September 6, 2012
September is Self-Awareness Month. Are you self-aware?
When I ask this question in my workshops, and it doesn’t matter if I am with CEOs, management teams, educators, parents, medical professionals, graduate students, or teens, the answer is a resounding: I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it.
Yet, according to various studies and authorities, self-awareness is the:
- #1 characteristic of a successful entrepreneur
- #1 characteristic of a high performing leader
- #1 characteristic of an authentic leader
- #1 factor of predicting success in business
And we have been hearing in the spiritual realm for thousands of years that self-awareness is the #1 characteristic of a successful human being.
This is not surprising to me. Because everything we say and do first begins in a thought. Everything.
In my experience, most of us have not thought about our thoughts. We have no idea what we are thinking.
We don’t realize that we are making thousands of choices every day, thousands of decisions every day.
We don’t realize that most of our thoughts are rooted in fear, focused on what we don’t want –They’re not moving us in a direction that serves our true purpose.
We don’t realize that we’re not inspired.
I can’t even begin to describe how much power each and every one of us has.
Every thought we have is creating — for better and worse — richer and poorer — sickness and health.
Individually and collectively.
We all have the ability to be self-aware, to notice what we are thinking, how we are feeling, and if we are in alignment with who we truly are and what we truly wish to create in this world.
We all have the ability to choose the thoughts we wish to hold, to create health, happiness, significant results, and be creative, inspired, and impactful in everything we do.
Confucius once said: To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate ourselves.
This is true for us as individuals and as organizations, particularly in such fast-moving and volatile times.
I change the world around me by changing myself. And I change myself through self-awareness, self-mastery, and being on-purpose.
Are you self-aware?
For an example of self-awareness and leadership, I invite you to read or listen to this Forward Thinking Reminder on Thinking Powerfully.