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Start with you

You have more links to the entire world than the average Victorian had to surrounding villages. Via keyboard, phone or aeroplane, you can contact anywhere. The ordinary working life puts you with hundreds of people from dozens of backgrounds. How can you relate to them all?

You cannot hope to understand where other people are coming from, unless you understand where you are coming from yourself. Self-awareness is not selfishness or egotism. It is a baseline from which you can reach out to other people.

Spare a little time to understand yourself. Answer these questions:

Physical

• How good is your health? Are you as fit as you want to be?
• What systems do you use for managing your time? How do you prioritise the demands made on you?
• How do you balance your needs with your obligations?
• What is your level of material well-being?
• What are your key skills?

Mental

• What are your values?
• What are your fundamental beliefs that drive you forward?
• What shadow beliefs do you hold that may be holding you back?
• What are your areas of knowledge?
• How fit are you in a cognitive sense?

Emotional

• Are you happy at core?
• Are you mainly relaxed, or mainly stressed?
• What makes you feel good?
• What do you find difficult to deal with?
• Can you express your emotions appropriately?
• Can you empathise with other people?
• Do you ever lose control?
• Do you feel you get the support you need?

Spiritual

• Does your life have meaning?
• What do you really want out of your life?
• Do you know what you are striving for and why?
• What do you want to be remembered about you?
• What kind of future are you creating by the things you are doing now?

This is not the egocentric navel gazing that pushes your further into yourself. It is finding the core you – your values, beliefs, feelings and drivers.

Understanding what makes you tick will help you to understand other people. This will help in your relationships, personal and business, and will be a spur to pushing outwards.

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© Copyright 2003 Trans4mation. Reproduced with permission. Any opinions or views contained in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Training Reference.

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