self-awareness meaning

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

Self-Awareness and Prioritizing

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When you’re working on developing self-awareness it’s important to prioritize. You get to decide what’s most important to you and what actions you want to take. You have a lot of power to move your life in any direction you want by choosing to work on things that will create positive results. Spend less time on minor details and focus on what really matters and you’ll be on your way to success. For example: Would you rather heal one of your inner hurts so you can be genuinely happier or do something superficial that just puts a band-aid on everything?

Prioritizing means that you get to choose what you work on and when. A big part of self-awareness is knowing yourself well enough that you can tell the difference between meaningful and superficial work. I always recommend that people work on the deeper things in life, the ones that will bring them meaning and fulfillment rather than just getting by or pretending things are okay. What will you decide to do today?

Cheers,

Guy

4 Steps to Build Your Self-Esteem through Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

4 Steps to Build Your Self-Esteem through Self-Awareness

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Building your self-awareness leads to higher self-esteem because, when you know yourself well and are able to positively manage your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, you’ll feel much better about yourself and live a happier life.

Have you ever met someone who seems to have strong self-esteem but who does things to sabotage himself or herself? We all do things that keep us from succeeding and we do it at an unconscious level. Oftentimes, the messages we learned early in life keep holding us back and telling us that we can’t achieve what we want in the workplace. The good news is that you can change those inner messages by following some practical 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 repeat these steps until it is gone.

As your self-awareness increases, so will your self-esteem, but it requires concerted effort. It will take you some time to become an expert at changing your inner 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’ll be happy with the results because you’ll be moving in a positive direction. If you’re not, it’s likely you have another message to work on. What will you do to start building your self-esteem?

Cheers,

Guy

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

Self-Awareness and Retirement

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Retirement can be both an exciting and challenging time in life but you can retire with self-awareness and foresight. The key to living the next faze of your life meaningfully is to ask yourself questions like:

  • Will I continue working?
  • What is my passion in life and am I pursuing it?
  • What unresolved issues do I need to fix in my life?
  • How is my relationship with those I love?
  • What are my skills and talents?
  • What will I do with the rest of my life.
  • What brings me great joy and am I doing that?

Take a moment to think about who you really are as a person and what you want to purposefully do with your life. When I coach people, I help them clarify what they want out of life and plan for the future. I’m always amazed at the wonderful things that people can do when they follow their dreams.

As you think about retirement, try to include things you love and that have great meaning to you. Retirement can be a wonderful time to show the world who you are and leave your mark as the great person you are.

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Can Help You Find Inspiration in Life - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Can Help You Find Inspiration in Life

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Developing your self-awareness can help you find inspiration in life. The more aware you are of how your emotions, thoughts, and actions affect you, the more open to inspiration you’ll be because you won’t have unresolved issues blocking your path.

People have told me over the years that they feel most inspired when they are doing the things that really move them in their hearts. Have you ever had the experience of doing something you really love and suddenly hours have passed and you didn’t even realize it? This is what being inspired is about.

Being inspired is living the life we are supposed to. If you love to dance, dance. If you love sports, play sports. If you love writing, write. It’s all about finding that thing that calls to you and incorporating it into your life. It doesn’t matter if you don’t become famous, it just matters that you are doing that which you love.

When you live a life that includes the things that really inspire you, you begin a fascinating process where your life moves in the direction of your inspiration. People start to recognize you for who you are and your gift touches them because they can tell it means something to you.

Try devoting some time in your life to your inspiration. You’ll feel more grounded and balanced when you build your self-awareness and ursue what you love.

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

How to Achieve Goals and Increase Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

How to Achieve Goals and Increase Self-Awareness

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Here are some practical tips to achieve goals and increase self-awareness:

  • Pick one issue you want to work on. Define it as specifically and narrowly as possible.
  • Keep your goal manageable. For example: “I will write one chapter of my book,” “I’m going to work on 50 books.” This sets you up for success instead of feeling disappointed because you took on too much at once.
  • Monitor your progress and celebrate as you go along. When you accomplish one task, congratulate yourself and reflect on the great work you did.
  • Keep taking small steps even when you don’t feel like it. You will feel at times that nothing positive is happening. Keep pushing through those thoughts by continuing to take action.

An important part of self-awareness is to keep things manageable and work little by little. It’s the small steps that eventually lead to big results.

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Your Perspective - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Your Perspective

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Perspective affects everything you do in life. For example: A person in Bangladesh living in complete poverty can be very happy while a person in an affluent neighborhood in the United States can be miserable. Your level of self-awareness affects your perspective on life because, when you’re comfortable with your thoughts, feelings and behaviors, you’re able to maintain a positive outlook.

Perspective is the way you see the world based on your self-awareness and personal experiences. If you filter out the positive, you tend to focus on the things that aren’t going well. If you filter out the negative, you’re better able to see the beneficial side of things. A great example of perspective is found in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim doesn’t have use of his legs but he doesn’t wallow in self pity, he forges on and is a source of strength for his family.

You’re faced with important choices throughout your life. At any moment you can choose your perspective and that will lead you down a certain path. Try this simple exercise: The next time you feel you can’t overcome an obstacle, consciously tell yourself, “I can handle this,” or some other positive affirmation. This will help you shift from a negative to a positive perspective.

It’s amazing what can happen when you choose a perspective that gives you the power to move forward rather than staying stuck. What will you do to view the world from a positive perspective?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy