Two easy ways to increase your awareness


We all have personal rules and standards. They impact our relationships with ourselves, with others and our experience of the world. Most people operate by these unconsciously. To be more conscious of what drives you, you can choose to increase your awareness to notice these drivers. Here are some questions of areas you might want to be aware of, and you might think of others too:

  1. how do you get distracted?
  2. what triggers heightened states of emotion? (joy, excitement, anger, etc)
  3. which sort of people intimidate you, annoy you, scare you, attract you?
  4. do you plan goals and follow through with them? which do you avoid?
  5. what activities do you do habitually?
  6. what food do you consume that you know is not good for you?
  7. what makes you smile? and what really makes you laugh out loud?

A lot of what we do and how we respond in life is driven by our standards, values and beliefs about the world and people around us, and our beliefs about ourselves.

Is it true that without standards we aim for nothing and are blown around any which way?
Is it true that without values we have no moral compass guiding our behaviour?
Is it true that without self-respect, we judge and disrespect others?
Is it true that without gratitude, we may fail to acknowledge the good in our lives?

To increase your awareness is fairly easy. It takes 60 seconds, a pen, paper and some thinking.
Here's an idea: you could decide now to choose 2 areas on the list above, and either:

  • jot down the things you know right now that answer those questions, or
  • have a sheet of paper or notebook with you during the day, and when aware of the answer to the questions, open the book and jot it down immediately
Basically, this increases your awareness about the truth of what drives you. Then you can decide what to do with that information. Would you like to choose the two areas and take a minute to do that now?

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