The art of awareness & self awareness

As Gandhi once said: “Our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as being able to remake ourselves.”

The reason behind the ability to remake ourselves is basically self-awareness. This is what sets humans apart from all other living beings. Awareness may simply be taken to mean consciousness; consciousness of the body and consciousness of the environment, the ability to perceive. Self-awareness on the other hand is awareness of that awareness. In simpler terms, self-awareness is the capacity to comprehend that you exist, can think and are able to think about your thoughts. This secret as to why humanity reigns over all other species is important for two main reasons. One is that developing self-awareness means understanding the way your mind works. Basically an understanding of the reason behind why you think, feel and react the way you do. The second is that this understanding allows you to change, which further allows you to control outcomes in a situation to some extent. This means that the stronger your self-awareness is, the better off you’ll be in all situations in life. The good news is that self-awareness can be developed, very much like the process through which a baby, who is simply conscious, grows into a toddler who is self-conscious and finally into a child who becomes self-aware.

Simple moments of self-reflection become important in this process. At your workplace how are you enabling this? Can you derive important insights through this process to amplify performance? Does your workplace technology aid in this process?