increase Self-Awareness

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Here are some practical tips to achieve goals and increase self-awareness:

  • Pick one issue you want to work on. Define it as specifically and narrowly as possible.
  • Keep your goal manageable. For example: “I will write one chapter of my book,” “I’m going to work on 50 books.” This sets you up for success instead of feeling disappointed because you took on too much at once.
  • Monitor your progress and celebrate as you go along. When you accomplish one task, congratulate yourself and reflect on the great work you did.
  • Keep taking small steps even when you don’t feel like it. You will feel at times that nothing positive is happening. Keep pushing through those thoughts by continuing to take action.

An important part of self-awareness is to keep things manageable and work little by little. It’s the small steps that eventually lead to big results.

Cheers,

Guy

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

Self-Awareness and Compassion

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Self-awareness and compassion are interwoven because, when you understand how your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors affect you and others, you’re able to treat people well and build a better world. Here are some characteristics of compassion:

  • Consciousness of another person’s distress and the desire to help them.
  • The ability to understand when someone else is suffering, hurt, struggling, or feeling down.
  • The desire to help others without any need to be rewarded.
  • The ability to step outside your immediate needs and tend to someone else’s.
  • Consciousness that all kinds of people fall on hard times or have difficulties and need help.
  • Helping people without judging them.

A big part of self-awareness is strengthening your ability to see beyond your own horizons and feel compassion for others; which means that you’ve become comfortable and healthy enough as a person that you can feel other people’s pain and try to help them with it.

A world without compassion is one where nobody helps anyone and everyone just worries about their own desires and needs. As you increase your self-awareness you will find that your compassion increases and you’re better able to tend to others because you’re healthier. What will you do to increase your self-awareness and practice compassion?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Facilitates Team Building and Reduces Conflict in the Workplace - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Facilitates Team Building and Reduces Conflict in the Workplace

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Conflict in the workplace can be painful and sap your energy. My clients who lack self-awareness often ask me what to do about a employee who they can’t get along with or people who are in constant conflict. It can be tricky to deal with workplace conflict because most organizations don’t have strategies beyond reprimands and other punishments.

Our workplaces are often places where we give people a free pass to hurt each other because we lack the self-awareness to do anything else. We like to think we know how to deal with conflict but we end up enduring feuds that last years.

So how can you reduce conflict in your workplace and increase self-awareness? Here’s a couple of ideas to think about:

1. Develop a strategy to deal with conflict. Set up clear goals, expectations and parameters and ask for input from leadership and staff.

2. Inform everyone that this is the new way of doing things and train them to make sure everyone is on the same page.

3. Inform your workplace that you have resources in place to help people work things out.

4. Work with your leaders and employees to give them the skills to resolve their own conflicts.

5. Set the example and consistently behave in a way that reduces conflict.

6. Develop an ongoing conflict resolution training program and participate actively in it.

7. Expect resistance to your new ideas about conflict. Things will settle in once you train people and they get a chance to practice the new skills.

Healthy workplaces help their leaders and employees resolve their own conflicts in peaceful and lasting ways. As a leader, you set the example for how conflict is viewed and dealt with in your organization. You can start designing a conflict resolution program today that will help you create a workplace where people get along and aren’t at each other’s throats all the time.

What will you do to develop self-awareness, build stronger teams, and reduce conflict in your workplace?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and What You Put Out in the World - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and What You Put Out in the World

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Self-awareness affects what you put out toward others or in life in general because, when you understand your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, you’re able to spread positive energy in the world.

Think about what you feel, think, and do the next time you interact with people at work or in your personal life. How does the vibe you put out affect what you get back from people? For example, how do you feel when someone does the following?

  • Frowns.
  • Scowls.
  • Speaks in an aggressive tone of voice or shouts.
  • Doesn’t listen.
  • Doesn’t look at you.
  • Is angry or impatient.
  • Talks over you.
  • Rolls their eyes.
  • Always griping or negative.
  • Lacks self-awareness.

