How well do you know yourself? It may be obvious, but you have special access to knowledge about yourself that no one else has--google "self-knowledge" or "epistemic privilege" if you want to nerd out. You have some powerful tools at your disposal that you should invest in. Introspection and reflexive thinking (thinking about you and your thoughts) are crucial disciplines in deepening your self-awareness.
Still, there is so much that you don't see precisely because of your position. None of us hears our voice as it sounds to others. We spend less time looking at our own face than the people around us do. Changes about ourselves are often hard for us to notice for two reasons: first, because we experience the small gradual changes that make it harder to see the big change. Second, our brains essentially see us on a moving average model. That means that is is always several weeks behind what is really happening.
Our self-blindness is not limited to psychical features. In fact, most of us walk around with huge blind-spots about our emotional selves. Shame and pride often keep us from truly seeing who we are and what we have to offer. If this doesn't quite make sense, think about it in terms of someone you know and love. Have you ever seen this friend completely miscategorize their skills or attributes? Or maybe you have tried to give them a compliment that they were unable to receive. There are tons of people (including myself at times) who cannot even answer questions like "what are you good at the others find difficult?" or "what are you passionate about?" It is very common and if you take the time to notice, I think you'll catch yourself doing it too.
So what can we do? Leverage your community. Literally just ask the people who know you best what they see. To keep the conversation focused, it is important to give them some guidelines. Here is a list of six questions that my close friend, Damon Moore, put together to help guide the discussion. Damon and I exchanged answers for each other and it was a really awesome exercise. He is not on Steemit (yet), but you should check out his blog at http://iamdamonmoore.com/ where his mission is to help you"Live a better Story. Discover where you are in your own epic adventure, heal the purpose of your life and become your whole self." You won't regret it.
The Questions:
What are my 3-5 unique qualities?
What value do you get from connecting with me?
What do you think is my professional strength?
What do you think is my personal strength?
What attribute is unique to me and separates me from others?
What is ONE quality that I seem to undervalue that you think I should be more bold about sharing?
Find people who really know you and who want what is best for you. Answering these questions should take some time, so you should commit to answering the questions for your friends as well--if they want you to. Let me know what your favorite question is. Mine is the sixth. What would you add or change about the list?
Until next time, be blessed.
Sam
Image Source: Mirrors
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