Self-Knowledge Archives – Page 15 of 39

Self-Awareness Helps You Build Self-Esteem

June 7, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

People with strong self-awareness feel better about themselves. Self-esteem grows when you are doing things you love and taking steps toward your goals. Every time you complete an action or reach a goal you have a reason to feel great about yourself. The more small steps you take, the more opportunities you’ll have to feel great about who you are. The key is to keep working on things that are meaningful to you and don’t forget to celebrate as you go along.

Here are some things you’ll notice as you build your self-awareness and, by extension, your self-esteem:

You feel better about yourself.
You move past your fears.
You heal the damage inside you.
You learn to love yourself.
You’re able to list that things that are great about you.
You work on being the best version of you possible.
You don’t worry about what other people say, think, or do.
You follow your own path in life.

Cheers,

Guy

How to Start Building Self-Awareness

June 6, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

A great way to start building self-awareness is to decide to do it. People often don’t realize that it takes deliberate and ongoing (lifelong) effort to achieve self-awareness. You don’t just wake up one day and decide you know yourself perfectly, you commit to learning about yourself throughout your journey. Here are some ideas to help you start your self-discovery process:

Make a list of your strengths.
Make a list of your areas for improvement.
Brainstorm some ideas of what you’d like to work on to become more self-aware.
Pick one brainstorm item to start working on.
Do one small thing to work on your brainstorm item.
See how things go. Make adjustments if necessary.
Pick another item to work on.
Repeat.

Increasing self-awareness requires dedication and deliberate, ongoing action. You get to know yourself by constantly working on becoming a healthier, happier, more balanced person. Where will you start?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Your Dream Life

June 6, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-awareness can help your dream life come true because, when you understand your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, you’re able to formulate a plan and take action to make things happen.

Our dreams are a reflection of who we really are. I’m not talking about the dreams where you are riding a horse through the shopping mall, these are the dreams about what you really want to do with your life. These dreams come from a genuine place inside you and reflect your true self. Perhaps they link you to when you were a child and wished you would be an actor or when you graduated from high school and anticipated being a great mathematician.

Then life gets in the way, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can literally use your self-awareness to tap into your dreams at any time and give them the prominent place in your life that they deserve. Ask yourself the following questions as you connect with what you really want to do with your life:

1. If money or subsistence were of no concern, what would I do with my life above all else?

2. What am I really good at that brings me joy and I could do forever?

3. What career path would bring me true joy in life?

4. What can I do for hours without thinking about time?

The answers to these questions will help you start steering your life toward what you really want to do. You call the shots and get to decide in what direction you move. You choose whether you follow the path toward your dreams or follow an alternate course. I wish you great success in your journey.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and live your dream life?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Your Conscience

June 5, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Your level of self-awareness is deeply connected to your conscience because you can never escape the psychological toll that behaving negatively takes on your life. For example: If your job requires that you do things that hurt people, you can’t run from it or pretend it’s not happening, it affects you regardless of how hard you try to ignore or justify it. The same applies to thinking or behaving negatively in your personal life: If you damage others, you impact the quality of your own life. Some people try to compensate for negative thoughts or behaviors by giving to worthwhile causes or doing kind things for their immediate family or friends, but the relief is temporary at best.

A more fulfilling and rewarding approach is to consciously do things that lead in a positive direction like behaving kindly toward others, practicing compassion, or helping people thrive. When faced with a choice, select the option that does the most good for as many people as possible and do nice things without expecting any personal gain. Self-awareness means that you’ve taken the time to be so comfortable with yourself that you give freely and treat others wonderfully. What will you do to develop a healthy conscience?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Self-Reflection

June 5, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

My consulting clients frequently ask me how to figure out other people. Oftentimes the key to our happiness does not rest on other people but within us. Self-awareness leads to self-reflection, which is a skill that benefits you by helping you understand your needs so that you can take care of them. It’s a great skill to learn because it helps you comprehend who you are and feel good about yourself.

Take a moment today to reflect on who you are as a person. You can start by taking an inventory of the achievements you are most proud of and those you wish you could improve. Ask yourself some questions like the following:

1. What am I most proud of?
2. What skills do I possess?
3. Where do I see myself in 6 months, 1 year, 5 years?
4. What are the challenges I face?
5. What will I do to overcome the challenges?

Thinking about yourself isn’t selfish, it’s self-aware and actually a great way to begin healing your wounds and building yourself up. Try beginning the process today and you will start to notice that it feels great to focus on yourself and your future.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and practice self-reflection?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Soft Skills Training

June 4, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Many well-meaning leaders and organizations that lack self-awareness have high hopes for soft skills training and are perplexed when it fails. This phenomenon happens because they think three hours of soft skills training can change their entire workplace. They optimistically hire someone to facilitate a workshop or two and expect their leaders and employees will behave differently overnight. The missing ingredients are time and commitment.

People who lack self-awareness forget that it takes considerable time and effort for soft skills (such as team building, effective communication, leadership or diversity) to take root in an organization. Think of how long it took you to learn the behaviors you currently practice. It takes time to teach people new skills and many leaders and organizations overlook the following concepts for training success:

Decide that this training is as important as any other part of your operation and commit to a long-term program.
Designate a set time and place for the training.
Implement your training from the top down, involve the highest level of leadership from the very beginning.
Focus on training that helps people learn positive workplace behaviors.
Pay a professional to develop and facilitate a training program based on your specific workplace.
Attendance isn’t optional and is part of people’s work duties.
Give employees the time and support needed to learn and practice new skills in the classroom and on the job.
Make the training an integral part of your company culture.
Measure the impact of the training as you move forward and make adjustments as needed.
Train people so they can train others in the organization.

Try these ideas and you’ll find your training yields better results. The success of soft skills training depends on how committed an organization’s leadership is to making it happen. What will you do to develop self-awareness and help your soft skills training succeed?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Increases Your Creativity

June 4, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

People ask me where creativity comes from and I’m happy to answer that it lives inside each of us. Every person has the ability to create something that didn’t exist before, all it requires is an openness to building self-awareness, and being yourself, the real you. Once you give yourself the permission to be creative, new and wonderful things will flow from your mind.

Being creative is the process by which you take what’s bubbling inside you and give it a new life in the outside world. It can be through poetry, art, music, mathematics, business or any discipline you enjoy. The key to creativity is to let go of the need to be right, or be swayed by the voices in your head that tell you to do things a certain way, and let yourself fly. Don’t worry about what people think or hold yourself to some abstract standard, just let your heart speak and have a good time.

As you increase your self-awareness, you’ll be better able to identify what you love to create, what your process is, and how you can apply it to your own life. It’s an ongoing journey of self-discovery that you get to enjoy along the way.

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

Cheers,

Guy