“Self-awareness is the capacity to stand apart from ourselves and examine our thinking, our motives, our history, our scripts, our actions and our habits and tendencies.” – Stephen Covey.
Being self-aware is not about identifying all of your faults and beating yourself up, it’s about understanding your motivators, your impact, what you do well and where you struggle.
We are raised and socialised to listen to the elders – ‘those who presumably know better’ – and these elders become authorities in our lives. We become so used to listening to the elders as a sign of respect but, sadly, most of them don’t know better. If someone is empty, they can only feed you their emptiness. All these things they fed you and their opinions of you formed your self-image and that’s how you see yourself today.
Just look at your life now and think of what you have been made to believe about yourself, of what you were told you could only do. I know this may bring tears in your eyes, as it did to me. It is this realisation, that I call self-awareness, that you need to wake up and claim the real you. The first step to take control of your life is to change your self-image, which is how you see yourself. To change your self-image, see yourself as capable, worthy, deserving respect, intelligent, beautiful and not less than anyone in the world.
Ralph Emerson said: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
You are meant to soar not flock with the rest of the birds and the sooner you are aware of this, the more your life will be something to remember. The world has long been waiting for your uniqueness, let the rest of your life be the best of your life!
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