How much do you know about yourself? How to tap into your creativity and self-awareness in order to be more productive?
Self-awareness is the key to success. The best business owners are those who can understand their strengths and weaknesses, know what drives them, how they work with others, and more importantly what motivates them to do better every day. If you’re looking for a way to increase your self-awareness then these five steps may be helpful in getting you there!
1. Be honest with yourself
Sometimes self-awareness can be lonely. It’s difficult to admit our fears and flaws, but the best self-aware people do this first and foremost.
Think of self-awareness as a mirror; if you hide behind it, you won’t see how you view yourself or what you stand for. If that mirror breaks, then it will be more difficult to see what’s on the other side.
The first step is to realize that self-awareness starts within you. If you want to know who you really are, then it’s time for some self-reflection and self-honesty.
Self-awareness is a two-way street. In order to truly know yourself, you have to be able to self-reflect, self-assess and self-correct all the time. But this only works if you’re always looking inward and giving an honest opinion of what you see. Everyone can benefit from self-assessment by creating timelines and goal checklists.
2. Understand your strengths and weaknesses
What does success mean to me? What am I good at and what do I want out of life?
Self-awareness means that you not only understand what your strengths are, but also what your weaknesses are, and it’s important to be open about both. Some people may think this might hurt their self-esteem, but self-awareness isn’t self-esteem.
Self-awareness is self-confidence. It’s self-assurance in knowing that you’re good in one area of your life, but in the same breath self-doubt in knowing that there are areas in which you can improve. The self-aware person knows what they do well, but also understands where they need to work harder in order to succeed in life.
Once self-aware people understand their strengths and weaknesses, they’re substantially better at self-improvement as well as delegating effectively.
3. Learn to accept compliments graciously
It’s difficult sometimes to accept compliments. As self-aware people, it’s important to recognize when others recognize our best attributes and abilities, but it needs to be done in the right way.
It’s easy to think of self-awareness as self-praise, but it isn’t; self-awareness has nothing to do with self-approval or self-acceptance, and everything to do with improving yourself. Self-awareness doesn’t mean self-centeredness; it means knowing who you are beyond your work life.
Someone who is self-aware will be able to identify what needs improvement and in which areas they excel.
Accepting compliments well shows self-awareness because to accept a compliment graciously, self-aware people understand that the other person is paying attention to them and what they’re doing well instead of embellishing their own achievements. It’s self-awareness because self-aware people know that a compliment isn’t always about you, but sometimes an individual just wants to give someone else a self-esteem boost.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it
Being self-aware doesn’t mean that you can do it all by yourself. Self-aware people understand when they need help and they also know who to ask. Open self-awareness means that self-aware people are self-assured, but not self-centered.
Self-doubt is valuable because it shows us where we need to improve. It’s okay to feel self-conscious or embarrassed sometimes, especially when you feel like you don’t know everything about your craft.
A self-aware person doesn’t see asking for help as a sign of weakness, but rather the opposite. Self-awareness isn’t self-sufficiency; self-aware people know that they can’t do everything on their own and that sometimes it takes working with others to accomplish goals.
5. Know your worth and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise
Self-aware people know their self-worth and how great they are. They’re self-confident, but not self-centered.
Everyone has an equal value in life; self-awareness comes into play when you understand that your self-worth is just as important as anyone else’s self-worth, including celebrities or public figures.
Self-awareness isn’t self-centeredness; it’s self-assurance knowing that you’ve got the tools and skills to succeed. Self-doubt is valuable because self-aware people know self-doubt can be a motivator, but self-doubt crossed with self-pity turns into self-loathing which has no value at all.
A self-aware person knows their worth; they know what they bring to the table and they know how valuable they are.
Conclusion
Self-awareness is the first step to truly understanding how you work. You can’t know what your strengths are if you don’t understand where they came from, or why certain things make you feel a certain way. So be honest with yourself and find out who’s in charge of this operation!
Knowing your worth is key too; after all, no one else should set this value but YOU. We hope these five tips will assist you in increasing your self-awareness and becoming the best version of yourself possible
