Do we know ourselves ? Are we Self Aware ?

At times, we find ourselves wondering, "What is wrong with me and the people I work with? They always seem to misunderstand me, and I fear I might be damaging our relationships."

There may also be times when we experience exhaustion, thinking, "I'm so tired of constantly acting for the sake of others; it's wearing me down because it's not truly me."

You also sometimes observe some people whom we work with are reluctant to take feedback, the image in their head is way different than what we see them.

There are also moments when we feel adrift and hurt, especially when the feedback we receive is vastly different from what we had anticipated.

There could be circumstances where you think, "This isn't like me at all; I've never acted this way before, and I never knew these reactions and emotions were within me."

If any of these resonate with you then the reason for this could be lacking Self Awareness and not frequently looking inward

Self-awareness is, at its core, the ability to see ourselves clearly to understand who we are, how others see us, and how we fit into the world around us.

In previous blog we did discuss a bit on External Image and Internal Image.

To extend the thought further, there are 4 Self Awareness Archetypes

1. Introspectors

2. Aware

3. Seekers

4. Pleasers

Below tabular form gives an understanding into what these 4 archetypes are based on our internal and external self awareness

4 Self Awareness Archetypes

In this Episode lets deep dive a bit into Looking Within

The most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently

I would like to introduce a very important framework called Gibb's Reflective Cycle which helps us to look inward, understand and reflect. Its a self explanatory framework and if you wish to read in detail its available at https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-reflective-cycle

Gibb's Reflective Cycle

While using this framework, we tend to fall under cognitive biases which become a roadblock to Self Awareness.

So be aware of these 4 types of Cognitive biases

1. Self Serving Bias : A perception problem in which an individual is likely to attribute causes of success to internal factors and causes of failure to external factors.

2. Confirmation Bias: The tendency to seek, interpret and favour information that supports one's prior beliefs.

3. Positively Biased Recall: Our tendency recall events that showcase our positive qualities more easily than events that highlight our negative ones

4. Dunning-Kruger Effect: A cognitive bias in which people with low ability in a task tend to overestimate their ability.

Now that we know the Dont's, Lets also look at some helping tips and Dos which will cultivate Self Awareness Habits

1. Use objective criteria to evaluate yourself: Specific, measurable, externally generated

2. Practice mindfulness: Clear focus of attention on the present moment, Noticing our thoughts, feelings and actions without judgment, Awareness of shifting attention between the inner self and outer world

3. Reframe: Look for opportunities to look for alternative perspectives, By shifting our "frame", the picture or our view can shift

4. Self Checkins : Reflect on how your day went, What went well and what didn't, What patterns do you notice

Do let me know what are your thoughts about Internal Self Awareness.

Keep watching this space for my next blog on External Self Awareness