Personal Development Through Self-Awareness: How Much Is It Worth To You?

Why would someone choose to explore self-awareness?  Because we all have behavioral patterning we can choose to understand and control it or be controlled by it. We are all influenced since the day we are born by events, family members, the environment, school, and society in general.  As a result, the values we have, the decisions we make, and how we choose to act are a result of this tremendous influence mixed in with our own unique aspects of personality.   Behavioral patterns can be good or bad, depending on what you want out of life.

 Sometimes people find that when they set certain goals there is great difficulty in accomplishing them. Goals can include financial security, finding a fulfilling career, improving relationships with friends, family, and significant others, reducing harmful stress, or simply finding more peace and fulfillment in life.

 If one is not aware of patterns and automatic thoughts, then a large portion of  our thoughts, decisions, actions, and outcomes take on a life of their own. One cannot control what is not in conscious awareness. The ability to reach the goal you have may be blocked by patterned behavior.

Learning the hard way

Learning effective ways of understanding oneself (decrease stress, clear the mind for fulfilling interaction) and others usually improves through trial and error.   Trial and error, however, is the slowest method of success.  Why spend a lifetime of trials when you can accelerate your evolution through proven psychometric assessments,  behavioral psychology, performance psychology, and awareness? 

Self-Awareness Demystified

Self-Awareness continues to be a rather vague notion.  Self-Awareness is often associated with mindfulness, or a way to achieve enlightenment as defined by Eastern traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism.  There is a much more practical way to understand and use self-awareness.  Self-awareness can simply be awareness of your thoughts, your desires, your motivations, and the effect of you on others.  There is also the effect of others on you.  All of these areas have a direct impact on a person’s abilities to get what they want, be who they want to be, and maintain a purposeful life. 

 

One way to understand the goal of practical self-awareness is to compare it to knowing about all the features and functions of a modern-day cell phone.  Learning the functions and features of a modern day cell phone is not an easy task. Even when you learn them, new functions can be endless with all of the apps now available for use on such devices.  A person, of course, is more complex than a cell phone.

 

You can place the functions of a person in two major categories: conscious and subconscious or unconscious.  Thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions you are conscious of, you can learn to control.  Those that are subconscious cannot be actively controlled.  It is a well-known fact that a person can only pay attention to a very small stream of information at any given time.  

 

This means that most of what we do is not in our conscious control.

 

Most of the stress and anxiety we experience are a result of the unconscious functions, or behavioral patterns, that we have learned all of our lives.  Such disconcerting emotions can be major obstacles to get what we want from life.

 

Becoming self aware, then, can be compared to lifting a fog or the arrival of dawn, where one can see the path in front, ahead, and behind them. Gaining such clarity enables one to see strengths and weaknesses.  You can improve upon your strengths and work to improve your weaknesses.  Most importantly, you can better understand who you are as a person.  The process of self-awareness is a journey, not a destination.  Do you know where you are in the journey?