How to develop self-awareness?

Developing self awareness is a combination of different things. Self-awareness is important because it enables a person to recognize that they have values, beliefs, assumptions and feelings that influence what they do or say. Self-awareness also enables people to see how their behavior impacts others. This allows them to reflect on their actions and make changes as necessary so that they are more aware of themselves and the environment in which they are living.

Why develop self-awareness?

The more self-aware you are, the more accurately you can see yourself and therefore how your actions will impact others. When you don’t understand how your behavior affects others, or simply can’t see yourself clearly, others may feel uncomfortable or annoyed around you.

This is something which social psychologists have learned a great deal about over the last several decades. They’ve learned that there are specific kinds of people who help predict what kind of behavior other people will display when they come in close contact with those individual people (usually a group of people. People will do things that they’d never do in a one on one situation).

In other words, there are people who can make accurate predictions about others. This means that they have developed some very complex skills.  Such people have not only developed a tremendous amount of self awareness, but they also have the awareness to understand how their behavior can affect others.  The more sophisticated these skills are, the more accurate their predictions about others are.

Person perception:  The ability to correctly perceive personality in another person. This is more often known as “trust.”
Self awareness: The ability to accurately perceive personality within oneself. This is more often known as “self-awareness.”
Self-monitoring: The ability to accurately detect subtle changes in one’s own behavior, thoughts and feelings.
Self-discrepancy: The ability to accurately perceive the discrepancy between two of your own perceptions of yourself.
Cognitive fluency: The ability to process information quickly and retain correct information long enough to make an accurate judgment or choice.

How to develop self-awareness?

Everyone has to come up with a clear and concise path that he or she follows in order to accomplish the things that are needed for their self awareness. It is necessary for one to have adequate knowledge about the things that need to be done in order for them to be able to gain self awareness skills.

Practice mindfulness

The ability to be mindful of your surroundings and self is a very important part of self-awareness. By practicing mindfulness techniques, such as meditation, you can learn how to be aware of both the good and bad that are constantly surrounding you. You can develop a positive outlook by being mindful, as well as become more aware of your patterns.

Have a journal

Whether it comes to business or personal development issues, having an effective journal is a clear key factor in the awareness process. As the person acquires more awareness he/she will start reflecting more on what they have written before and therefore obtain some new insights into their personal development process or something else they have been thinking about in general. Awareness also denotes being able to recognize the things you do on a daily basis. By keeping a log of your daily routine and activities, you are developing awareness around what you do on a regular basis.

Read the news

In order to become more aware of the world around you and challenges people face every day, it is necessary to read the newspaper on a daily basis. By reading about the issues that are happening around you, it will enable you be empathetic towards those who are facing challenges in their lives as well as help develop your awareness of how easy or difficult life can be for someone else.

Social media outlets

Another way that is becoming more and more popular is the use of social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and many others like them. These outlets allow users to post aspects of their lives for people to see in real time. This allows the user to see the feedback that they receive from friends and family.

In business, some companies are beginning to offer social media training classes and workshops for their employees. Some companies are even requiring their employees to create a Facebook page as part of their job description or company profile. This allows anyone in the company/business to become more self-aware (thus making them better workers) by offering real time examples of what works and what doesn’t work in relation to the business model.

Work with a life coach

These can be very difficult, if not impossible, things to do by yourself. That’s why it is often recommended that you work with a life coach who can help you understand where you need to make changes and how to go about doing it. A coach can also offer support, raise your self-awareness (therefore helping you be more aware of your surroundings) and offer tips/tools on how to get through your day with self recognition of your habits and triggers.

There are many things that make us unique and so we need to be very self aware in order for us to be able to live our lives well. We also need to learn when our self awareness is not at its best as well. It is also important that we understand how our behavior affects others and what they might feel when we interact with them.