Daily Read #33 – 4 Simple Introspection Steps That Will Boost Self Awareness

Solomon’s Note: Today’s daily read is a follow-through from this week’s leading article on Self-Awareness, written by Paula Mugisa of Teesa Advisory. As a big fan of self-evaluation, I often find myself reading a lot on introspection as a tool for accelerating growth.

Today’s read is an article I read a few months ago from the prolific Nir Eyal who writes fantastic Medium blog on the psychology of stuff. I’m sharing snippets from the article below.

Here Are The 4 Simple Introspection Steps That Will Boost Self Awareness

According to researchers, knowing yourself better results in “stronger relationships, a clearer sense of purpose, and greater well-being, self-acceptance, and happiness.” These benefits can help you in almost every area of life. They’ll make you a better manager, employee, colleague, parent, spouse, and friend.

Self awareness involves three elements to get you where you want to go:

• Introspection is “the process of attempting to directly access one’s own internal psychological processes, judgments, perceptions, or states.”5
• Self reflection involves the “examination, contemplation, and analysis of one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions.”6
• Insight is “the clear and often sudden discernment of a solution to a problem.”7 It’s the result of self reflection and introspection.

Introspection gives you access to understanding yourself, self reflection lets you process what you learn, and insights are the answers you come up with and that you can act upon.

An Introspection Method: Do’s and Don’ts

1. Don’t Obsess

So you just need to think about yourself all the time, right? Nope. That won’t automatically lead to deeper knowledge. In fact, if you aren’t careful about how you reflect on your life, you might end up unhappier than when you began.

2. Don’t Ask the Wrong Questions

When we engage in introspection, we too often start by asking why questions. It might be as simple as, “Why do I feel this way?” We search for the reasons underlying our discontent. On the surface, it makes sense, but it can lead to misery.

Why questions can cause you to obsess over your problems. They lead to greater anxiety and symptoms of depression.

Read the full article Here Are The 4 Simple Introspection Steps That Will Boost Self Awareness on Medium, it offers much more insights than this little summary can provide.