THE NEED FOR SELF-AWARENESS

Socrates, once said, that “an unexamined life is not worth living”. I take that to be very true. But unfortunately, a lot of folks today are still living an unexamined life by not taking the time to know who they really are.

The question is do you really have the actual knowledge of who you are? Have you taken out time to do your self-audit, by analyzing your strengths and weaknesses – your personality traits? Like President Trump will say, “very important”.

Self-Awareness , Understanding Yourself Better

The goal of this entry is to motivate each one of us, to take time to learn ourselves in a very conscious way. I know that may seem ridiculous to some people to hear me suggest. But I tell you self-awareness is very key to your daily psychological functioning. Therefore, in this article, we will be looking into this interesting topic; by exploring self-awareness and its benefits. We will be discussing some of these questions directly or indirectly in other to hold unto this premise for the journey ahead of us!

Knowing who you really are, your temperamental makeup or personality is very foundational in whatever you do or tend to do in life. It will help you in building your relationships because you know yourself, and that gives you a good understanding of how to relate and understand others and to appreciate your uniqueness, and that of others as well.

Self-awareness will help you in your career, business, marriage, politics, leadership positions and as I said, it is foundational, that is how I see it. To understand what makes some people make it in life while some don’t could be related to some personality traits that some people are not aware of or they are aware but just ignored taking action to learn, to improve on themselves, or just got overwhelmed with life issues. I know this is still open for debate, but before then, let us be self-aware. We need to personally, decide not to live our lives without knowing who we are as regards to self-awareness. I found that to be risky and unworthy, as Socrates asserted long ago that “the unexamined life is not worth living”. I want you to reflect on that statement.

These days, so many people are floating, wavering from one end of life to another, from one belief system to another, from pursuing a course they are not capable of taking to another, from involving in relationships that are quite incompatible to who they are to another. Take time to know who you are, what you want, and why you want it, that’s what I consider good knowledge,

Are you working according to your life purpose? Are you really sure what that is? Being self-aware will help you to filter what matters most to you and in life. Today, we are having information overload as I termed it, a situation where it seems like everybody is talking and no one is listening. I meaning listening with the intent of trying to understand what the other person is saying. No wonder, life is becoming chaotic. why? Because we are not learning the first things first or doing the first things first. We are like students who don’t want to study for an exam but just pray and sleep, hoping to pass the exam with high grades.

This also reminds me of a passage of the scripture where it says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these other things will be added to you (Mathew 6:18, paraphrased it). 

But today, we are all seeking “all other things first” instead of living according to God’s instruction. The point is, that we have the ability to understand and to do what is right when we practice self-awareness. But once that ability is ignored or misapplied, problems and confusion will ensue.

One of the ways to uncover the positive or negative feelings withing you is by learning about your life, your thought system, I tell you is quite revealing when you do that. That knowledge will help us to navigate through other areas of life. That means that our actual knowledge of the world should begin with our self-knowledge. And by that, I mean  Self-knowledge according to Merriam Webster Dictionary’s definition. As “knowledge or understanding of one’s own capabilities, character, feelings, or motivations. As simple as this definition seems, it is loaded with value and yet very broad.

We cannot overlook the importance of self-awareness because a person’s ability to understand himself or herself is part of the major ingredients for success. Your ability to intentionally seek ways to understand yourself, from the context of self-awareness is and should be your starting point.

“Man know thyself”, I have heard this statement before but cannot remember who said it. It is like calling your attention to something,like saying be aware of what you are made of, be aware of your abilities, and inabilities. Knowing your character traits, your emotional energies, as well as your motivations, are very key to your overall wellbeing, the decisions, and actions you take or refuses to take.

 Without this basic knowledge of individual selves, we can’t be real and authentic in other areas of life and we are bound to live a life of trials and errors, and confusions along the line.

• Seek Wisdom Instead!

The Benefits Of Self-Awareness

Your self-awareness will help you to know that there’s only one you!

To be self-aware is to be in control, it is to have confidence because you know who you are, what you are capable of. It helps you to self-audit yourself, you judge yourself before others pass judgment on your character or motive.

 And because you’re self-aware, you guide your life, your feelings, your appetite, desires, because at this point you are aware of the positive images you want to project and the values you uphold and the kind of influence you want to pass on, and the negative ones you need to discard in other to maintain healthy relationships and to connect to your higher power – God.

Self-Awerness As A Decision Making Tool

Your self -knowledge will help you to know how to make important decisions in life. Be it academic decision about courses/major choice as a student. Personally, I had this problem earlier on during my school years which was an adult education by the way; during my teenage years, I looked at myself as a girl with little or no talent. I can’t tell you how much that kind of thought affected my self-confidence.

I was so shy, as an introvert I was quiet, layback, and fearful of a lot of things. I hated maths like hell. I made up every imaginable excuse just to avoid math class, including faking to be sick any day I have math. I was so afraid of any major that required taking maths. Unfortunately, it was just inescapable for me. Lo and behold, I had to face it in other to move forward with my studies. I mean. at a point, I had to sum up the courage to face my Goliath – math. But, for me, it is like what the wise do first the fools do the last kind of decision. At least I’m happy that I was able to face the challenge! I thank GOD I survived those years.in school!

