- Who are you? No, don’t give me your name & your age. I mean really, what makes you special or different? What makes you know for sure what you want to be in the future? Do you even know what your purpose in life is? In fact, do you even know what you want to eat for your next meal?
- Whether or not you know the answer to all of these questions isn’t really the point. I’m serious.
- The goal behind my inquiries is to make you self-reflect, trigger your self-awareness.
- Well anyway, what is self-awareness? Simply put, it’s when you recognize what makes you, you. For example, acknowledging your flaws, qualities, and ways of being (behavior, thought processes) enables you to be self-aware. Now, why is it essential? Well, there are several reasons, the first is being able to understand your potential and finding ways to reach it or even improve it. Another reason would be that you can figure out what you are passionate about, and aim to work towards it. Self-awareness even allows you to evolve into a better person.
- If we take the notion that self-awareness helps you discover your passions, one question remains and that is – how? The answer is clear. When you understand yourself, you can begin to notice how you keep returning to a particular niche – specific areas that match your preferences in life. For instance, in my case, the niche elements I feel most connected to are writing, psychology & open-minded discussions about certain taboo subjects. Therefore, by observing myself, I was able to pick my university major – psychology – and even consider the possibility of me becoming a sexologist.
- Do note that I am not telling you to be like me. I am just showing you that when you analyze certain patterns that you create or relate to, you can develop the capacity to make decisions that may affect your future, and you could even avoid dealing with the stress of uncertainty.
- Yet, is the acquisition of self-awareness easy? No.
- Is it easy to use for your benefit? Yes, if you are capable of moderating the levels of your awareness of yourself. If your approach resorts to being negative, and you decide to only focus on recognizing your flaws, you will not progress. You could even regress your perception to a pessimistic point of view of yourself. Therefore, balance is key.
- In conclusion, self-awareness is crucial because if you want to reach self-realization and self-actualization, the right way to do so would be by recognizing who you are in the first place. If your self-awareness is impacting you negatively, here’s a piece of advice: don’t repress whatever you are feeling, instead seek professional assistance, as nothing is embarrassing about wanting to improve yourself. Take care!
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