Wednesday 6 May 2020

Day 27 - Self Awareness Skill


Picture credit - mishfit
Day 27 - Self-Awareness Skill
6 May 2020
sirurp@gmail.com

What is Self-Awareness Skill?

Self-Awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection

My learning for the day

Today I want to share my learning about Imposter Syndrome
And about how daily journaling helps us improve our self-awareness.
Loved this line from Tasha Eurich - “....our study shows that 95% of people think they're self-aware but the real number is closer to 10% to 15%. It means that on a good day, 80% of us are lying to ourselves about ourselves..”

Imposter syndrome

Impostor (one who pretends to be someone else) syndrome is an internal experience of believing that you are not as good as others perceive you to be.  It is a psychological pattern in which one doubts one's accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud".
Many of those who feel “I am not good enough” attribute their achievements to some mysterious fluke or luck.
Many of us remember “What I did not achieve” more than “What I achieved”.
Some common signs that show how this syndrome manifests (Thanks Arlin Cuncic) - 
  • Inability to realistically assess your competence and skills
  • Fear that you won't live up to expectations
  • Attributing your success to external factors
  • Sabotaging your own success
  • Berating your performance
  • Setting very challenging goals and feeling disappointed when you fall short

Daily journaling to improve self awareness

Why should daily journaling (writing a diary) improve self awareness?
Self-Awareness is seeing yourself ‘objectively’ - daily journaling provides you data so that you can see yourself objectively.
As a bonus, there are a number of additional transformative advantages as you can see below.  
Stephen Warley interviewed 500+ people who got themselves unstuck and transformed their lives. 
For his question “What was one key action you recommend to someone to get unstuck?”, over half of these ‘transformed’ folks said, “Writing a daily journal.”
Robin Sharma, one of the top 5 leadership experts and best known for his book The Monk who sold his Ferrari, says - “Keeping a daily journal has not only changed my life – it saved it.”
You might be wondering, “What exactly should I write in my daily journal?” - Google for it and you will get more than 50 million sites explaining what to write in your daily journal. 
Let me confess, I haven’t practiced daily journaling with rigor. 
But I am going to give it a try from today.
This is what I am planning to journal (this is my own style. It is not supported by any scientific finding).
  1. Thoughts/ actions that enhanced my self esteem
  2. Creative ideas that I implemented during the day
  3. Actions that demonstrated my self confidence
  4. Actions that demonstrated my love for myself and for everything around me
  5. Actions of listening to others and the words that I spoke to inspire/ console others

Here are some articles about - what to write in the daily journals - 

How to improve this Skill?

Set a goal to become a go-to person by mastering the art and science of Self-Awareness
Follow the LAST model to build your personal brand as a Guru of Self-Awareness
  1. Learn - Assign time to study different frameworks/ models/ techniques about Self-Awareness 
  2. Apply
    • Master a framework/ model that you like
    • Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
    • Maintain record/ process flow of every important Self-Awareness activity you did
    • Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used for sharing/ training others
  3. Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
  4. Train - Train others so that they benefits from your efforts

Purpose of this document

I took a 66 day challenge to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my astonishment, I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day. 
I had four objectives - 
- to strengthen my mind to face the daily challenges 
- to use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, 
- tp use these skills in my personal life for enriching my relationships, 
- to open new possibilities to surprise myself
This is my next 66 day challenge (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills learning with my social media friends. 
I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.

What are Life Skills?

UNICEF defines Life skills as - psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are loosely grouped into three  broad categories of skills
  • cognitive skills for analyzing and using information, 
  • personal skills for developing personal agency and managing oneself, 
  • inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others.

Which LifeSkills are covered?

The World Health Organisation identified these basic areas of life skills that are relevant across cultures: 
  1. Decision-making
  2. Problem-solving
  3. Creative thinking
  4. Critical thinking
  5. Communication
  6. Interpersonal skills
  7. Self-awareness
  8. Empathy
  9. Coping with emotions
  10. Coping with stress.

Some trivia

‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated academia to teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.
Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives
  • Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
  • Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
  • United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
  • USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
  • South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.

No comments:

About Me

My photo
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
My purpose is to manufacture success and happiness