Start your self-development journey through self-awareness
Someone approached me today to seek help regarding career guidance and planning for her sibling. While we were discussing what can help that young lady in gaining clarity towards what career would be best suited for her, a perspective came up about knowing oneself. This prompted me to put across my thoughts around self-awareness, ways to increase self-awareness, and how it can be useful.
The COVID-19 pandemic can feel overwhelming due to new information, long work hours, and caring for your family and yourself. It’s important to pause for a moment and collect your thoughts, as worldwide pandemics can be taxing. Remaining calm can help. Taking care of yourself can better equip you to take care of others. People have stayed at home and lost touch due to social distancing; this has led to losing their interest in meeting people.
Self-awareness and personal insight play a vital role at various points in an individual’s life. Although everyone has a fundamental idea of what self-awareness is, they still may need inputs or support on knowing how to be self-aware and increase it.
Ways that can help an individual to be more self-aware are :
Besides the above aspects, using standardized psychometric assessments can be another approach to gain more insights and understanding about self. Many tests measure personality, interests, abilities, values, motives, etc. Taking such tests and seeking inputs from experts who interpret its outcome proves to be very helpful. There are various tools that I have been using for myself and with my clients. One among them that I have been using for many years and am really fascinated about is one of the personality assessments – the 16 Personality Factor test (16pf®).
16pf® is such an amazing tool that reflects a person’s character in 16 personality traits. It shares perspectives about an individual’s tendency towards emotional stability, risk-taking, self-confidence, inclination to work with others or taking independent decisions. Thus, it overall helps an individual to know their strengths and weaknesses.
By using some of these approaches one will be able to enhance their self-awareness. This will facilitate a person in his/her self-development journey, making the right career choices, taking up initiative and specific responsibilities, dealing with others in personal and professional life, managing uncertainty and dilemmas, being an effective leader knowing your style, etc.
Happy self-reflection!
