It’s easy to race through the day and start the next without understanding where you are, how you are feeling, or the direction you are heading.
You may be disconnected in various ways without actually realizing it.
You lack the awareness to be your best at work and beyond.
The daily forces are controlling you instead of traveling the path you desire.
It’s important to ground yourself where you are right now.
Practice these actions each day to give yourself an essential and powerful gift of self-awareness.
Connect with yourself.
1. Observe yourself from afar.
Look at yourself from a distance in a 3rd-person view.
Reflecting on the day or week, write down how you see yourself.
Examine the value of where you spent your precious time.
Explore how emotion and discipline have governed your actions.
2. Go on a walk.
Get outside to experience and observe the environment.
Stay off your smartphone.
Let your mind wander to explore ideas.
Uncover solutions to breakthrough work problems that spur innovation.
3. Meditate in private.
Find a quiet spot.
Empty the mind to make space for deeper insight.
Focus on what is floating in your unconscious.
Return to your work with clarity.
4. Listen to podcasts.
Use your travel time to work or school to listen and reflect on ideas.
Digest content that drives self-reflection.
Digest content that builds solid character and habits.
Take notes on how you plan to change something about yourself.
5. Journal daily.
Empty your thoughts in handwritten form.
Use multiple journals that focus on a specific theme (e.g., work, health, hobby).
Place journals in view to build the daily habit.
Go back in time and quickly scan to identify trends, insight, and progress.
Synthesize the signal from the noise – derive the next actions that move you closer to your planned journey.
Explore these questions.
- How are you using this wisdom to shape your life?
- Looking back over the last few months, what themes or observations have you uncovered in your journal?
- What have you recently learned about yourself?
Resources for Deeper Study
Awareness – The Perils and Opportunities of Reality by Anthony De Mello
A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine
The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer