Examples of Self-Awareness Archives – The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-Awareness and Your Work/Life Balance

February 19, 2025 - The Self-Awareness Guy - Leave a Comment

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

Self-Aware Leadership and the Compassionate Workplace

February 9, 2025 - The Self-Awareness Guy - Leave a Comment

A lot of leaders think that it’s impossible, or impractical, to behave with compassion in the workplace. Self-aware leaders understand that building a compassionate workplace is possible. You can design any type of workplace you wish, from the harshly autocratic to the kind and compassionate.

You can consciously promote compassion in the workplace by doing things like:

Behaving with kindness.
Treating people like human beings.
Supporting flexible work hours.
Providing benefits.
Allowing people to grow.
Allowing employees to think for themselves.
Encouraging diversity and inclusion.
Listening to people’s ideas and concerns.
Giving people responsibility.
Understanding that people have lives outside work.

I can hear the steam coming out of some leaders’ ears as they struggle with the idea that you can actually create a compassionate workplace and get stuff done. For too long, the norm has been to build workplaces that subjugate and control people instead of helping them grow and succeed. You can be the one to use self-awareness to break that cycle, especially if you’re in a leadership position.

What will you do to increase self-awareness and promote compassion in your workplace?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and How You Treat Other People

January 30, 2025 - The Self-Awareness Guy - Leave a Comment

Many individuals walk through life missing the self-awareness to understand how their thoughts and actions impact others. One of the hallmarks of understanding yourself well is that it helps you be so happy and balanced that you treat other people well. The better you feel about yourself, the easier it is to interact positively with other human beings and create a more positive world. Here are some signs that you practice self-awareness and treat others with care and compassion:

You experience positive results from your interactions with others.
You create meaningful friendships.
You feel good deep inside.
Your relationships are reciprocally satisfying.
You don’t have a lot of enemies.
People generally say nice things about you.
You experience very little conflict with others.
Your default behaviors are kindness and empathy.

I these outcomes sound familiar, you know how wonderful it feels to like yourself and others. Life is too short to behave negatively and step on others when there are so many other more positive options. What will you do to treat others wonderfully?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Thinking about Others

January 20, 2025 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Perhaps you’ve met individuals who assure you they possess self-awareness and then trample all over other people. It’s like the boss who says she’s wonderful and caring and shouts at her employees or the husband who says he’s a great guy but does things that deeply hurt his spouse.

When you have a high level of self-awareness you naturally think about others. The more comfortable and knowledgeable you are about what drives your thoughts, feelings and behaviors, the more likely you will be to feel happy and balanced and treat other people in a caring, compassionate way. If you solely care about your money, your power, your own success, your immediate needs, your safety, or your own point of view, you’re less likely to think about other people.

The key to living a genuinely fulfilling, happy life is to realize that you can take care of yourself and others, not just one or the other. As you become healthier and more tuned in to who you are deep inside, you’re much more likely to help others do the same. What will you do to keep building your self-awareness and thinking about others?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness, Leadership, and Reducing Stress at Work

December 31, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Leaders who possess self-awareness are able to reduce stress at work because they understand how their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors can lead to a more calm, positive mindset.

Many leaders run around in a perpetual state of stress but did you know you can do some basic things to interrupt this pattern? Being stressed is a natural reaction if you’re being chased by a lion but can cause all kinds of problems if you are feeling it all the time in your workplace. Think of the following ideas to reduce your stress at work.

Do things you love for a living. This will help you avoid the stress from doing a job you hate.
Surround yourself with supportive people. Make sure that you interact with people who respect you for who you are.
Limit the overwhelm. You don’t have to take on everything at once. Do one thing well and move on to the next.
Take time to take care of yourself. Take time each day to take a walk or talk with a supportive friend.
Focus on the positive. Don’t worry so much about the stuff you can’t control or that goes wrong. Think about the things that are going well.

Try these ideas to help balance your work life. You’ll be thankful you started thinking this way when you feel more relaxed and less stressed out. What will you do to use your self-awareness to reduce the stress you feel at work?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Aware Leaders Practice Effective Communication

December 31, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-aware leaders practice effective communication because they’re aware of how their emotions, thoughts, and actions affect their ability to interact with others.

Your communication style tells other people a lot about your professionalism and what they can expect when they deal with you. A theme that frequently arises when I train leaders is how to communicate in a manner that invites your employees to collaborate with you and work for you. The following tips will help you put your best foot forward and communicate confidently.

Listen actively. It’s amazing what you learn when you are not talking.
Say it briefly. Go with the approach that less is more in communication.
Keep it professional. Effective communication is not the appropriate time to vent about personal problems or delve into people’s private lives.
Keep your temper in check. If you fly off the handle it not only shuts down communication but also reduces the likelihood that the other company will give you an opportunity in the future.
Don’t get defensive. Remind yourself that communication glitches aren’t a personal slight against you, they are just part of regular interactions.
Practice excellent conflict resolution skills. Brainstorm with the other person to get some ideas on how to deal with the issue at hand and agree on a solution that works for both of you.
Plan ahead. Develop a communication strategy and follow it to eliminate guesswork.

Your employees and colleagues evaluate you much in the same way your clients do. How you communicate says a lot to the outside world about your level of self-awareness and the way you do things. Keep these tips in mind as you interact with other people and you’ll be on your way to increasing your success exponentially. What will you do to develop your self-awareness and be a self-aware leader who practices effective communication?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness, Leadership, and Positive Thinking

December 21, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-awareness, leadership, and successful thinking are interlinked because leaders who understand their strengths and areas for improvement are better able to lead effectively.

Ever work for a leader who always sees the glass as half empty? What was it like? As a leader, how you wake up in the morning can make a big difference on how successful your day, your week or your entire work life is. Think about how your work day will go if you think thoughts like these:

Another day another dollar.
I hate my work.
I don’t want to get out of bed.
I hate my job.
I don’t feel like doing anything new.
I lost my slippers.
I wish those birds would shut up.
I can’t deal with my employees.
I won’t get any clients.

You might be better off staying in bed if you think these thoughts because they are going to lead you toward stagnation or lack of motivation and will do the same for your workplace. Think about what kind of results you might get if you increased your self-awareness and consciously thought the following:

I’m going to make my work meaningful.
I’m looking forward to the people I’ll meet today.
I’ve designed work activities I enjoy.
It’s going to be a great day.
I love the sound of birds chirping.
Nothing can stop me today.
My workplace is full of opportunities.
I love the work I do.

It may feel a little different at first, but thinking in a positive way actually leads you in a positive direction. If you think you’re going to fail, you will, if you envision success you’re more likely to create those results. How you think about your workplace will deeply affect the way your career unfolds.

How will you develop self-awareness and practice successful thinking?

Cheers,

Guy