The first step towards a better life and personal growth is self-awareness.
Why?
Because most of the time, we sabotage our growth and happiness by being stuck in a behavioural pattern. And as long as we aren’t aware of our patterns and thought processes, we cannot improve them. There is only so much you can do about external problems. But when it comes to adapting and managing your inner self, you have full control. And for that, you have to Know Thyself.
Be it work or personal life, being self-aware can have a huge positive impact. Having better self-awareness can help you:
- Regulate your emotions
- Handle situations better
- Improve relationships
- Make better decisions
- Increase productivity
- Reduces stress and anxiety
Here are three simple ways to improve self-awareness.
1. Reflection
Taking time to reflect upon your thoughts, emotions, and feelings is the key to improve your self-awareness.
Have you ever observed that two people who witnessed the same incident end up internalising different things? For example, two people can see a pick-pocketing scene; one might feel anger for the victim; the other is sorry for the thief’s desperation.
We all are too busy with our lives to process what we are experiencing and why we experience it the way we do. But when we take time to reflect on these things and look at them from different perspectives, our self-awareness increases.
Journaling is a great way to make this happen. When you write something down, you are forced to dwell on the thought more and go deeper into it. Other ways to reflect are:
- Meditating
- Being conscious of your thoughts while doing mundane tasks
- Making gratitude list
- Keeping a mood tracker
- Going to counselling
2. Actively Seek Feedback
If you are like me, you love hearing good things about yourself and maybe get a little defensive on any criticism. But we have to realise that other people can look at us more objectively than we do. While we know our good intentions, only others can tell us how we come across to them.
So, it is important to seek out feedback and be ready to feel a little bad when you hear something negative. Keep an open mind and be curious. You can seek feedback both in your close circle and your work. Let the person know that you are okay hearing negative points about you and make them feel comfortable enough to express it.
Throw defensiveness out of the window.
3. Explore New Things
As long as we are set in our patterns and stay in our comfort zone doing what we are good at, it is almost impossible to see our flaws and shortcomings. For example, you might fight with your mother often and yell at her. And she cheers up in an hour irrespective of what you said. This might lead you to think that your behaviour is acceptable.
When you have limited information, the conclusion you derive will be limited too. Exploring new things takes you out of your comfort zone, gives you new information to process, and helps you look at your shortcomings. Here are some things you can do to explore the ‘new’:
- Travel, even if it’s somewhere local
- Interact and ask questions to people who you didn’t give a chance to before
- Learn new skills
- Attend events
- Explore hobbies
Recommended reading: 5 Ways to Stop Self-Doubt
Bottom Line
As you improve your self-awareness, you will be able to handle any situation in life with ease and clarity. When you sort out your feelings and emotions, you would’ve fixed more than half the problems in your life!
