How self-awareness changes your life
It's important to have personal insights into who you are and why, what 'turns you on' and keeps you motivated, why you do/can't do certain behaviours and habits, or what your strengths and areas for development might be, so you can take control of your life and your self!
Self-awareness involves you understanding yourself, becoming more tolerant of others and aware of how you can help and influence your relationships with other people around you - at home, work, or in social situations, perhaps.
It may also require you to see how others see you or perceive you - their reflections on you, that often impact your self-esteem. Yet, the power lies with you!
The more you know about you, the better you can prepare your environment, manage situations and have emotional balance to help you to meet your personal needs. Knowledge really is power - personal power, influence, and energy-saving, so you don't fight upstream but find your 'flow', and maybe even go with the flow at times.
Skills for self-awareness include:
- Understanding your emotions and the impact on your behaviours (NLP and habits).
- Emotional intelligence that informs you how you are feeling and why.
- Better understanding of why other people might be reacting the way they are.
You need to know your values and belief systems, why you have them, and how they affect your choices and actions. Also, your expectations of life and other people - just because you feel one way, maybe others don't see the world in the same way you do. Personal experiences will impact your values, beliefs, and expectations, and you can change your mindset too with more informed experiences and the options you might have.
Who you are is quite complex. It involves both nature and nurture - your genetics and abilities or tendencies, how you were brought up, what you experienced, and the support to make the right choices, for example, might be things you can change, but not necesssarily your height, looks or physique to a point, or how you behave in given situations.
This all equates to what you have to offer the world around you - what you believe you can give and will be valued by others - by your 'tribe' and community, neighbourhood and larger society or family, friends, and colleagues. Each environment and different situation you find yourself in will influence your next move and decisions day to day, or whether you try something or may be afraid to 'fail'!
Remember - how you live your life is up to you, yet you need others to reflect back what is acceptable or not; how you could do things better and, perhaps, how to enhance who you are now to offer more in future!
We all have potential, we all have limitations, and we have our own motivation to do things we like, things we're good at and enjoy, while also helping others. What will you do with your potential? Explore it, or reach it? Ignore it, or choose to limit it?
You have the power!