Personal Awareness

Self-Awareness and Creating Change in Your Life - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Creating Change in Your Life

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Self-awareness is a major part of creating change in your life because, when you are in touch with your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, you’re able to consciously move in any direction you wish.

Anyone at any time can make a deliberate decision to change their life. We literally can move our life in any direction we want to. For example: If I decide I want to be an artist today (even if I am not one) I can do specific things to achieve that goal. I could take a class, call some artists, visit some galleries, buy some art supplies, paint a picture, and the list goes on and on. The only thing stopping me is the voice inside my head that tells me I can’t do it. This is the voice that tells me that I will never achieve that, that I should be sensible, that I can’t take a risk, that people will judge me, that my dreams are stupid and that I might as well give up.

This programming is powerful but can be overcome by following these basic steps:

1. Close your eyes and think about what you are telling yourself that stops you.
2. Close your eyes and think back to the first time you heard that message from someone.
3. Picture how your life would be without that message. Develop a short phrase that describes that feeling. For example, “I can be an artist because it’s who I am.”
4. Write down the phrase you come up with.
5. When you wake up in the morning and before you go to bed read the phrase and experience the good feelings that come with it. Repeat for a month and longer.

We play messages in our brains over and over that keep us from being self-aware and doing things we love. Following these basic five steps gives us a chance to introduce a new way of seeing ourselves. Practice it over time (at least a month) to make sure your brain believes in your new way of thinking. If you don’t practice, it won’t stick. Once you’ve shifted your thinking you can move on to a new goal.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and create change in your life?

Cheers,

Guy

7 Self-Awareness Examples - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

7 Self-Awareness Examples

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Here are seven self-awareness examples:

  • Self-awareness is the ability to understand how your thoughts and behaviors affect you and others.
  • Self-awareness is being able to deal positively with all your emotions.
  • Self-awareness means you’re working on healing your inner hurts.
  • Self-awareness means you believe that you can learn and grow.
  • Self-awareness means you see the possibilities in life beyond what you’re currently doing.
  • Self-awareness is the ability to understand yourself so well that you feel healthy and balanced at the deepest levels of your consciousness.
  • Self-awareness means living in a way that brings you joy and does the same for those around you.

Self-awareness isn’t some nebulous, unattainable concept, it simply means that you understand your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors well enough to treat yourself and the people around you well. Try working on any of the items we’ve listed here and you’ll start feeling what it’s like to be self-aware.

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Helps You Live More Meaningfully - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Helps You Live More Meaningfully

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Self-awareness helps you live more meaningfully because, when you understand your emotions, thoughts, and actions, you are able to go beyond superficial concerns and live a life that is deeper and more authentic.

Here are ten ways to live more meaningfully, and increase your self-awareness at the same time:

  1. Follow your dreams.
  2. Treat yourself and others well.
  3. Make the world a better place for yourself and others.
  4. Have the courage to be yourself.
  5. Live your own life.
  6. Love more.
  7. Fear less.
  8. Heal your hurts.
  9. Listen to others.
  10. Feel, think, and behave positively.

One of the reasons I love interacting with people who value self-awareness is because they do things like these on a regular basis. It takes a lot of courage to live deliberately rather than letting life happen to you. What will you do to develop self-awareness and live more meaningfully?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Building Trust - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Building Trust

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Building trust in your personal or professional life requires increasing your self-awareness so you can feel great about yourself and encourage others to do the same. A lot of leaders and individuals walk through life or their workplaces wondering why they can’t trust people or why others won’t trust them. A lack of trust means that the person involved hesitates to get close to anyone because he or she is afraid of being hurt or doesn’t know how to build positive relationships. Here are some practical ways to build trust:

  • Do what you say you’re going to do.
  • Avoid saying one thing and doing another.
  • Behave with kindness and compassion.
  • Be there to help people.
  • Communicate openly.
  • Avoid rumors, gossip and secrets.
  • Listen to people.
  • Trust the other person first.
  • Be open to considering others’ points of view.
  • Have confidence in people’s talents and abilities.
  • Let people shine.

