Inquisitive Report 13/52

Week Ending April 27th, 2018

Content Covered: Tool on Self Awareness

This past week I have to admit, I have been on break mode.

I haven’t worked on Xpanse, I haven’t made any progress on any of my pending items –hell I haven’t even read anything lately. And you know what? I like it.

I like that I’m on a mini ‘break’ because I know the productivity will pick up again, it always has in the past, and it will this time too.

So for this weeks report I’m going to discuss a few thoughts on self-awareness:

Self awareness when simply put is: conscious knowledge of what we do.  

A lot of the work that I do centers around increasing your self awareness, because becoming more conscious of the choices that we make is the first step in understanding the impact that our choices have on other people.

Most often, when we try to become more self-aware, or try to understand ourselves better we ask: why? Why did I do that thing, or say those words, or make that choice? We correlate finding the meaning as understanding or becoming more aware about oursleves.

While this notion isn’t false, it isn’t the only way to gain insight. Instead of always asking “why”, try reframing the situation with a “what.” Instead of asking: why did I say that mean thing? Ask: what do I want to do to change my relationship? or what does saying something mean achieve, and how can I achieve that same outcome in a differnet way?

Changing the type of question we ask ourselves has the ability to move us forward. “Why” questions, though inquisitive and informative, are almost always rooted in things that have already passed. “What” questions on the other hand, allow you to gain insight on your behaviour and understand how you would like to move forward.

What I’m suggesting isn’t a fool proof way of moving towards growth and change with every insight. Instead, my aim is to provide you with another tool for your tool belt the next time an action triggers the thought: why? 

I’d love to hear how you practice increasing your self-awareness, or any challegnes that you have faced. Please feel free to reply to this post, or email me!