The Four Critical Elements that Define Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the ability for a person to understand their own behavior and the behaviors they perceive in the world around them. Self-awareness is arguably the most important of the four domains of emotional intelligence.
In addition, I must note that self-awareness is the opposite of self-consciousness. Although many people often make the mistake of confusing the two with each other. Self-awareness comes from how one thinks about them self, whereas self-consciousness comes from worrying about what others think about you. As a result, self-awareness helps performance and self-consciousness hurts performance.
If one wants to tap into this performance enhancing domain of emotional intelligence, it all starts with understanding the following 4 elements.
The 4 Elements of Developing Self-Awareness
- Self-awareness starts with self-confidence. When someone is self-confident, they have a positive outlook on life and will show themselves compassion. This is important because if you constantly beat yourself up over your weaknesses, you are less likely to be honest with yourself. Honesty and compassion with yourself is a must for developing self-awareness.
- The next element is your mindset. When you understand what mindsets drive your behavior and the behavior of others, navigating the rough waters of life with resilience becomes much less painful. In addition, with this knowledge, one can shape their mindset to make their behaviors reflect what they want out of life.
- The third element of self-awareness is understanding your strengths. A strength is the product of hard work over time. However, there are talents and interest one naturally develops through innate nurture and nature. As such, working hard developing these innate talents and interest comes naturally. It’s in these areas in which hard work comes naturally where one is likely to build strengths. Being aware of this is a game changer when it comes to maximizing one’s potential.
- The last element of self-awareness is motivation. People are motivated both internally and externally. As famed psychologist and author Edward Deci’s research suggest, “motivation is the energy for action“. Furthermore, action is fertilizer for the seeds of success. The better you understand what motivates you and others internally, the easier it is to create action. On the other hand, when you depend on external motivation to motivate yourself and others, there is more friction and less action.