Lots of people seem to have forgotten who they are or haven’t really know who they are. If you want to be successful in every aspect of your life, then you have to read this article from the beginning to the end. It’s not late to know yourself or to start focusing on knowing who you are.
So many people don’t know who they are and what they want so, they just end up following the trend or the society. Society is not you. You are you.
I will be discussing the 3 best stages of self-awareness:
- Definition of self-awareness
- Why you should know yourself
- How to know yourself: the self-awareness test
WHAT IS SELF AWARENESS?
According to Debbie Ford, self-awareness is the ability to take an honest look at your life without any attachment to it being right or wrong, good or bad.
Self-awareness is one’s ability to identify and understand their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. As a result, you can monitor yourself better and create a more purposeful life. You can also discover what it is that you can and can’t control to make yourself happy.
Categories of self awareness are:
What am I thinking?
What am I doing?
What am I feeling?
WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW YOURSELF
Possessing self-awareness will:
Help in understanding others, and developing and maintaining healthy relationship with people around you.
There is no way you can be able to develop yourself if you don’t know yourself. So to say, self-awareness is the first step to take when you want to really start developing yourself.
Lead to healthier reactions to external factors
Boost your productivity and success
Enhance your ability to make positive change
Bolster your self-esteem
Strengthen your relationships
If you don’t know yourself, you won’t know what you are worth. You won’t even know your value. And you will tend to easily accept public opinion of who you are. You will always be seeking external praise.
Give you a better understanding of what you want and/or need
Increase your chances of getting what you want and/or need
Improve your decision making
Help you manage your emotions
When you know who you are, you can now attract to yourself only what vibrates in harmony with you.
There is a quote by James Allen “Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound”.
HOW TO KNOW YOURSELF: THE SELF AWARENESS TEST
Here are some questions that will help you know yourself. These questions are supposed to be answered when you have gotten your book and pen and seated in a very serene environment. This test needs your time, it’s not something you start and finish in like 3 or 5 hours, it’s a continuous process that you need to, keep on asking yourself questions at every interval. To be self-aware means to always be conscious of yourself.
For these questions to be really effective for you, you will need to: be honest with yourself, when answering all the questions. Because honesty is the best way of knowing yourself. Find time to meditate. Meditation helps in becoming self-aware.
The questions are:
- Who are you?
This question right here, doesn’t mean what profession or who are you, like I’m a doctor or lawyer no. This question means what you represent.
2. What distracts you?
It could be movies. Social media. Some certain friends. Or doing something.
3. What makes you happy?
By this, I’m not asking what people can do to make you happy. We are talking about self. So it should be, what makes you happy from within; you without anybody.
4. What makes you sad?
5. What are your likes?
6. What are your dislikes?
7. What are your strengths?
8. What motivates you?
9. What makes you angry?
In this aspect what is capable of making you angry. What can someone do to make you angry? What can one do to make you exceed the limit of your patience? What is that thing that you can hear or see that will trigger your anger?
10. What are your core value?
11. Are you aware of your emotion?
Do you know how you feel at every moment? Can you be able to detect your emotion changes and what caused it?
12. Why do you act and react the way you do?
Do you know what caused it, was it a childhood trauma or experience. Was it something someone did to you? Why do you react to issues the way you do?
13. Who do you want to be in life?
14. Are you in control of your emotions?
15. Why do you behave the way you do?
16. Where are you in life now?
17. Where are you going?
18. Where do you want to be in your life?
19. What are your weaknesses?
20. Can you name your deepest fear triggers?
You can check out this YouTube video to listen more
FINAL THOUGHT
Our human nature makes it incredibly challenging to be self-aware. We’re dealing with outdated brain functions and survival instincts that are rooted in ancient times. As a result, we often become caught up in defensive emotions and biases that prevent us from being self-aware.
The best part is that these defenses make us think we’re self-aware when in reality, only about 10-15% of people are truly self-aware.
But with the help of this article, I believe you will not only know what self-awareness is all about, but you will become self-aware if you answer all these questions truthfully. There are many other questions to help you become more self-aware but these are the basics. When answered well and with constant practice, you will definitely be successful in knowing yourself and also successful in every aspect of your life.
The content is rich and quite challenging..#keepitup