What’s the point of this self-disclosure here? It is to explain the importance of knowing your strengths and weaknesses at any time whenever you are making some important decisions that have long term consequences in your life.

Do you know that part of the reasons why some students are dropping out of school today is as a result of not being aware early enough of what they can handle, and how they can handle it? That leads to their frustration, stress, anxiety, and even depression because they became overwhelmed. Add block

But with self-awareness, it will help you to consult your inner self to know if you are a material for med school or for political administration or business administration as the case may be. You should not go by peer pressure, or other people’s dictates for your life, but based on your knowledge of what you are capable of doing and your passion.

The same is applicable to business choice. Your self-knowledge will guide you for your career choice, the type of job, or type of business to pursue based on your skills, interests, and temperaments. This knowledge as I see it is very important for success. Some people are just juggling things, copying each other, not focusing on their personal interests and individual abilities and passion. 

The same fact is applicable for starting an online business, the online business is flooded today with people who are just hungry to make money by all means and get rich quick, as a result, many are drawn by the shiny objects that are being presented to them by scammers online by means of advertisements. But being self-aware can help someone to avoid falling prey to scammers for the most part and losing the money you are hoping to get.

If you know your strengths you will know how to amplify it, and if you know your weaknesses you will also find ways on how to overcome your weakness because you know what you’re capable of. and what you need in your life.

It is not pleasant, when you live, work, school, or even fellowship with people who lack some of this basic knowledge. You can notice, how careless, reckless, unaffectionate, resentful, impatient, and disrespectful some people are because, they are not just taking time to reflect and to examine their conduct, and belief system about life and how it affects them and others.

3 Ways To Increase Your Self-Awareness

As you may know, part of being a self-aware person is to know how people think about you, especially as a leader, teacher, pastor, politician, businessman and woman, student, husband, wife, friend, and whoever it may be. Just take time to intentionally find out.

One of the best ways to know what people think about you is to ask questions and seek feedback from people; mostly from people who know you closely. Like family members, children, friends, colleagues, etc. I’ve done this, can I be honest to you? I tell you it can be revealing. Because, for the most part, you don’t know what you’re going to hear.

You just have to have an open mind and prepare to handle whatever feedback you get maturely. If the aim is to use it to improve or to maintain what you already have, go for it. Just like the common compliment we receive from people when we do well, someone tells you “keep it up! Or Keep up the good work! That means you’re are doing great in that area and at that time right?

This was what I did some time ago; I called my last son, he is not the talking type he has that kind of choleric personality, I called him and said to him, how would describe me as your mother? He replied and said mommy why that kind of question? I said because I want to know what you think. Then after a short hesitation, he gave me his description of me in four ways.

At least, in the end, the rating wasn’t bad, after you’ve gone through the experience of raising a teenager in these days and age. That exercise with my 23-year-old son made me go further to intentionally ask for feedback about me from more people.

I asked the same questions to my sister and got 3 positive and 1 negative, to another person I got 3/3, but what was really interesting to me was the similarity of the answers how they were confirming each other with some little variations. 

Then, the final feedback was from my coworker, by name Bertha, a 65-year-old woman, she gave me similar answers to what I already got, I was like wow! What a great exercise.

You know that it is being said that in the mouths of 3 witnesses a fact is established. I had to believe the feedbacks and decided to use it for further personal growth. So I recommend you try it in your own way. It won’t hurt, to know what people think about you.

• Examined Life Is a Life of Integrity

 I often hear some people say I don’t care what people think or say about me, well, I tell you sometimes, you need to care it matters.

Never have a closed mind for improvement. Seeking personal feedback gave me an idea of how people perceive me, to compare to how I perceive myself. 

This reminds me of Jesus, when He asked His disciples, the question “who do men say that I am? It is in Mathew 16: 13-20. I recommend for feedback-seeking guys. Do it intentionally, and handle the feedback maturely it helps.

In Wealthy Affiliate Bootcamp, we have a method, by which members seek and offer feedbacks to teach other’s sites, and how invaluable that is. It is just a very useful tool for improvement. It doesn’t hurt to ask, provided you know why and how to ask.

2. Have time to reflect, do some soul or mental searching, cross-match your strengths, interests, emotions, skills, etc, and see how much weight they carry. Reflection is very important, for our emotional and spiritual detox as well.

As we know, if not for this Coronavirous pandemic, that necessitated the global time out, forcing people to be self-quarantined, the forced lockdown, the social distancing for precautionary measures against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.; life is always at high speed.

 If not for this, we all know how busy life can be these days. Some people because of business trips, engagements, have no time for their lives and families, some people eat their breakfast on the wheel while heading to work, conferences, campaigns, school, etc, even some ladies do their makeup and fix their hair while driving. Why because there is no time. 

Moreover, making out time to pause and ponder can give some insights about your life and what really matters most at the end.

3.“know your self to improve your self”. According to a French philosopher, Auguste Comte. Can I say that self-awareness is a precondition for self-development? 

I believe that this brief exploratory introduction of self-awareness will add to your awareness for a deeper understanding of your self and others, and for a more enjoyable life!

4 Self-Awareness Questions For Reflection

  1.  Can self-awareness facilitate a person’s success in life?

2.  what is the best way to enhance my self-awareness?

3. Why are some people carefree about their purpose in life?

4 Is it too late to be self-aware?

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