Trust is about you, you either believe it can happen or you don’t. Your thoughts and actions will determine whether you encourage people to be themselves and let them do their thing or continue to think and show them that they’re untrustworthy. You can move in a positive direction any time you choose by healing the parts of you that create the mistrust and behaving in ways that show others that you genuinely and unconditionally value them. How will you trust more?

Cheers,

Guy

The First Step of Your Self-Awareness Journey - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

The First Step of Your Self-Awareness Journey

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The way to get started on your self-awareness journey is to take one step. Nothing happens if you don’t take a chance and deliberately choose to move forward. It’s the act of taking one step after another that builds confidence, stamina and eventual success. It takes effort and determination to achieve anything in life but each endeavor starts with one small step.

What kind of things might you do? How about working on:

  • Healing the hurts from your past.
  • Improving who you are as a person.
  • Admitting mistakes and working to make amends.
  • Feeling all your emotions.
  • Letting go of things that don’t work for you.
  • Becoming a healthier person inside and out.
  • Learning each day about what makes you tick.
  • Being comfortable and knowledgeable about your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.
  • Doing small things each day to make your dreams come true.
  • Being kind to yourself and others.

Please note that you don’t have to do all these things at once. All it takes to become more self-aware is to be open to examining who you are, celebrating the great things about you, and improving the areas that need some attention. You just need to be truthful and dedicated to becoming the best version of you possible.

What will the first step of your self-awareness journey be?

Cheers,

Guy

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

Self-Awareness and Honesty

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If you’ve been building your self-awareness over time, you realize how important honesty is to becoming a well-rounded, happy, healthy human being. Personal growth means you’re committed to taking a candid, honest look at your thinking, feelings and behaviors and making positive changes. If you start from a position of trying to hide who you really are or pretending you’re someone else, you’ll likely avoid looking at the areas that could really benefit from some attention. A more effective approach is to decide to improve yourself each day so you can live an open, genuinely fulfilling life without having to cover things up.

A lot of people create unnecessary difficulties in their lives because they refuse to honestly appraise what they think, feel and do. They exist day to day compensating for or tiptoeing around issues that hold them back instead of dealing with them directly and taking action to improve the situation long-term. Self-aware individuals understand that self-examination is a vital, necessary part of personal development. As you live your life, think of the things you do well and the things that hold you back. Work hard to heal the issues in your past that prevent you from completely enjoying your life. Experience the joy that comes from letting go of the things that don’t work and become the healthiest you possible. What will you do to be honest with yourself?

Cheers,

Guy

Kind, Self-Aware People Can Change the World - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Kind, Self-Aware People Can Change the World

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I’ve consulted for a lot of people in leadership positions and I’ve noticed that many genuinely believe they have to be stern and authoritarian instead of being kind. It’s like they lack any self-awareness about how they affect others. This harsh approach is the result of being sold the narrative that you have to be a hard-charging bully to get anything done, the punitive approach to leadership. We even routinely reward people who do unsavory things, including hurting others.

My modest proposal would be to gradually shift from encouraging harsh behavior to celebrating self-awareness and kindness. There is nothing a severe person can accomplish that a kind person can’t. You can treat people really well and still get amazing results in your personal or professional life. You can do things that uplift others and help build a more beneficial world for everyone.

Kindness is a valuable tool that can inspire and motivate the people around you. The proof is that individuals respond much more positively to praise than they do to criticism or punishment. Praise encourages people to try harder while punishment leads to doing whatever is necessary to avoid more punishment. Our current behavioral model for our personal and professional lives is punitive. What if we shifted to being kind to each other? It might even lead to (gasp) people feeling good about themselves.

If you’re a kind person, keep doing it. You’re a vital resource and a valuable example for the individuals around you. At very least, you demonstrate that people don’t have to be punitive and harsh and that there’s another, more positive alternative. I love consulting for people who value self-awareness because they know how to treat others with empathy and care.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and promote kindness in the world?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy