Anyone who’s ever been stuck at brunch listening to someone bragging about a date they had the night before knows how important and elusive self-awareness can be.
The term itself is loaded and complicated. The Oxford English dictionary defines it simply as “conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires.” But there is a lot more to self-awareness than being in touch with yourself.
The power and challenges of self-awareness
The power of being self-aware is that it helps you become conscious of your own habits and decide if you need to change them. It also helps you realize when you’ve told a joke that quite didn’t land or pushes you to speak louder when you sense that someone can’t quite hear you. But it’s a difficult balance; becoming too self-conscious can be just as dangerous as not being aware enough of your own tendencies. ...Click 'Read More' below
Making matters worse, people are less self-aware than we think we are.
In her book Insight: Why We’re Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life, Dr. Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist, writes that only 1-15 percent of people are truly self-aware.
According to her research, 95 percent of people think they are. That’s why, for example, some people have such a difficult time saying they’re sorry.
Now, we’re not saying you’re part of the huge majority of people who aren’t self-aware, but even if you are, here are some tips to cultivate a little bit more self-awareness.
5 exercises for self-awareness
Self-Help Book / Personal Development