How would you react to a person acting like this? I bet you can think of
many other things that are not conducive to great communication or to
effective interpersonal relationships. It’s amazing how much the energy
we put out affect what we get back. On the other hand, think of how you react when someone does the following:

  • Smiles.
  • Listens.
  • Speaks in a calm tone.
  • Looks at you.
  • Talks when appropriate.
  • Nods and prompts you for more information.
  • Focuses on positive approaches.
  • Is self-aware.

What was your reaction to this type of behavior? If you’re like most people
you would likely be more attracted to interacting with this person.
There really is something to the idea that what we put out is what we
get back. What can you do about it? Start today by putting out positive
vibes that the world can pick up on. It will take conscious effort and
practice on your part but, over time, you will transform who you are
and live more in harmony with yourself and others.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and spread positive energy?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Your Perspective - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Your Perspective

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Perspective affects everything you do in life. For example: A person in Bangladesh living in complete poverty can be very happy while a person in an affluent neighborhood in the United States can be miserable. Your level of self-awareness affects your perspective on life because, when you’re comfortable with your thoughts, feelings and behaviors, you’re able to maintain a positive outlook.

Perspective is the way you see the world based on your self-awareness and personal experiences. If you filter out the positive, you tend to focus on the things that aren’t going well. If you filter out the negative, you’re better able to see the beneficial side of things. A great example of perspective is found in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim doesn’t have use of his legs but he doesn’t wallow in self pity, he forges on and is a source of strength for his family.

You’re faced with important choices throughout your life. At any moment you can choose your perspective and that will lead you down a certain path. Try this simple exercise: The next time you feel you can’t overcome an obstacle, consciously tell yourself, “I can handle this,” or some other positive affirmation. This will help you shift from a negative to a positive perspective.

It’s amazing what can happen when you choose a perspective that gives you the power to move forward rather than staying stuck. What will you do to view the world from a positive perspective?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Healing Your Hurts - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Healing Your Hurts

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Self-awareness helps you begin healing your hurts by encouraging you to take a conscious look at the things that bring you discomfort in life and that need some attention. Many people walk through life carrying some unresolved pain that keeps them from being a genuinely happy, expansive person. It’s impossible to live fully or authentically if you allow certain memories to hold you back. The good news is that you can use self-awareness to examine who you are and deal with the challenges from your past.

Healing your hurts isn’t easy because you have to revisit parts of your life that may be unpleasant. The key to successfully moving past the pain is to acknowledge it’s there and do everything in your power to resolve it and move past it. Once you understand and deal with the thoughts and emotions related to difficult issues, you provide yourself a new opportunity to live based on the wonderful things about you rather than being held back by the pain. What will you do to use self-awareness to start healing your hurts?

Cheers,

Guy

Characteristics of a Self-Aware Person - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Characteristics of a Self-Aware Person

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The key to self-awareness is to understand how your thoughts, emotions and behaviors affect you and others so that you can live a deeply meaningful, fulfilling life without the junk that gets in the way of being effective, balanced or happy. Here are some of the characteristics of a self-aware person:

  • You’re willing to look at yourself honestly.
  • You let go of what doesn’t work.
  • You celebrate the things you do well.
  • You understand how your behaviors affect others.
  • You work on being as healthy as possible.
  • You work on living a life of balance instead of extremes.
  • You say you’re happy only when you really are.
  • You continue taking steps to understand yourself.
  • You allow yourself to be vulnerable.
  • You keep learning about yourself.
  • You work toward achieving enlightenment.
  • You’re comfortable with being touchy-feely.
  • You work on resolving the psychological issues that hold you back.
  • You feel your emotions.
  • You live your life authentically.
  • You take steps every day to make your dreams come true.

Imagine if you did things like these and how your life would be impacted. Remember that you don’t have to do everything at once, pick one thing you’d like to work on and practice it until it becomes second nature, then move on to the next. Over time, you’ll become a more self-aware person.

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy