‘SELF-KNOWLEDGE – The Launching Off Point for Managing Yourself’

Remember the 4 directions leaders lead – up, down, across and within (self) – and that they lead to 2 pathways to focus your personal power – Managing Others and Managing Yourself.  Well, managing within/self is a function of self-knowledge, and that journey starts with self-awareness.

For those inclined to be (and want to be) self-aware, it’s part of your life-long quest of deepening your learning, growing and fine-tuning.  For those not inclined to self-awareness, it can be jump-started by a significant setback, a growing discomfort or sense that something’s not working, a new doubt or a less than effective habit/behavior that’s crept into your being.

Importance of How We Feel Inside

“Feeling good about ourselves is the most essential prerequisite to living our best life. Having high self-esteem is our greatest ally” – Debbie Ford. Self-confidence has been shown to be more important than self-competence.  You can see why – self-doubt and low self-esteem are directly linked to fear and paralysis which lead to inaction (fear of failing, thus never learning from mistakes) and missed/lost opportunities.

 We make real choices about our life based on what we believe about ourselves.  Use your powerful beliefs to make you feel good about yourself.

 Thoughts, Words and Actions Matter

A powerful window into knowing yourself starts with your thoughts/beliefs. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any” – Alice Walker. How many of you recognize that little furry creature sitting on your shoulder/living in your head – the gremlin – that fuels negative thoughts like “I’m not good enough”, “I’m not worthy”, “I can’t do it right”, “I’m not smart enough”, “I’m a failure”, and so on.

The problem with these ‘lies’ is that we start believing the negative thoughts, then we give them meaning, and then we behave as if they’re true – these negative thoughts and beliefs start running our lives. In fact, the past starts running our present and future – and ‘cost’ us. Getting conscious about negative beliefs is the first, critical step.

Thoughts, words and actions either build our self-confidence or chip away at it on a daily basis.  Your consciousness begins here – “The thoughts you think (about yourself and others), the words you say (to yourself and others) and the actions you take (for yourself and others) inform the choices you make and determine how you feel about yourself”.

These two cornerstones are life-changing. I know I have heartfelt gratitude for the extraordinary leaders in my life who live by example, and the inspirational authors/teachers/coaches who have raised my self-awareness and self-knowledge.  It is impossible to recognize the difference between being comfortable and being stuck unless you have an outside perspective.  Coaches see you in ways you can never see yourself alone.   Coaching helps focus our personal power, for ourselves and with others.

A list of some of my author heroes (in formation) who have deepened my self-knowledge.

‘SELF-KNOWLEDGE – The Launching Off Point for Managing Yourself’ Brene Brown
Barbara Brown Taylor
Joseph Campbell
Stephen Covey
Debbie Ford
Napoleon Hill
Harriet Lerner
John G. Miller
Thomas Moore

Check out the website, and see how you can learn more and integrate it into your leadership.

~  Victoria Raymont