Why is self-awareness important?
Seeing yourself as you truly are is crucial to personal growth. Once you can see the truth, you can more fully develop your natural talents and use your natural passions to find greater success and fulfillment.
As Lao Tzu says, “Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.”
Why Self-Awareness is Difficult
It’s easy to find fault with others and put your finger on exactly what they’re doing wrong, but finding fault with yourself can be extremely challenging.
Instead of admitting your mistakes, it’s tempting to try and making excuses and justifying your actions. Even though it might be challenging to find out the truth, discovering yourself can help you determine self-defeating behaviors like these so you can move toward behaviors that help you.
Be Aware of Your Motivations
Knowing your motives may not always be easy, but it’s essential if you want to become self-aware. When you say something to someone, ask yourself why you said it. Even better, ask this question before you say it. Without self-reflexivity, all sorts of vicious cycles can be perpetuated.
Be Aware of Your Intentions
On a slightly different note than knowing your motivations, it’s also important to know your intentions. Your objectives can set off a chain of events, negative or positive, depending on what your aim is.
For example, let’s look at Sarah.
Sarah’s secret intention is to hook a wealthy boyfriend. She doesn’t really care about his personality or what he looks like. But because the intention goes against her essential self, she is likely to invite disastrous results. Maybe the man she attracts is also looking for some way to gain from the relationship, regardless of the cost to Sarah. In the end, there can only be a parting of ways because neither intention took the other person into account or what they truly needed for happiness to thrive.
In becoming self-aware, you can delve into your intentions and modify them as you wish.
Recognize Your Patterns
We all operate on certain patterns, which we have created from our past experiences. We keep acting in the same ways, often without realizing it. With self-awareness, you can recognize your patterns, keep the ones that help you, and then form new patterns that better contribute to your goals.
For instance, a lonely individual might try and overcome his loneliness by attracting attention. He could be arrogant and flamboyant and bossy. But his behavior will create the opposite effect: instead of being recognized and loved, he may be shunned and scorned.
When you recognize these behaviors then you can take steps toward changing them. When you use these guidelines, you’ll have started on a path of self-awareness that can bring you great fulfillment throughout your life. As you uncover new behaviors and patterns, you’ll be able to ask yourself if they’re what you really want.
Through self-awareness, you can have the life you always wanted.
