Before we get into Self-Awareness here’s a funny SpongeBob clip on it
Struggle with Self-Awareness:
Defining Self-Awareness- Goleman describes self-awareness in the following manner, “Have a deep understanding of one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and drives. People with strong self-awareness are neither overly critical nor unrealistically hopeful. Rather they are honest with themselves and others” (84).
I think self-awareness definitely tends to present the most significant challenge for me. I did not think this was a challenge or weakness for me until I learned more about it and dug deeper into the issue itself. I always thought that I was good at self-awareness because I know things that I’m not good at, for example, math. Everyone knows that I’m not good at math and I constantly make jokes about it. However, self-awareness is not limited to knowing your weaknesses there is more to it. For example, it also includes being aware and knowing your moods and emotions. I am not very good with my own emotions and being in tune with how I am doing. Oftentimes people will ask me how I’m doing and I cannot give them an immediate answer, instead, I have to stop and really try and think about how I’m feeling before I am able to answer them. I also really thought the idea of taking your emotions and frustrations and turning them into something constructive was really influential and important for me to hear and try and grasp and learn. I need to learn how to take the time to go deeper into my emotions like frustration and learn how to pinpoint what the real root and cause of them are. I think I can also take criticism as a threat or as someone telling me that I have failed instead of realizing that it is supposed to be helpful information for me to learn, grow and improve from.
Plan for Growth
- One way I can grow in this area of self-awareness is beginning to have a more balanced view of myself. For example, having an accurate view of my weaknesses without overinflating them, while also allowing myself to see areas that I excel at. Creating an objective list of my weakness as well as gifts and talents would help me to have a more correct and well–rounded view of myself
- Another way to grow in self-awareness is to take time throughout the day to stop and really take inventory with myself and see how I am doing. Some tools to use for this could be the mood elevator and taking time to see where I am on that level as well as a feelings wheel to help discern what specific feelings and emotions I’m experiencing at that moment. And then looking into what may have caused those emotions such as specifical conversations, people or circumstances.
- Lastly asking other people would be another way of increasing my self-awareness. It can be easy to have blind spots when it comes to yourself and things that maybe you would never see or be aware of without the help of someone else point it out to you. So taking advantage of trusted friends, co-workers etc. and asking them for their input as well.