Learning how to build self-awareness is not something our teachers taught us in school.
Luckily, with the help of many self-help books; I learned about self-awareness and how it can extremely affect the way you interact with yourself and how people perceive you.
But do you know that even babies do have a basic sense of self-awareness?
Pretty cool, right?
That said, why do we still need to know how to build self-awareness?
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In this article, we will tackle what self-awareness is, why it is important, and how to build self-awareness with the exercise I will be sharing with you today!
This is Part 4 and the last topic of the Knowing Yourself Series!
Woohoo! Before anything else, let’s first have a little recap…
- In the 1st part, you learned why self-observation is important, its benefits, and how to practice it to get to know yourself even more.
- The 2nd part is where we learned about self-reflection. We talked about some simple ways on how to practice it, and questions to help you reflect.
- The 3rd part of this series is when we uncovered your core values in 3 simple steps!
If you missed these topics, you can always catch up and read them. Also, don’t forget to download your Knowing Yourself workbook as a companion to this series.
What is self-awareness and why is it important?
Self-awareness is how you know and understand your own character, feelings, motives, and desire.
It is different from consciousness. When you say that you are conscious about something within you, it means that you are mindful of it. Self-awareness is the recognition of that mindfulness.
One example of a self-aware person is when she was able to control her emotions. A self-aware person knows how she can properly express her emotions, not in a destructive way.
Ignorance isn’t always bliss
Have you ever met a person who always claims that she’s a friendly person, but a lot of people avoid her because of her intimidating aura?
One of the reasons why learning how to build self-awareness is important is because it will help you build a good relationship with other people.
If you’re aware that you’re an intimidating person, then there is no way that you will claim that you’re friendly and approachable. You will instead help yourself to be the person you wanted to be.
In self-awareness, ignorance isn’t always bliss.
What advice would you tell your younger self?
Now that you know what self-awareness is and an idea of why it is important, let’s start learning how to build self-awareness.
There are a lot of practices and exercises to help you. Asking for feedback is one of the best exercises that will give you more self-awareness.
In her book Insight: The Power of Self-awareness in a Self-deluded World, Dr. Tasha Eurich wrote that our opinions in ourselves usually don’t give us the whole story.
Listening to someone else’s opinion of you will help you paint a bigger picture about who you really are.
We know that just the idea of asking other people about yourself is intimidating and we could be so defensive. That’s why it’s important to start within yourself.
In this case, writing a letter about your advice for your past self will definitely help you start building self-awareness.
Why does this exercise work?
Writing a letter for your younger self to build self-awareness isn’t something that I just made up but it was also mentioned in the book Discover Your True North by Bill George.
To give you an idea of how you can do this exercise, watch this YouTube video of MuchelleB as she gives advice to her 16 years old self:
There are a lot of explanations why this exercise actually helps to build self-awareness. But base on my own experience on doing this exercise and my observation this exercise works because:
- It will help you look back to your old self and realize the things you learned.
- You will pinpoint your mistakes and avoid them from happening again.
- You will be aware of your character and behavior.
- It will help you be more honest with yourself.
After doing this exercise, you might have the courage to ask other people for their assumptions about you. But don’t panic, all you have to do is to listen and see if these opinions are true to you.
Your turn!
You can do this exercise in the workbook! Look back to yourself 5 years ago and ask yourself what feedback you can give to yourself during your younger years?
If you haven’t downloaded the workbook yet, get it now for free, and start doing this fun exercise!
Thank you so much to all the people who participated in this series! To those who share their experiences with me through email, you are all wonderful! I’m so proud of you!
Be part of the Cresentella community! Share with us your thoughts and experiences on your self-discovery journey!
What advice would YOU give to your younger self? Comment down below and don’t forget to share this post if you love it!
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Jocelyn is a coffee lover who believes that a bad day with coffee is better than a good day without it. You can find her obsessing over stationery, hanging out with her cat, or singing her favorite Taylor Swift songs.