Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Expressing Your Creativity - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Expressing Your Creativity

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A big part of building self-awareness is being able to express your creativity. I’ve talked with many people over the years who deny their creativity by saying things like:

  • I’m not creative.
  • It’s hard to be creative.
  • I just stick to practical things.
  • I don’t believe in that airy-fairy stuff.
  • I’m not an artist.

These statements were probably deposited into their minds by a parent, teacher, or friend and, over time, became a way of life. You may also hear these types of messages in your head but the key is to ignore them and keep doing your thing.

If you listen to all the naysayers you’ll never follow your dreams. Pay attention to your inner voice, the one that knows how talented you are and how important what you have to say is. Keep moving forward no matter what the critics say. Continue building your self-awareness so you understand what you really want to do in life.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and express your creativity?

Cheers,

Guy

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

Self-Awareness and Being Balanced

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I was talking to a highly accomplished leader today who had the self-awareness to realize he was feeling overwhelmed from juggling multiple projects and tasks and not allotting time for activities that would provide him more balance. His story is the same as countless other leaders trying to make sense of their work or personal lives.

You can become so engrossed in living at a rapid pace that you forget you can enjoy life more if you pause occasionally to relax, recharge and reflect. Take some time during your day to not do anything. Look at a sunset, sit by a stream, go walking in the city with no particular goal. Life becomes more enjoyable when you take time to regain your balance.

A big part of building self-awareness is the ability to monitor how you’re thinking, feeling and behaving and knowing when you need to shift direction a bit. Balance helps you maintain a positive course because it keeps you grounded and focused on the bigger picture. You’ll always experience highs and lows but, if you nurture the middle, you’ll be able to deal with anything that comes your way. What will you do to create balance in your life?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Personal Development - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Personal Development

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As you develop self-awareness you’ll find that it will help your personal development journey as well. The more you understand yourself and why you think, feel and do certain things, the more power you have to grow and succeed. You’ll also create a greater number of opportunities to shift the direction of your life because you’ll realize which areas you excel in and which might benefit from some attention.

Self-awareness is essential to developing as a person because it allows you to do things mindfully instead of settling for whatever comes your way. You don’t have to stay stuck in one place your entire life, you can deliberately decide to explore a different path. What will you do to keep developing as a person?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Where Your Thoughts Lead You - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Where Your Thoughts Lead You

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It’s amazing what happens when you build self-awareness and think in ways that lead to positive results. If you focus only on negative thoughts and what you can’t do, your life tends to follow a predictable pattern. It moves very differently if you think in brand new ways. Try the following steps to help you achieve what is meaningful to you:

1. Think of a goal you would like to achieve.

2. Think of the reasons why you can’t achieve that goal.

3. Think of dumping those negative reasons in a trash can.

4. Develop new, positive, ways you can achieve the goal.

5. Picture what your life would look like if you pursued these positive paths.

6. Start working on your goal.

You will find that your thoughts are a powerful predictor for how you will do in life. You get results based on your self-awareness and what you think you can achieve. Try this exercise each time you feel like you can’t do something and begin moving in new and exciting directions.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and think in ways that help you live a great life?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Welcoming Change - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Welcoming Change

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When you have a high level of self-awareness, you welcome change more easily because you know yourself well and you’re able to find peace and balance no matter what happens in life. A lot of people feel out of control and live reactively because they don’t have a reliable inner compass that keeps them calm and stable. While they may project confidence on the outside, inside it’s a different story. Here are some ways to welcome change instead of running screaming from it:

  • Realize change is always happening.
  • Realize change will continue to happen.
  • Realize you can handle change.
  • Realize that change often opens up new doors of opportunity.
  • Realize that there are things about you that can benefit from change.
  • Realize that you can become stronger by changing.
  • Realize that change can heal you.
  • Realize that change can make your life more enjoyable and fulfilling.

The key to welcoming change is to do something positive with it instead of running around wishing things were different or agonizing about what you can’t control. What will you do to welcome change?

Cheers,

Guy

What Is Self-Awareness and Are You Self-Aware? - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

What Is Self-Awareness and Are You Self-Aware?

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Self-awareness is a significant part of personal development and it refers to being aware of how your thoughts and behaviors affect you and others. Many people are aware enough to identify things that need attention in their lives but they forget to take action to make it happen. There’s a big difference between knowing you do something and understanding it well enough to move it in a positive direction. Here are some signs you’re self-aware:

  • You’re able to deal with and direct your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.
  • You build positive relationships, including the one you have with yourself.
  • You genuinely like yourself and others do as well.
  • You live life based on what you really love doing.
  • You know yourself well.
  • You treat yourself and others with kindness and empathy.
  • You understand how the things you feel, think, and do affect you and others.

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Managing Expectations - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Managing Expectations

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When I talk with people who lack self-awareness, I often hear a recurring theme about not being loved or not having kindness reciprocated. This is a very common theme in relationships: one person expects one thing only to have their hopes dashed, the other seems oblivious.

The difficulty arises when we hold on to our expectations even when we see repeated evidence that we will never get what we expect. Expectations then become more of a hindrance than help. Some people hang on to expectations perhaps mistakenly thinking they stand for hope.

Hope is greatly affected by our level of self-awareness and the actions we take. If we move in directions that lead us down the same path no amount of hope can change the course. If, however, we do things differently then we can begin entertaining hope that things will change because we are actually breaking the patterns we’ve established.

Changing the way we do things is the only way to modify our situation. No amount of hope or expectations can take the place of real communication and work in our relationships. The great news is that we can do things to change the course of our relationships, they just take some courage and movement in a different direction.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and manage your expectations?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy