Episode 939: Self-Awareness is Self-Discovery

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 939 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Deborah Heiser: I'm Deborah Heizer. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to mentor and be mentored is key.

[00:00:23] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott MI.

[00:00:32] Scott Maderer: process is important for all of us, not just you as you go through the process yourself, but the people around you, because it turns out that being more aware of yourself also makes you more aware of others. It helps you build stronger relationships. It helps you invest in others and do the things that you are called to do.

[00:00:53] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire [00:01:00] to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself.

[00:01:12] Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the work.

[00:01:19] In today's episode about investing in yourself through stewarding your talent. I talk with you about why self-awareness is key, but also rather rare. I talk about some of the key steps to begin the process of self-awareness and self-discovery. And I also share why this process is really important for all of us.

[00:01:40] You've heard me talk about developing your talent and what are the best ways to do that is through books. But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up [00:02:00] and you can get a 30 day free trial.

[00:02:02] There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. Self-awareness and self-discovery. Are very important.

[00:02:28] If you think about those terms self-discovery is a process by which you can get to know your inner self-awareness. Interestingly comes in two flavors. There's the self-awareness that comes from self discovery, knowing your inner self. But there's also self-awareness, which is being aware of how others perceive you as well.

[00:02:50] This idea of this is the way that other people perceive me. And both of these are important. When it comes to [00:03:00] understanding yourself and making changes in who you are and what you do, whether it's self improvement, whether it's self-actualization, whether it's taking care of yourself, whether it's accepting who you are, all of these things are related to these ideas of self-discovery and self-awareness.

[00:03:20] And yet all too often, we really will say, of course I'm self-aware I know what's going on inside my own mind. And yet there's been surveys of people where 95% of people report. Yes I'm self-aware. But then when you actually go in and use some assessments and some instruments that determine whether someone is self aware, Only 15% of people score as if they're self-aware.

[00:03:50] So even though it's an important idea, even though it's something that is important to our success, it's actually something that is [00:04:00] relatively rare in the world. And it's different for everybody. How we go through these process is, are different. There are actually patterns that we can recognize and that we can find as well.

[00:04:16] So it's not that it's a one size fits all journey. And it's also not that you're alone in this. So let's talk about some of the processes and the steps that you can go through to begin this process of self-awareness and self-discovery. Know, understanding yourself as a concept seems pretty straight forward, right?

[00:04:41] Just pay attention to what's going on in your own mind. But the problem is we're actually really bad at paying attention to what's going on in our own mind as well. You have to pay attention to what's happening to yourself in your life. How are you engaging in the [00:05:00] experience of living? And again, At first glance, that sounds easy, but the truth is it's actually harder than it seems.

[00:05:08] Most of us don't actually do a great job of living our life with intent. Instead, we tend to be pacifistic in our approach to life. You just find life happening to you and you're going through the motions of that life without actually being active in that. Understanding your experience and being active in pursuing things.

[00:05:33] So even when bad things happen, you happen to them instead of them happening to you, you produce, instead of consume you look to develop yourself and change your mindset, your beliefs, and your activities to align with your most authentic self. All of these things happen. As part of self discovery. So how do you actually start the [00:06:00] journey of self-discovery?

[00:06:02] One thing is you have to look at and question your own core beliefs. You have to examine. Why do you believe what you believe? And then think about it. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are the things you love doing? What are the things you hate? What do you want to do in the next five years of your life?

[00:06:22] What would a successful five-year period look like? How about by the time you're 60 or 70 or 80, and then think about the seven spheres of your life or the seven lanes of your life. Career financial relationships you'll have health and physical intellectual. Family relationships, social activities.

[00:06:43] Think about the different components that make up your life and think about them. What are the good things about them and what things might, I want to change in those areas when you do that, self-examination write down your answers. Don't just think about it. Actually [00:07:00] write it down. Be honest with yourself and take some time with this and then actually repeat this activity periodically.

[00:07:09] I've also talked before about keeping a journal, a daily written activity where you reflect each and every day with a regular activity writing down and keeping it simple, looking at your gratitude, looking at things that have happened, looking at what went well and what challenges you had, or even just doing a brain dump helps you begin to do this process of self discovery.

[00:07:36] As well, escape from your comfort zone, challenge yourself to do something that you haven't done before. Challenge yourself to do something that scares you. This is another way of beginning, that process of self-discovery and then you can do meditation and other mindfulness activities to begin to learn, to pay attention to your inner self.

[00:07:58] And what's going on in your [00:08:00] head. And then of course, one of the ways is by taking action, doing something that's big and scary and new, which is related to getting out of your comfort zone and keeping a mindset around what action my taking each and every day helps us along this journey of self discovery.

[00:08:23] This process is important for all of us, not just you as you go through the process yourself, but the people around you, because it turns out that being more aware of yourself also makes you more aware of others. It helps you build stronger relationships. It helps you invest in others and do the things that you are called to do.

[00:08:44] And between all of those things, it means that you end up with making a bigger and better impact on the world. So this isn't something that just helps you. It helps the people around you as well. Thanks for that.

[00:08:58] Thanks so [00:09:00] much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your call. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent and sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent.

[00:09:29] Or if you're in the U S you can text 4, 4, 2, 2, 2 talent tips. That's talent tips to 4 4, 2, 2, 2, and get those tips until next time, your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .