How aware are you this week of how you are feeling, what you need and how you are coming across to other people?
What would you say are the areas of your character that most require some work?
Those are big, heavy duty questions but they all point to the same thing: Awareness.
Why is Awareness important?
Awareness is one of the aspects of coaching I talk about the most. The more aware we are of ourselves, the more we understand why we do what we do. This then puts us in the position of making different choices.
This is the pathway to growth.
My recent musings here have been on the 10 keys to happier living, as outlined by Action for Happiness.
What happiness means to us, and being more aware, are both more important than ever as we renegotiate life post Covid-19.
The fourth key to happier living is Awareness.
Interestingly, the approach that Action for Happiness take on this key is to focus on mindfulness.
Mindfulness is an important and useful tool, and there is much out there to help develop it.
For me as a life coach, awareness extends far beyond mindfulness.
I have written often about Awareness, not least during these last very strange and difficult months when learning to stop and reflect on what is going on inside us is more important than ever.
A heightened awareness of our feelings allows us to take action to address underlying needs before they leak out of us in unhelpful or destructive ways. More on that here.
A lack of awareness of what we actually need can cause us to make impulsive or destructive choices that we go on to regret. More on that here.
Awareness also allows us to extend grace to ourselves and to others around us when stress levels are running high, because we have taken time to reconnect with what is most important.
Central to our ability to be successful, awareness
will give you an insight into your beliefs and whether they are positive or holding you back.”
…as identified by a sports psychologist. When we know what we are believing about ourselves, we can choose to create different beliefs that move us forward rather than keeping us trapped.
Part of the definition of Awareness by the International Coach Federation is:
… the ability to integrate and accurately evaluate multiple
sources of information, and to make interpretations…”
There are two elements to this that go further to explain why is awareness important.
Awareness of the present:
Where are you now? What is going on in your life now? What is working well and what is not? What changes do you want to make?
And awareness of the person:
Who are you right now? What are you feeling, believing, thinking? Who is the version of yourself that you want to be, and are your actions and choices taking you towards that person or away?
We can only answer these questions when we stop and ask them of ourselves. This takes time, skill, practice and a willingness to become more self-reflective.
Greater awareness affords us greater understanding and clarity.
We can start to identify disparities between our thoughts, our feelings and our actions.
And that allows us to take action – to choose a different response, to choose to be proactive rather than reacting to what life throws at us.
Awareness is the key to our growth.
So this week, get into the habit of regularly asking yourself questions like:
- What am I believing about myself today?
- How am I feeling today and what do I need?
- What do those around me need?
- What is one thing I have done that I am proud of?
- What has worked well today and what has not, and why?
- What am I learning about myself, what I am doing and how others are experiencing me?
- What will I do differently tomorrow?
This is the key to being able to coach yourself.
Why is awareness important? We need to know where we are starting from before we can move forward.
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