Self-awareness. The ability to look at ourselves as others see us. Naked, bare, no makeup, no bling, no fancy trappings.
Let me be clear – this is not the same as looking in the mirror. That is too easy. In fact, most of us see what we want to see when the mirror is our only measurement of self.
Self-awareness requires stripping off all embellishments – taking a “fly on the wall,” out-of-body look at ourselves and the scenes we play in.
Sometimes it’s called “taking a hard look”; sometimes it’s considered a realistic assessment – whatever you call it, it ain’t always easy or pretty.
Personally, I have cringed with shame in rethinking situations where I was overly confident or ridiculously secure in the false self-assurance of rightness – when, in retrospect, I was so far out of orbit that I wasn’t even in the same universe as the people I was interacting with.
And as with all things – I find this true for personal and business situations – and I certainly have had my share of both.
At the end of the day, it’s about not allowing you to be gullible to yourself.
Listen:
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool. –Richard Feynman
And there you have it – open your eyes and mind in total synch – and see what you see. I’d be surprised if at least once in a while it’s not what you thought.
What do you think?
Maybe we should all have pictures of ourselves a la Dorian Gray to see what we really are?
Interestingly enough — there were potrait painters in Europe during the Middle Ages and even latter who were subversive — quietly — although they painted their subjects (always important people) faithfully — they left little tell tale signs of the persons true character — El Greco comes to mind as one http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/greco/cardinal.jpg
check the clawed left hand…..
When the person grow he start to come to know yourself, it’s easy to understand other people but the most difficult thing in the world is to know yourself
)
I hate too ruin this chain of thought and make Richard Feynman look like a fool to himself, but Self Awareness points to Being Aware of Awareness itself. That which is reading these words…