self-knowledge

Self-Awareness, Leadership, and Achieving Your Goals - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness, Leadership, and Achieving Your Goals

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When I help leaders achieve their goals they often encounter certain transition periods where it’s difficult to make it to the next level. This is perfectly normal because there is a natural ebb and flow to achieving your goals. Sometimes there is a lot of movement and in other instances there is little change.

Being an excellent leader and achieving your goals requires self-awareness, which means that you understand how your emotions, thoughts, and actions affect you, the people around you, and your organization. Being self-aware means that you really know yourself and are able to set and meet goals that are healthy and positive for you and others.

Once you build up your self-awareness, there are five steps you can take to increase your chances of success and avoid feeling stuck:

  1. Set a clear goal and keep it simple.
  2. Take one small action per day to achieve your goal.
  3. Review the result of your action and either do another or move on to the next action.
  4. Keep doing things.  It doesn’t matter what you do, just keep taking small actions.
  5. Celebrate along the way.  Pat yourself on the back when you notice a positive development.

The major elements that will help you achieve your goals are to build up your self-awareness and keep taking action. Many leaders get discouraged and give up too soon because they don’t keep moving forward. Success comes from constantly and consistently working on things. Try these five steps and measure where you are a month from now, you’ll likely appreciate what you’ve been able to achieve.

What will you do to develop your self-awareness and achieve your goals?

Cheers,

Guy

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

Self-Awareness and Perseverance

/ / Consciousness of Self, Self-Awareness Comes From / , , , ,

Perseverance is one of the most important traits a person can possess and is part of self-awareness. People who are able to understand and manage their own emotions, thoughts, and actions persevere more and move past the challenges in their lives.

To me it means having the self-awareness necessary to move forward and trust my inner voice no matter what happens. Very often, talented people will stifle their work or choose a “safer” career path because of what they heard from well-meaning people as they were growing up. I’ve found it helpful to keep going in spite of any inside and outside disparagement and just do my thing.

It doesn’t take superhuman effort to keep going, simply do one small thing each day that helps you continue your journey. Keep building your self-awareness so you can continue clarifying what you really want to do in life. Repeated modest actions will eventually add up to a great body of work and deep fulfillment. How will you build up your self-awareness and keep persevering?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Can Help You Be Happy Right Now - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Can Help You Be Happy Right Now

/ / Consciousness of Self, Self-Awareness / , ,

A topic that often comes up during my self-awareness consulting sessions is how to be happy, preferably right now, as if there is such a thing as easy joy. Achieving true happiness is a state of being that develops over time and requires doing things like:

  • Following your dreams.
  • Taking action each day to make your dreams come true.
  • Being kind to yourself and others.
  • Being creative.
  • Getting to know yourself.
  • Building self-awareness.
  • Healing your hurts.
  • Being the real you.

I’ve found that you can increase your happiness right this moment by making sure you’re doing things that reflect who you are deep inside, which means that you’re increasing your self-awareness and living authentically. What will you do to develop your self-awareness and be happy?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Helps You Be Less Discouraged - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Helps You Be Less Discouraged

/ / Consciousness of Self, Self-Awareness / , , ,

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

Self-Awareness Helps You Choose Courage over Fear - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Helps You Choose Courage over Fear

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Self-awareness helps you choose courage over fear because life has a way of creating challenging situations whether you want them or not. When these difficult circumstances present themselves you have a choice as to whether you think and behave based on fear or courage. Each approach leads you in a different direction and only one helps you live a more balanced, happy life. Lets look at a few examples of the difference between the two:

Fear: I’ve always done it this way.
Courage: I can try something new.

Fear: I hate change.
Courage: I see change as an opportunity.

Fear: That issue is too daunting and complex.
Courage: I can resolve the issue little by little.

Fear: I need to control everything and everyone around me.
Courage: I’m fine with letting go of control.

Fear: That’s unfamiliar and strange.
Courage: I can learn something from it.

Fear: Self-awareness is for people who eat granola.
Courage: I’m willing to learn about myself and others.

Living in fear limits your opportunities while thinking and acting with courage helps you deal with any situation that comes your way. The idea in life is to think and behave in ways that help you be more flexible and resilient, not less. What will you do to develop self-awareness so you can choose courage over fear?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Getting Rid of the Negative Messages in Your Head - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Getting Rid of the Negative Messages in Your Head

/ / Consciousness of Self, Self-Awareness / , ,

Self-awareness can help you get rid of the negative messages in your head because, when you get to know yourself well and understand your strengths and areas for improvement, you’re able to make adjustments to move in a more positive direction.

Have you ever met someone who seems to have strong self-esteem but depends on someone else for his or her happiness or behaves in ways that don’t lead in a positive direction? We all do things on an unconscious level that keep us from succeeding. The messages you learned early in life can hold you back and keep you from achieving what you want. The good news is that you can change those messages by following some basic 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 do these steps until it is gone.

It will take you some time to get good at changing your 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 may be very happy with the results. If you’re not, it looks like you have another message to work on. What will you do to build your self-awareness and get rid of the negative messages in your head?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Can Help You Talk about Difficult Topics - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Can Help You Talk about Difficult Topics

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Self-awareness can help you talk about difficult topics with others because, the more you know yourself, the better able you are to have complex conversations with others.

There’s a frequently recited adage that you shouldn’t talk about religion and politics in polite company, advice created by people who don’t know how to talk about charged topics without getting angry or hurt. The key to effective communication is for the participants to have the self-awareness to realize that other people’s ideas, beliefs, values and opinions aren’t necessarily an attack on their own, just another perspective. Here are some ideas that will help you talk about difficult issues in your personal or professional life:

  • Go in with good intentions. Keep an open mind and engage in the conversation with the idea that you’re going to learn something and that you’ll do everything you can to make sure things go well.
  • Assume the other person isn’t trying to hurt you. Interact based on the premise that you’re having a positive two-way conversation, not that you’re walking into a life-threatening ambush.
  • Listen to the other person. Don’t talk, interrupt or give your opinion, just listen actively and learn about the other person’s point of view whether you agree with it or not.
  • Practice self-awareness. Be aware of your own thoughts, feelings and actions and manage them so you don’t get angry or defensive.
  • Stay calm. Communication doesn’t have to be a contact sport, it can be calm and pleasant.
  • Resist the urge to fight back. Increase your chances of interacting positively by keeping yourself under control.
  • Avoid participating in an argument. Look at the conversation as an opportunity to learn about another perspective instead of creating conflict.
  • Realize the other person’s point of view is just a point of view. No matter what someone says, it doesn’t mean that you have to change your values or beliefs.
  • Know when to back off. Sometimes people aren’t ready or able to talk about a certain topic. Let them know you’re available to talk when they’re ready.

Individuals who understand and master these skills are able to talk about any issue because their communication style shifts from confrontational to actively listening to what other people are saying. Virtually nothing someone else says merits an explosive reaction unless you decide it does. The key to effective communication is to move from reacting viscerally to consciously working on listening, learning and getting along with the other person. What will you do to increase your self-awareness so you’re able to talk about difficult topics?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy