Cognisance

Being self-aware is one of the most sought after qualities when it comes to the field of personal development. I, myself, have been a big proponent of people undergoing exercises to increase their awareness of themselves (not that it counts for anything, but I figured I’ll just throw it out there).

However, in today’s day and age of incomplete information (yes, I said it), it is extremely important to bring about a missing piece of the puzzle. So today, let’s delve into a deeper, rather enlightening, facet of life.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Human beings are an interesting specie. We reign supreme over the all powers of the universe, so much so that we make murderous lions and tigers into circus animals, whipping them to do tricks, solely for the purpose of our entertainment.

There is a big reason for this, and by the topic itself, most people would know where I am going. It is due to the fact that we have consciousness of our own existence. Human beings have the power to understand that they exist, and also decide on what’s right and what’s wrong..

..at least from our own metrics.

I wrote another large piece on the topic of self awareness, which you can read here. Today, I intend to extend that discussion by one more level.

Let’s take the example of a person named A, who is male (for avoiding confusions, since it is pretty easy to get confused today). A is an amazingly detail-oriented person, who has been a good student all his life, and finds it easy to follow clearly laid down instructions to achieve a desired result.

Now, A has decided to develop a higher degree of self-awareness. To do that, he goes to the most *trustworthy* of sources out there, called the internet.

(The double asterisk denote sarcasm, just FYI).

Through a detailed search on the internet, A finds out a number of ways to increase his self-awareness. For anyone interested, here is a non-exhaustive summary of what he found.

1. Be curious about yourself: Take the time to understand your own beliefs about who you are.
2. Ask your loved ones about their perception of you: People around you are more objective to answers such questions, since their own feelings aren’t involved (unless they believe your opinion of what they think about you might upset you – I know, complicated).
3. Meditate: Take some time out in a day to just sit down, relax and observe your thought patterns, not just about yourself, but in general.
4. Journal: Write down any trigger points in your day, both eliciting a positive and a negative response.

A followed all these steps to the T and found out (or rather, out of the sea of answers, retained) certain traits about himself.

He found out that he is:

1. Obsessive: He has a hard time letting things go.
2. Indecisive: He finds it challenging to give his opinion, especially in social settings.
3. Perfectionist: He focusses too much on the nitty-gritty, so much so that he sometimes loses sight of the bigger picture.

So, A’s detailed, extremely thorough search of himself brought him these results. A is now more aware of his own shortcomings. End of story, right?

Well, I’m not A, but if I were, it would cause me to obsess over how to alter these traits, while finding it hard to know where to start and stifling myself to find the perfect way to do it.

This brings me to the point of this article:

Awareness of a personal trait in and of itself does nothing for you except for making it easier for you to communicate it to others.

The bigger chunk of the equation is to decide whether or not you want to be a person with that trait.

The bigger chunk of the equation is to decide whether or not you want to be a person with that trait. If yes, good. You’re there. If not, maybe you need to do something about it.

If you stuck around this far, thank you for your time. If you enjoyed this, share this with one friend of yours whom you think will benefit from reading this. Thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next one. 🙂