I hold one belief that gives meaning to everything I do.
The belief is that self-awareness is powerful.
When unpacked, self-awareness is powerful because it connects us with the being that powers us.
Self-awareness connects us to who we are.
Yes, everyone is on their own journey of self-awareness. I honor everyone’s journey.
When we place a value on self-awareness, and when we keep it in focus, we can create a newfound strength that can help us create the life we want to live.
When we are self-aware, we understand what we get from our words and actions.
We can get safety, or comfort, or a sense of worth, or a feeling of being powerful, or powerless, or human connection (HX) (and more).
We are made up of habits, constructs about life, deeply held values, and our unique biology.
The more self-aware we are, the more we can see these connections that power us.
The challenge I often see in increasing self-awareness is learning to create internal distance. If I don’t disconnect from who I am being, I cannot accurately see. This requires letting go to create such distance. This requires letting go to create such power.
Below are 6 stories of how self-awareness serves different people.
1. “I began... using fear as an indicator”
Here’s a message from one of our readers, Andrei Ghimuș, CEO at Marketist.
“After I learned that most of my actions and reactions are probably driven by fear (ie. running from it), I began identifying those situations and using the same fear as an indicator (of what to do next) and as a propeller (harnessing its energy to take me where I want to go).”
Habits are made up of triggers. When we are self-aware, we know our triggers, and we can begin to reconstruct our habits in a way that can serve us. Andrei shared how his self-awareness gave him an indicator. In addition, he shared how he mindfully wants to respond to such indicators. This is an iterative process that can evolve and grow over time.
Progress is what strengthens power.
2. “[It] has supported my transition from being just me-centered to increasingly more others-centered”
Here is what David McGee, CEO of Mazzi Partners shared with us:
“Building companies of the future require inspired team members focused on making positive and creative dents in the world. A capacity needed to help build these companies is wholehearted leaders that hold powerful spaces for others (versus themselves) and their heart-connected visions. As I've become more self-aware it has supported my transition from being just me-centered to increasingly more others-centered. Self-awareness is a critical aspect in my personal and professional awakening enabling me to grow into a wholehearted leader.”
I have been in environments that did not have “powerful spaces.” In this space is opportunity for candid, sometimes uncomfortable, conversation. Because such space is abstract, and uncontrolled, it’s easy to ignore in a reactive culture. David understands and helps company cultures create this space. He is mindfully creating the world he believes in.
Self-awareness supports us in creating the power to create our vision.
3. “Self-awareness helped me see my potential.”
Here is from another reader of ours, Yorick Tran, CEO of Life Institute:
“Since I implemented self-awareness in my character, it’s only getting better. I review everything I did and quickly evaluate if I liked it or if I could have done something in a better manner. Self-awareness helped me see my potential. It helped me become extremely flexible and ever-improving. When I think about the past now I think: ‘Who says that you can’t do this? You? Other people? Why do you care what other people think? I maybe can’t do everything but I can do anything if I set myself up to it. It’s just a question of priorities.’”
When we connect to who we are, we connect to our power, which helps us see our potential.
Can a flashlight be powered on without batteries? No, that idea is silly. Self-awareness is when we insert our own batteries and power the light we bring to the world. I do not intend to sound fluffy, I am illustrating what self-awareness does for us.
4. “this manifested in stronger, more intimate relationships.”
Another reader, Ryan Searles, Global Technology at TransUnion, shared this:
“I began to stop guessing others' motives and started holding them in the best possible light; this manifested in stronger, more intimate relationships.”
For me, when I became more powerful, I stopped doubting the power of others. I learned that to be trusted, it helps to extend trust. This helped me to speak over my own life and my own actions. I also found self-awareness allowed me to create more intimate relationships.
By connecting to my power, I learned how to connect to the power of others.
5. “allowed me to see past ingrained preconceptions about myself and my abilities”
Linda Saindon, Marketing & Social Business Strategist at Alchemic LLC, shared this:
“Cultivating self-awareness, for me, has been a pursuit and a process evolving over many years; a journey of introspection, contemplation and examination of my life, my faith and the meaning and beauty of our very short existence in this lifetime. Self-awareness has helped me to unleash my potential and allowed me to see past ingrained preconceptions about myself and my abilities, and the limits that I put on myself, to know that I am much more powerful, brave, good and courageous than I believe myself to be.”
Well said, Linda.
In order to live into what we want to become, we must first learn to see who we are.
6. “Self-awareness helped me see the brake pedal.”
As someone who is very driven, I did not know what it meant to slow down.
I did not know how to slow down, how to stop, and how to powerfully embrace every element of my being. The more I strengthened my self-awareness, the more I learned about who I was being. I learned how I avoided discomfort. I learned how my intensity was forceful with those around me. I learned how my default response to life was to resist. That’s what I’ve always done as an entrepreneur, and it served me well until it became a roadblock.
Self-awareness helped me see my brake pedal. It helped me slow down to speed up.
By slowing down, I was able to mindfully reconstruct who I was being.
When we become more self-aware, we can become mindful of how we teach others about ourselves.
