Learn how to increase your personal success by improving your self-awareness with these five activities.
“Self-awareness” is a term you likely have heard. But what exactly is self-awareness and why is it important?
Positive Psychology tells us that “self-awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection.” They highlight these four proven benefits of self-awareness:
1. It can make us more proactive, boost our acceptance, and encourage positive self-development (Sutton, 2016).
2. Self-awareness allows us to see things from the perspective of others, practice self-control, work creatively and productively, and experience pride in ourselves and our work as well as general self-esteem (Silvia & O’Brien, 2004).
3. It leads to better decision making (Ridley, Schutz, Glanz, & Weinstein, 1992).
4. It can make us better at our jobs, better communicators in the workplace, and enhance our self-confidence and job-related wellbeing (Sutton, Williams, & Allinson, 2015).
The above self-awareness benefits have the potential to improve your success in every area of your life: Personally, professionally, and academically. Below are five helpful activities for cultivating self-awareness and working toward the personal success and wellbeing you desire and deserve.
5 Self-Awareness Activities to Improve Your Personal Success:
1. Start Journaling
From Albert Einstein to Frida Kahlo, some very iconic men and women have kept journals — and for good reason. Some of the benefits of keeping a journal include tracking personal progress and growth, improving writing and communication skills, and reducing stress and anxiety.
Not sure where to start? Check out these 20 types of journals to keep and this list of 64 journaling prompts for self-discovery. The journaling prompts are divided into categories such as “work and career” or “personal growth and life goals” that help you focus on a specific area of self-awareness.
2. Practice Mindfulness
Psychology Today defines mindfulness as “a state of active, open attention to the present. This state is described as observing one’s thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad.”
The mindfulness industry is huge and only growing. So, from listening to a podcast to attending a retreat, a wide range of mindfulness instruction and activities are out there. Since life is busy — and even the best of our wellness intentions can get hijacked by responsibilities — we love this list of five simple mindfulness practices that you can incorporate into your daily life:
- Mindful Wakeup: Start With a Purpose
- Mindful Eating: Enjoy Every Mouthful
- Mindful Pause: Rewire Your Brain
- Mindful Workout: Activate Your Mind and Your Muscles
- Mindful Driving: Drive Yourself Calm, Not Crazy
3. Take a Personality Assessment
Personality assessments are a great way to enhance your self-awareness. The True Colors Online Personality Assessment provides unique insights into your personality type and decision-making style. Taking our personality assessment is the beginning of an amazing journey of self-awareness that can benefit every individual looking to improve their personal success and wellbeing.
The True Colors methodology takes the most important concepts presented in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and distills them into a user-friendly, fun, and — most important — practical tool. This helps you easily understand the personalized 25+ page report about your unique personality spectrum that you’ll receive upon completion of our assessment.
4. Complete Our Personal Awareness & Success Training
The True Colors Personal Awareness & Success Workshop will guide you through the foundational concepts of the True Colors system. This interactive, engaging, and life-changing workshop helps participants explore their own distinctive personality strengths and stressors, learn to respect and appreciate differences in the ways people function, and lay the foundation for meaningful relationships, effective communication, and decreased instances of conflict in their lives.
Each of us has our own personality type, and it has a tremendous effect on how we interact with other people. Our personality type consists of our unique styles, preferences, and ways of operating. When you complete our Personal Success Workshop, you’ll gain the knowledge and skills to successfully live and work well with other people no matter their personality type.
5. Ask for Feedback
This takes some bravery, but asking trusted friends, family members, or co-workers to give you honest feedback on your personality can be extremely enlightening. Others close to us are often able to see things about ourselves that we simply can’t — or simply choose not to.
These 70 questions to ask people about yourself and become more self-aware are divided into categories such as “questions to ask your partner,” “questions to ask your employees,” and “questions to ask your bosses.”
Be Your True Self and Share Your Gifts
Becoming more self-aware will absolutely improve your personal success and wellbeing. The great thing though is that it will also improve your relationships. This means by doing the hard work of getting to know yourself better, you're not only improving your own life, but you’re also improving the lives of those you interact with.
In the article Self-Awareness & Empathy: The First Steps to Inclusiveness, the CEO of True Colors, Robert Cook, puts it this way, “We are all unique individuals with our own personalities, values, strengths, and stressors. We each have gifts to share with the world — the greatest gift being one’s true self. You need my gifts and I need yours, because we all do truly need one another to survive and thrive.”
This year, be your true self and share your gifts with the world. You won’t regret it.
