Self-awareness can help a person understand their strengths and weaknesses. A person with self-awareness allows someone to understand how others perceive them and accurately gauge their performance in a professional setting. If you have high self-awareness, you can focus on your strengths, accept yourself for who you are and set realistic goals for yourself. In this article, we explain what self-awareness is and how you can improve it.
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What is self-awareness?
Self-awareness refers to a person understanding themselves. Specifically, self-awareness is a person’s ability to recognize their strengths and weakness. Self-awareness also refers to a person’s ability to judge their own behavior and decision-making. A person with a strong sense of self-awareness can take responsibility for their actions and understand if they’ve made a mistake. Conversely, a person with a high degree of self-awareness is not overly critical of themselves. Rather, they can objectively look at themselves and their behavior.
How to improve self-awareness
Here are some steps you can follow to become more self-aware:
1. Take time to meditate
Meditation is a form of concentration meant to heighten awareness. Usually, people meditate in a quiet, calm environment. Meditation might involve clearing your mind and then asking yourself a series of questions like “What are my goals?” and “What do I hope to achieve?” Regular meditation can help you achieve an awareness of your own emotional state and help clear your thinking.
2. Write down your goals
If you achieve some clarity regarding your goals, take the time to write them down. Sometimes people have so many tasks and responsibilities that it can become overwhelming. Making a list of your responsibilities and long-term goals can help you focus your energies. Writing down your goals can also help provide some direction to your life. When someone works every day to take care of their daily responsibilities, it can sometimes become challenging to remain focused on your long-term goals and what is most important to you.
3. Get feedback at work
Although the first two steps focus on you looking inward, getting feedback from others can help you understand how others perceive your actions. If you receive regular feedback from people at work, it can help you understand whether your view of your performance matches the view of others. Also, sometimes feedback relates to how you interact with others.
4. Talk to your friends
Your friends are your friends because they know you the best. They can provide insight into your past behavior. If you have been too hard on yourself, your friends can tell you that. If you tend to put others first, even if it means sacrificing your own needs, your friends can point it out to you. Ask your friends to evaluate you honestly and accept their comments constructively.
5. Keep a diary
A diary can help you develop a keen sense of self-awareness. Perhaps you made a decision that didn’t turn out as you hoped. By keeping a diary, you can go back and review your thoughts and feelings at the time you made the decision. The act of keeping the diary itself can provide a level of clarity to your thinking. Articulate your feelings and thoughts and think through why you feel about something the way you do. Also, a journal can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. By writing down your experience, you think about how you feel about situations and how you react to them.
6. Create a life timeline
A timeline is one way for you to visualize where you’d like your life to go and when you’d like it to get there. The timeline can help provide some structure to the process of increasing self-awareness. You understand your goals and a timeline can help clarify what is most important to you. The timeline can also help you stay focused on the most important goals you’ve set for yourself in your life.
7. Be objective
Throughout this process, try to be true to yourself. It’s natural to rationalize things, but sometimes you have to be honest with yourself. Whether it’s a professional situation or a personal one, taking stock of who you are and taking responsibility for your behavior is a key element of self-awareness.
8. Accept yourself
Understanding who you are and accepting it is important to achieve self-awareness. For example, perhaps you are not the most outgoing person. That is not a negative characteristic, but it’s something to understand about yourself. Rather than trying to be someone who socially engages in every situation, accept the fact that it doesn’t come naturally. Regardless of your personality traits, if you’re comfortable with who you are, others might be too.
Tips to increasing self awareness
Here are some tips of activities that can help you increase self-awareness:
Take personality tests
A personality test or a psychometric test can provide tremendous insight into your personality. Companies often give the tests to executives to gauge their strengths. Although the tests have their limitations, they can provide some idea of your strengths and weaknesses. The tests can help you understand if you have a naturally outgoing personality or are naturally creative. You might be able to identify an area about yourself that is a weakness and work to address it.
Take time to read
Reading a non-fiction novel can help settle and focus your thoughts. When you read, you focus on what you’re doing. In some ways, reading can be a form of meditation. Also, quality fiction provides insight into the human condition. How you react to storytelling can say a lot about you. You also can read non-fiction books about self-improvement or how to be a good leader.
Learn new skills
Learning a new skill is a way to test yourself. Part of self-awareness is understanding your limitations and your strengths. When you learn a new skill, you push up against your existing boundaries. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to learn the piano. You begin taking piano lessons and quickly learn you have some aptitude for it. You’ve learned a new skill and learned something about yourself.
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