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Friday, July 1, 2011

Self-awareness and self-development

Self awareness as a progression towards self-development- ( self awareness  Part 2)


Self-awareness is to know yourself. Self-awareness helps you take your life in the right direction. It is an ongoing process, which helps you enrich your life by bringing your actions closer to your values and beliefs. It helps you to be true to yourself and takes you in the upward spiral of self-development.

It is a realistic evaluation of your potential and other aspects of your life, such as:
Strengths and weaknesses
Thoughts, emotions, and the way they direct your life
Areas where there is scope for your improvement and change
Value and belief system
Self-esteem or self-worth

How to become self-aware

The first step to becoming self-aware is to start looking into your thoughts, actions and emotions. It is important to analyse the source and quality of your thoughts and how they impact your actions and emotions.

Studies have proven that more than 80% of our thoughts or self-talk is negative.  Most of us spend time looking at the achievements of others and thinking that they are the experts and that we do not have it in us to get that far in life. These thoughts not only undermine our potential but also de-motivate us to such an extent that we don’t even want to try learning new tasks. Such negative thoughts give rise to negative emotions and negative behaviour arising out of frustration. This is why it is so important to understand and be aware of who we really are.

The second step to increase your level of self-awareness is to journal or write down thoughts, emotions and behaviour so that we do not have to depend on memory but have facts and figures to analyse. The good thing about writing down your thoughts or emotions is that even as you start writing them you analyse them and become more objective about them even as you go about it. There is more clarity that comes out of writing as not many of us are not used to systematic thinking.

The next step to being self-aware is to record some of your speech. When you analyse the way you speak, it would be easy to figure out how much of your talk is negative and how much is positive. Unless you correct what is negative about your approach, there is little or no scope for self-improvement or self-development.

Negative thinking processes cause you to under estimate your strengths and overwhelm you with unrealistic perception of your weaknesses.  Sometimes it is good to take the inputs of more mature and experienced people whom you work with, regarding your strengths and weaknesses. Another good way to estimate and develop your potential would be to write down your achievements so far.

Now you have a platform from where you can launch yourself and draw up your personal development plan. Likewise, recording your emotional states over a period could indicate to you how much control you have over your emotions. It would be your springboard to understand how much control you need to exercise self-discipline over your emotions and take the reins in your hands.

Any self-development strategy would be meaningless if it is not in synch with your values and your beliefs. No matter what you do, you will come across as a person who lacks integrity, so it is important to evaluate every one of these areas against your value and belief systems. At the end of the day, self-awareness is all about an enriched, meaningful life of comfort from within. 

Self awareness is the path to self-development and  personal excellence

2 comments:

  1. Interesting article, about the importance of self-awareness and self-development.
    lex123

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lex, Thank you for the visit and I appreciate the fact that you took time to read.

    ReplyDelete