Self-awareness

Self-awareness is an ability that we must develop if we want to improve both personally and emotionally. It implies being able to look inward and know how to read correctly what our emotional state is, what affects us, what aspects we should work on more quickly and what our weaknesses are. It is very difficult to detach ourselves from our ego to accept in a sincere way what we do not want to see. Self-awareness is a very valuable resource, but it must be developed with perseverance and a lot of work.

During this guide we will be addressing some of the tips that may be useful to you if you want to work on developing this skill.

Accept your weaknesses

We all have strengths and weaknesses, usually we learn to enhance those aspects with which we feel good but we ignore the existence of our weaknesses. Our pride clouds our judgment when it comes to perceive ourselves in a holistic way, we hide our weaknesses and that leads to the fact that they stand out in the moments we least want.

Perhaps you have ambitions to set up your business in a foreign country, so you focus on boosting your ego under the belief that you are very good at what you do, but you do not notice that you have not even bothered to learn the language of the country where you plan to start a business, its culture, legal system or market. Self-awareness entails not only recognizing that you have weaknesses, but also looking for them and accepting them. Only then will you be able to work on them.

Learn from your emotions

Our emotions have a considerable impact on our actions and results. We do not always feel the same way, the state of mind is fundamental in achieving successful results. We have to be able to learn to know what our emotional state is, it is not the same to make decisions when we are upset or depressed than when we are calm. Reading our emotions critically will allow you to learn about yourself, to know yourself better and to know what percentage of productivity you are working at the moment.

Learning from our emotions is not the same as suppressing or controlling them. Emotions are natural, bad news will awaken in you a whole bunch of feelings, the important thing is not that you work on suppressing those feelings, but that you know how to recognize them to be able to clearly appreciate if you are in a good moment to make a decision, talk to someone or even go to work.

Predicting your behavior

Predicting your behavior has a lot to do with learning from your emotions. When we know ourselves deeply, we can predict what impact certain events will have on our mood and how we might react to them. Predicting your behavior will help you in self-control, if you know you are irritated you are more likely to get upset about unimportant things. Knowing this you will assume a more flexible posture when exchanging with other people, if there is something you do not like you will reserve it for a time when you are calmer and can reflect on it before acting on it.

The same applies to nerves, if a situation makes you nervous, it is best to know beforehand that you will go through it. That won't prevent the nervousness but it will eliminate the surprise, allowing you to be much more rational, even during that emotional state. Prediction is a very valuable quality, if you can anticipate things that may affect you, you will reduce the impact they have on you, and you will be able to evaluate strategies to act more effectively, reducing risks and losses. Your emotional state is the key to a correct prediction, start learning from your emotions and you will improve your predictions.