Life has many challenges. It could come from our internal state of mind and body or the extraordinary demands from our environment. All these require us to be self aware and initiate appropriate response to them in order to negotiate the tribulations of living in situations or environments that engender high levels of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
The psychological study of self-awareness can be first traced back to 1972 when Psychologists Shelley Duval and Robert Wicklund’s developed the theory of self-awareness.
They proposed that:
“when we focus our attention on ourselves, we evaluate and compare our current behavior to our internal standards and values. We become self-conscious as objective evaluators of ourselves.”
In essence, they consider self-awareness as a major mechanism of self-control.
Psychologist Daniel Goleman, has proposed a more popular definition of self-awareness in his best-selling book “Emotional Intelligence”, as “knowing one’s internal states, preference, resources and intuitions”.
This definition places more emphasis on the ability to monitor our inner world, our thoughts and emotions as they arise.
In my view, self awareness is the key to noticing and recognizing our personalities, likes, dislikes and passions in life. Self awareness also gives us clarity to selecting career path option and life work that are more suited to our personal values, temperment, strengths and weaknesses. The corresponding responses and follow ups could enhance our chance of more happiness and fulfillment in our lives.
The pre-requisite of self awareness is to start from an angle of non-judgmental quality of one’s observed mental state. Failure which, most people will land up in self pity or blaming others for their’s predicaments. As we notice what’s happening inside us, we acknowledge and accept them as the inevitable part of being human, rather than landing up thinking in disarray, in automatic negative thought patterns, like a broken playing record.
Self-awareness allows us to be conscious of our mental bias, mental pre-conditioning, values and beliefs system in our minds.
Self-aware people tend to possess a more positive outlook of life. They usually act consciously rather than react passively. Self awareness allows their pre-frontal cortex rational minds to choose the most appropriate life options that are avail to them under the circumstances.
In addition, through their introspection, they could relate and understand other people’s emotions and feelings better. These help in building good human relationships with others.
Self-awareness is a vital first step in taking control of your life, creating what you want, and mastering your future. Where you choose to focus your attention and energy, will determine your future destiny in life.
A number of researches have shown self-awareness as a crucial trait of successful business leaders. In a study undertaken by Green Peak Partners and Cornell University examining 72 executives at public and private companies with revenues from $50 million to $5 billion, it was found that “a high self-awareness score was the strongest predictor of overall success”.
If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion. — Aldous Huxley
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. — Aristotle (384-322 BC)
“Observe all men; thy self most.” — Benjamin Franklin