Truly Self-Aware
The road to improving your emotional intelligence begins with self-awareness. This part of the process can quite often be the most difficult due to the blinders we have been given from the various experiences throughout our lives.
Always More to Learn
When I approach the idea of self awareness to many adults, the answer I am quite often given is “of course I know myself, how couldn’t I? Or I am very aware of who I am.” And that may be so but there is always something more to discover the deeper or wider we go. This line of thinking goes back to my previous post regarding being closed minded to a new perspective.
Of course, I am not suggesting that you should be open to my perspective of who you are. What I am suggesting though is that you realize you may not actually have all the answers you think you do about yourself and turning to an objective approach to looking at yourself especially with the aid of a personalized explanation of the Clifton Strengths Assessment to use as a foundation can help guide you to a deeper understanding.
Looking for Something New?
I am different from most people one turns to when in times of stress because I don’t attempt to tell you what to or what you should do and I don’t spend months asking questions to try to get you to come to your own conclusions. I simply facilitate a very well-known and respected assessment developed by a professional in the field of positive psychology, guide you through an explanation of your Strengths order to take your results and give them a more personal application to all areas of your life. I then will use that information to support you in increasing your emotional intelligence beginning with self-awareness.
Without a firm grasp of who you innately are, you will not be able to authentically work through self - understanding, acceptance, embracement, management and empowerment.
Digging Deeper
A second closed minded scenario I encounter is unfortunately many people believe that digging deeper into who they are is just opening a can of worms they don’t need. This mindset is exactly why people need to dig deeper due to the fact that the root cause of this line of thinking is a fear of what they will discover based on self-doubt and a lack of confidence in who they are.
Ironically, these people are often the ones who come across as overly confident which demonstrates a low emotional intelligence. This is a defense mechanism used subconsciously to deal with such low self-esteem.
We have all come across people who can’t help but brag about themselves and present themselves as know it all’s. It is helpful to keep this in mind when you encounter someone who is endlessly boasting about themselves as it may help you have a new perspective of where they are coming from and why they feel such a need to build themselves up.
Rely on Your Own Validation
I also believe that people who are or have been in relationships that entailed heavy criticism of who they are can be very leery of the idea of self-awareness due to my own experience. My validation heavily relied on others' opinions of me rather than relying on my own self-awareness and I was even criticized when I did seek to improve myself by reading or following personal development professionals.
Due to the trauma involved in not only not being accepted for who they are, but being demeaned for it they automatically assume that the self-awareness process will involve cutting them down even further based on their now low self-worth. This could not be further from the truth!
Enjoy the Process
I will work with you to take off those blinders previously placed on your psyche and guide you through how wonderfully unique you are and how to show the gifts that only you possess to the world with pride. We uncover this through understanding where each of the 34 traits in the Strengths Assessment fall specifically for you. No one else on the face of the earth will have the same results, therefore attributes or way of doing things best for themselves.
