18 Powerful Ways Being Self-Aware Helps You Creates The Life You Want
How to know who you are.
If you want to create and live a life you love, then you need to dig into who you are and what you really want. It’s all about the mighty power of self-awareness! So, what is self-awareness? Self-awareness is the ability to observe ourselves and understand why we react and how we behave in our lives. Awareness encompasses not only accepting what we discover but it also helps us make informed decisions about the changes we want to make. Awareness is also the ability to be honest with ourselves about our weaknesses and strengths. Awareness is a tool that allows us to better manage our thoughts, motivations, and emotions. Feeling happy or sad is one thing but knowing why you feel happy or sad is another thing. That’s where the beauty of awareness comes in. Learning to improve self-awareness allows us to make better choices and curate a lifestyle that makes us feel engaged and alive.
I am the first person to admit that looking in the mirror and seeing exactly who you really are isn't a picnic. There is a shadow side to self-awareness. This shadow side can make us angry or sad at our past choices. It can be hard to make peace with some of our faults and failures. It’s super easy to become judgmental towards ourselves, isn't it? The thing is, though, making time to improve self-awareness is worth the trouble because, without it, you are cutting yourself off from the very tools you need to, not just pursue your desires, but enhance the quality of your everyday experiences.
Here are 18 powerful ways being self-aware helps you create the life you want:
1. Awareness allows you to make changes from an informed mind
2. When you are self-aware, it helps you pursue desires and goals
3. Being at peace with who you are is another reason why awareness is important to a quality life
4. Awareness helps you make better decisions
5. When you are self-aware, you will naturally have higher-quality relationships
6. Self-awareness allows you to be a better communicator with everyone in your life because you are clear on your personal needs
7. Awareness is important if you want to live life with a clearer purpose
8. If you want to curate a quality life, self-awareness is critical
9. Living with contentment is a sign of being self-aware
10. When you choose awareness, it allows you to accept the responsibility of changing responses and behaviors to any — and all — external stimuli (people, situations, or life)
11. Awareness allows you to not just reflect on the outcome of life situations
It allows you to be honest about your role in them.
12. Awareness allows you to roll with life challenges with more grace
13. Self-awareness serves you in creating a higher quality of self-care
14. If you want a life that feels well-rounded, you’ll need self-awareness to make it happen
15. Pursuing your passions requires a healthy dose of awareness
16. Folks with better emotional intelligence are typically very self-aware
17. If you want to learn to listen to (and follow) your intuition, then you’ll need to grow your self-awareness
18. Self-awareness allows you to be more authentic
Even if being true to yourself means you make "unpopular" choices.
Self-awareness is one of those soft skills they don’t teach in school but you need to have a better life. The choice to recognize the power it has to increase the quality of our life is worth the patience and the pain it will inevitably bring about. The beginning is easier than you might think. just ask yourself questions using the inquiry method.
You have other options. You can choose to ignore the opportunity awareness provides. You can choose to just go with the flow and not pursue a life that feels more nourishing. After all, the process of becoming more self-aware can be awkward and uncomfortable, and it can seem easier on the surface to just pretend life is okay. The trade-off, though, is that the unease and discomfort you may feel are only temporary. In fact, those uncomfortable feelings are doing an important job — they’re alerting you to some aspect of your life that needs tending or cultivated before you can move forward. You deserve to live a life you love. In order to create it, you need to know the most important tool you have to do so: knowing yourself.
Debra Smouse is a life coach and author whose work has been published in TIME, Huffington Post, MSN, Psychology Today, and more.