8 years ago · Stuart Downing · 0 comments
Self Awareness & Self-Development: Two of The Same?
Self-awareness and self-development are both parts of the same package. As we learn more about ourselves, we are slowly tearing back layers of mental barriers that we’ve attributed to our experience we call life.
Our limitations are our own making. Looking at those who we believe to be successful in society, they are extremely self-aware. They have developed a true (authentic or congruent) image of themselves: their strengths, weaknesses, areas of improvement and most of all who they can become (their true potential).
They go on to escape their comfort zone, take full advantage of opportunities. Consequently, their confidence grows over time, each small success furthering their ambition, drive, and aim but also affirming to their belief that it is possible to achieve their goals.
It could be that experiences also allow us to break down these mental blocks and barriers, further strengthening our ability to shake our belief system and re-build ourselves into the new image we have developed.
Could your self-awareness aid self-development?
You can fool yourself into thinking that you undoubtedly know yourself, but it would be naive to believe that you have a true understanding of what you want in life, not to mention the intent and cause of all your behaviour and actions.
Identifying what you want to achieve and how you’re going to get there is what I would describe as self-awareness. You are aware of your limitations, though you are not bound by them. You know that you have potential to grow. As we develop our awareness of our own wants, wishes, desires, we discover what it would take to make us feel fulfilled within our lives.
How can you further your understanding of yourself? Your own personality, your traits and who you are?
Johari’s Window remains an excellent tool for self-awareness and self-development, taught widely in Western culture within psychology and management and leadership.
An exercise in self-development, the participants describe their own traits from those within a set of adjectives. Those around them (his most familiar peers or those within the group setting) would subsequently describe them, using the same set of adjectives.
The words used by both parties (both the individual and those around him) would be placed upon the “Arena”, those that the participant described themselves as that others did not use would be placed within the area “Façade”, the peer’s observations that the participant did not recognise would be in the adjacent area “Blind Spot” and then there is the “Unknown” which represent the characteristics, talents or abilities that nobody may be aware of.
How do you think self-awareness affects your progression in your career, your relationships with others and your personal life? By being open to new experiences and embracing opportunities, it is possible to discover parts of yourself you never knew existed.
Could we work together to enable you to achieve your dreams? Contact me on to speak about how I could encourage you to change for the better.
Categories: Self
