The Self Awareness to Grow

After months of thinking something was up, she finally confirmed my suspicions. She was looking for a new job. We had worked well together for the past four years but she wanted a job at a company that was a better fit for her. I was disappointed but I knew it was the right move for her to accomplish her goals. As I reflected on this, I thought a lot about the good and bad from the past four years and what I would be looking for as a replacement.

A stack of personal development books on a wooden table.

Later that week, I was talking with a client who was a very successful CEO and a brilliant person I admire greatly. He advised me to find someone that compliments me correctly. Meaning, I had to understand my weaknesses to hire someone that would offset them. He offered some insight and as I pondered it, I thought I knew exactly what to do. I tasked myself with talking to and getting the perspective of clients, co-workers, employees, and my leadership team to uncover any blind spots and identify my weaknesses. I would document this, prioritize them based on what I thought I could get better at and what I wanted to get better at compared to areas that I had little interest in improving or would require too much work without providing an adequate return on my investment of time. Then, I would know exactly what I was looking for in a new employee.

The results I got back were not inspiring. Very few areas were identified as weaknesses. How could that be? I am not that good at my job - I know that for a fact. I couldn't rule out that some of them were probably uncomfortable being that honest with me, but then I realized something. Everyone is so focused on themselves that they really don't pay that much attention to me. If I was doing something glaringly wrong, they would let me know but at the end of the day, we are selfish human beings and mostly think of ourselves. I could rattle off many areas that I want to improve in both professionally and personally. (I did not ask my wife because she has already provided me that feedback.) It was then I realized that most of my self improvement and personal development was going to come from self-awareness.

If you are reading this, you already understand the importance of self-awareness. You know what it looks like. What it feels like. You have recognized an area in your life that you want to improve upon and have taken a step towards that improvement. This journey is never ending. Self awareness is the first step in identifying areas that we want to improve and once you improve one area in life, you will identify another area in life to improve in. In fact, you probably could list multiple areas of life right now that you want to improve in. As you start improving, and recognize the impact of them, new ideas will come into your mind and you will embark upon a lifelong journey of self-improvement. I recommend writing them down (in a journal) and keeping a growing list. It can seem daunting, sure, but even if you only improve in one area on that list, you are still 100% better than if you didn't improve at all.