Self-Aware

Characteristics of Someone with Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Characteristics of Someone with Self-Awareness

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People frequently ask me to describe the characteristics of someone with self-awareness, here are some examples:

  • They’re in touch with their emotions and are comfortable with them, even when they’re unpleasant or difficult.
  • They’re comfortable with other people’s emotions.
  • Their thinking matches objective reality; they don’t make up scenarios that aren’t based on demonstrable fact.
  • They’re able to manage their thinking patterns and move even their most difficult thoughts in a positive direction.
  • Their actions lead in a positive direction for them and for others.
  • They deeply understand their strengths as well as their areas for improvement.
  • They’re always working on becoming the best version of themselves possible.
  • They work hard to heal their inner hurts, preferably by going to a professional therapist.
  • They’re genuinely happy with who they are deep inside.
  • They follow their dreams.
  • They live as themselves.
  • They’re open to new people, ideas, challenges and changes.
  • They relate well to others and build positive relationships.
  • They treat themselves and others with kindness and compassion.
  • They make the world a better place because they’re so comfortable with themselves that they’re able to freely help others.

Imagine your life if you possessed any number of these qualities. The wonderful thing is you can achieve them all if you choose to actively develop your self-awareness.

Cheers,

Guy

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

Develop Your Self-Awareness and Stop Focusing on Others - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Develop Your Self-Awareness and Stop Focusing on Others

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When you develop your self-awareness, you can stop focusing on others, which will allow you to pursue your own dreams. Imagine what your life would look like if you loved yourself and didn’t worry about what others are doing.

A lot of people spend extraordinary amounts of time focusing on what others are doing rather than taking care of themselves. A big part of developing self-awareness is looking at yourself and what you need to do to make sure you’re the best you possible.

Take the time to learn how to manage your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. Move them in a positive direction that will help you learn and grow. All you have to focus on yourself instead of others.

The more self-aware you become, the more you’ll be able to love yourself and do things that are deeply meaningful. You’ll be happier and worry less about what others are doing. The idea in life is to take care of yourself first so you can be in a position to help yourself. Once you’re happy and mentally healthy, you’ll spread good vibes throughout the universe, but it all starts with you feeling great about yourself.

What will you do to build your self-awareness and focus on yourself?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Can Help You Be Happy Right Now - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Can Help You Be Happy Right Now

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A topic that often comes up during my self-awareness consulting sessions is how to be happy, preferably right now, as if there is such a thing as easy joy. Achieving true happiness is a state of being that develops over time and requires doing things like:

  • Following your dreams.
  • Taking action each day to make your dreams come true.
  • Being kind to yourself and others.
  • Being creative.
  • Getting to know yourself.
  • Building self-awareness.
  • Healing your hurts.
  • Being the real you.

I’ve found that you can increase your happiness right this moment by making sure you’re doing things that reflect who you are deep inside, which means that you’re increasing your self-awareness and living authentically. What will you do to develop your self-awareness and be happy?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Helps You Be Less Discouraged - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Helps You Be Less Discouraged

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Self-awareness can help you feel less discouraged as you follow your path in life. My clients often ask me why they are not gaining self-awareness at the rate they would like to. I let them know that it’s natural to have an ebb and flow in one’s personal growth. It takes time and effort to work on one’s problems and become mentally healthy.

Developing self-awareness doesn’t happen overnight but the wonderful thing is that, as you work on becoming more self-aware, you learn and grow along the way without even knowing it. Each moment you spend healing your hurts and learning about your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors helps you understand yourself better and move toward living a rich, rewarding life.

It’s really normal to think you are making no progress in your quest for self-awareness . It happens because we get stuck in the day-to-day tasks and events in our lives. Self-awareness emerges over time, it doesn’t happen overnight or without conscious effort. When you feel like nothing is working tell yourself to keep taking action. It’s the action of continuing to move forward that will strengthen you and move your life in a positive direction.

What will you do to develop your self-awareness?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Getting Rid of the Negative Messages in Your Head - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Getting Rid of the Negative Messages in Your Head

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Self-awareness can help you get rid of the negative messages in your head because, when you get to know yourself well and understand your strengths and areas for improvement, you’re able to make adjustments to move in a more positive direction.

Have you ever met someone who seems to have strong self-esteem but depends on someone else for his or her happiness or behaves in ways that don’t lead in a positive direction? We all do things on an unconscious level that keep us from succeeding. The messages you learned early in life can hold you back and keep you from achieving what you want. The good news is that you can change those messages by following some basic steps.

  1. Identify the message. Ask yourself, “Where did this message begin.”
  2. Ask yourself if the message is true. For example, do you really not deserve to succeed?
  3. Think of the opposite of the message and do that instead. Make it a positive message that gets you where you want to go.
  4. Every time a negative, limiting message comes into your head do these steps until it is gone.

It will take you some time to get good at changing your messages but you will do it if you stick with it over time. Plan on spending at least 30 days practicing the new behavior and then check in with yourself to see how you’re doing. You may be very happy with the results. If you’re not, it looks like you have another message to work on. What will you do to build your self-awareness and get rid of the negative messages in your head?

Cheers,

Guy

Using Self-Awareness to Overcome Your Fears - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Using Self-Awareness to Overcome Your Fears

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You can use self-awareness to overcome your fears because, the more you understand your emotions, thoughts, and actions, the easier it is to not be scared of things.

Fear often keeps us repeating the same patterns, even to the extent of repeating behaviors we dislike. We get stuck doing the same thing over and over and don’t see a way out. Overcoming fears is a challenge we avoid because we tend to hang on to the familiar rather than the unknown.

The paradoxical thing is that the unknown can often lead us in new and wonderful directions we couldn’t even imagine when we started out. Facing your fears is a matter of finding out what they are, where they come from and taking action to move in a different direction. Here is what some smart people have to say about the subject.

Bonaro W. Overstreet

Perhaps the most important thing we can undertake toward the reduction of fear is to make it easier for people to accept themselves, to like themselves.

Don Miguel Ruiz:

Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive — the risk to be alive and express what we really are.

Dorothy Thompson:

Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.

Eleanor Roosevelt:

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. What will you do to use your self-awareness to move beyond fear?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy