Self-awareness and happiness go hand in hand.
Happiness is a state of mind that everyone wants to be in, but not everyone attains this state. Some people think that happiness depends on external factors, such as wealth, fame, or success. However, these things are not enough to make us truly happy. Happiness comes from within, and it is influenced by our self-awareness.
Self-awareness is a human skill to recognize and understand our own emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. It helps us to know ourselves better, to accept ourselves as we are, and to change what we want to improve. Self-awareness also helps us to connect to others in a more human centric way, to empathize with their feelings, and to communicate effectively.
Most of us assume ourselves to be self-aware, but in reality, very few are. A Harvard research confirms that only 10 to 15 per cent of the people are really self-aware. Being self-aware means having a clear and precise view of your own values, passions, goals, reactions, strengths, weaknesses, and impact of all these on others.
Why self-awareness and happiness is so important?
Success and happiness on both personal and professional fronts requires an adequate amount of self-awareness. We are more self-assured and inventive when we are aware of who we are. With being self-aware we can make better judgments, our relationships flourish and we gain control over our internal and external arenas. We have lesser chances to betray others or ourselves. We become a better version of ourselves with high productivity in the professional as well as in the personal domain. We become happier and take better decisions as leaders.
Types of self-awareness
Self-awareness is not simple and it has two sides as a coin has. The two types can be classified as internal and external. Internal self-awareness is about understanding your own thoughts, feelings, preferences, and motivations. On the other hand External self-awareness is about understanding how others see you and how you affect them. Both types are significant, but they are not always aligned. For example, you may think that you are a great listener, but others may disagree. Or you may believe that you are assertive, but others may perceive you as aggressive.
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How to nurture self-awareness and happiness ?
To harness it further, we need to use different strategies for each type of self-awareness. For internal self-awareness, introspection is not enough. You also need to test your assumptions and seek feedback from others. For external self-awareness, asking for feedback is not enough. You also need to be open-minded and willing to change your behavior based on the feedback. But in both the types of self-awareness “CHANGE is the game changer”.
The 5 Secrets to be self-aware
1- Improve your internal self-awareness: Keep a journal of your thoughts and feelings. Write down what you want to achieve, what makes you happy or unhappy, what triggers your emotions, and what you can do to improve your situation.
2- Improve your external self-awareness: Ask for feedback from people who know you well and who will be honest with you. Ask them specific questions about your strengths and weaknesses, your communication style, and your impact on others.
3- Align your internal and external self-awareness: compare your self-perception with the feedback you receive. Identify any gaps or discrepancies and try to understand why they exist. Then take action to close the gaps or resolve the discrepancies by changing your behavior or communicating more clearly.
4-Testing the internal and external self-awareness levels: Take personality tests or assessments that can reveal your preferences, styles, and tendencies. This can help to discover more about oneself and how we interact with others.
5-Cultivate a daily habit: Anything we do on a regular basis becomes our habit. To stay self-aware, meditate or practice mindfulness more often. This creates an awareness of the present moment. This can help to calm our mind and help a great way to create harmony between our sensations, emotions, thoughts and our belief system. Harmony is the key to be happy in life, being self-aware.
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Happiness is not something that we can buy or achieve from outside. Happiness is something that we can cultivate from inside. By increasing our self-awareness, we can discover what makes us happy, what matters to us, and what gives us joy. We can then live a life that is in harmony with our true self and our true happiness.
By knowing oneself better and aligning our self-perception with reality, we will be able to achieve more happiness and success in our personal and professional life. We will not be blind with your perceptions and assumptions, rather we will be more aware, and this awareness will add wings to our happiness in life.
For more ways to be self-aware & happy take a look at the chapters of the Get Set Go Happy !
“Discovering Happiness out of anything in life”.
On your Marks Get Set Go Happy!
