Self awareness is knowing and understanding your own personality, which includes your thoughts, strengths, weaknesses, beliefs, emotions and motivation. By being aware of yourself, you are more able to understand how other people perceive you.
Why is it important to develop self awareness?
Once you learn to develop self awareness, it becomes easier to change whatever is in your mind, whether they are thoughts or interpretations, which is vital if you want to have control over your emotions. Self awareness is also a factor in enhancing one’s emotional intelligence and plays an important role in achieving success.
Having self awareness helps you see where your emotions and thoughts are taking you. It lets to take control of your behaviors, emotions, as well as your personality so that you could make whatever changes in them you think are necessary. You’ve got to realize that for as long as you are not aware of yourself, you will have a hard time making changes to yourself and in the direction of your own life.
Self Awareness and Being in a Relationship
Relationships are easy to have until emotional turmoil arises. We are talking here about relationships in your personal life and even your work perhaps. By being able to change the interpretations in your mind, you may also change your emotions about your relationships. Again, this means having the power to improve the quality of your relationships with other people.
It should also be noted that when you have an understanding of your thoughts and emotions, you are in a better position to understand other people. In short, being able to empathize allows for better professional and personal relationships.
How to Develop Self Awareness
You can develop self awareness by practicing how to focus your attention on every detail of your behavior and personality. This is not like reading a book. When reading a book, all your attention is on the ideas expressed in the book. Thus, you’re not focusing on your own personality and emotions.
Think of this process of learning self awareness as learning how to dance. During the process of learning to dance, you have to focus on where and how to move your feet, hands and your body. It is important that you pay attention to the music, floor space, and even to what your partner or other dancers are doing.
If you want to be more self aware, always be mindful of what you’re thinking, feeling, and actually doing. This doesn’t mean you have to hesitate all the time because you want to be good all times. What you will get in this process is the ability to understand yourself more. Through this, it will be clear to you what you want in life. If you’re still having a hard time practicing self awareness, you can seek help from a personal coach.
Cecile Peterkin is a certified career and retirement coach, and a registered member of the Career Professionals of Canada and the International Coach Federation. She is also the Founder and Senior Career Strategist at Cosmic Coaching Centre, provider of career and life management services for middle managers and mid-career professionals across Canada, United States and Europe.