Self-Awareness Meaning

Self-Awareness and Ego

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As you build self-awareness you realize that your ego is simply who you think you are, not who you really are. The key to living a deep, meaningful and fulfilling life is to get in touch with the authentic you by:

  • Being willing to explore yourself and define who you actually are.
  • Identifying what you do well and what areas of your life would benefit from some additional strengthening.
  • Being candid about the hurts you carry and actively working on healing them.
  • Getting rid of the negative voices in your head.
  • Interrupting the patterns that make you unhappy.
  • Letting go of the things you’ve made up about yourself in favor of revealing the real person inside.
  • Reaching a point where you’re so healthy and balanced that you treat yourself and others wonderfully.
  • Connecting with everyone and everything else in the universe.
  • Living consciously rather than reactively.
  • Living as the real you with no filters or masks.

It takes courage, mindfulness and deliberate effort to say goodbye to your ego and live life as who you genuinely are. What will you do to increase your self-awareness and decrease the influence of your ego?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Facing Difficult Issues

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If you possess a high level of self-awareness, you’re probably used to facing difficult issues head on. Many people fall into the trap of pretending that things are going well or avoiding challenging situations at all costs, which leads to constantly having to suppress unresolved issues and trying to fill the resulting void. Here are some things to think about if you’re hesitant to deal with dilemmas:

  • You can handle any issue in your life.
  • You don’t have to take everything on at once.
  • You don’t have to repeat the patterns in your past.
  • You can change.
  • You can move in a positive direction any time you choose.
  • You can take one small step today toward dealing with the issue.
  • You can keep taking small steps.
  • You can adjust your approach as needed.

The only way to truly grow as a person is to consciously decide to stop doing things that don’t work. Building self-awareness means getting to know yourself well at every level and having the courage to resolve thorny situations. Anyone can avoid challenges, what will you do to face your issues directly?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and the Tough Love Myth

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When you have a high level of self-awareness you tend to stay away from treating other people harshly, as in the so-called “Tough Love” approach to parenting, leadership or any other interaction where you’re trying to correct someone else’s undesirable or out of control behavior. Tough Love is practiced by millions and looks like this:

  • Inability to empathize with the other person’s situation.
  • Unnecessarily harsh or punitive approach to correcting behavior.
  • Resorting to punishment as first option.
  • Not connecting meaningfully with the other person.
  • Lack of listening.
  • Lack of patience.
  • Short-term thinking versus a long-term strategy.
  • Relying on ultimatums.
  • Dictatorial, telling someone what to do from the outside.

The perplexing thing about Tough Love is that there are so many other, more positive, ways to treat people, for example:

  • Empathizing with the other person.
  • Finding other options besides harsh behavior or punishment.
  • Negotiation and collaboration before punishment.
  • Building positive relationships.
  • Listening often and actively.
  • Being patient.
  • Interacting with people to build healthy, long-term relationships.
  • Realizing that change is an ongoing process.
  • Trusting and encouraging people to come up with their own solutions.

It’s really easy to make someone’s life miserable by punishing them, but it takes much more imagination and skill to encourage them to gain the insight necessary to overcome an obstacle. When you possess self-awareness, you have a choice as to how you interact with others regardless of how difficult their behavior or situation is: You can be kind, empathic, and resourceful, or rigid and draconian. Which approach will you choose?

Cheers,

Guy

How to Tell If Someone Is Self-Aware

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How to tell if someone is self-aware? They do things like:

  • Behave with kindness and compassion.
  • Follow their dreams in life.
  • Are comfortable in their own skin.
  • Don’t feel a need to put other people down.
  • Feel great about themselves but not in an arrogant or fake way.
  • Get along well with others.
  • Put out good vibes.
  • Believe in themselves.
  • Understand their strengths and areas for improvement.
  • Live a life that reflects who they are deep inside.

People who possess self-awareness feel good about themselves and help others do the same; they’re genuinely happy and do things to make the world a better place; they’re the kind of people that build others up and do kind things for others. It all comes from their inner balance and well-being. What would you add to this list?

Cheers,

Guy

10 Examples of Self-Awareness

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Self-awareness is a state of being that is achieved when you deeply understand your own thoughts, emotions and behaviors. It’s the difference between living a conscious and unconscious life: In one case, you do things purposefully and with an understanding of yourself and other people and in the other you just kind of wing it.

Here are ten examples of self-awareness:

  • You’re able to recognize, monitor, and modulate your feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
  • You’ve worked on resolving the difficult issues from your upbringing.
  • You’re comfortable in your own skin.
  • You’re able to build positive relationships with others.
  • You can empathize with others.
  • You treat people with kindness and respect.
  • You don’t fly off the handle.
  • Your general mood is positive and upbeat.
  • Difficult situations don’t destroy you because you’re aware of your abilities to overcome them.
  • You feel, think, and act in ways you can be proud of.

People run into all kinds of difficulties when they lack self-awareness because their thoughts, emotions and behaviors not only affect them but also others. When you achieve self-awareness you understand yourself to the point where you can consciously decide what you think, feel and do.

Cheers,
Guy

Also check out “6 Examples of Self-Awareness in Everyday Life” by Kara McDuffee at My Question Life for more ideas on how to develop self-awareness.

Self-Awareness Is Ongoing

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The process of  developing self-awareness is ongoing because you never stop growing and there’s always something new to learn about yourself and the world. Keep an open mind and allow yourself to find new ways to grow. That doesn’t mean you have to feverishly pursue goals all the time, as with anything, it’s a good idea to find a balance that keeps you healthy and happy.

Cheers,

Guy

Examples of Self-Awareness

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Here are some examples of self-awareness:

  • Self-awareness is when you understand how your thoughts affect you and others.
  • Self-awareness is understanding how your behaviors affect you and other people around you.
  • Self-awareness means that you are in touch with all of your feelings and you’re able to manage them positively.
  • Self-awareness means you understand your strengths and areas for improvement.
  • Self-awareness is a deeper understanding of who you are and what makes you tick.
  • Self-awareness means being kind to yourself and others.
  • Self-awareness means you’re willing to think of the difficult things in your past that need resolution.
  • Self-awareness is working hard each day to get to know yourself well.
  • Self-awareness is living a genuine life based on your true talents and abilities.
  • Self-awareness means being yourself.

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy