Creating Awareness Through Mental Strength – Part II

This is a continuation of Creating Awareness Through Mental Strength – Part I

Imagine a story about Sarah…Sarah has decided she wants to learn more about herself  and is determined to understand  how she desires to move forward in life. She begins to read books on leadership and found that she had some of the qualities leaders spoke about. The next step she took was to understand what her qualities and strengths were. To do this she employed a coach (good job!), completed several assessments to understand herself more and she began writing down all of her strengths.

She also began to work out what her vision was for herself. All of these actions made her feel more focused and stronger in herself. She believed that leadership was her strength and so she began to look at her self and to recognize that being a great leader meant knowing more about herself. Her confidence increased and her supports helped her stay focused. She continued to look more and more at who she was and to committing to knowing more and more about herself.

She went to work and explained her own pathway to her team. She asked them to support her as their leader by helping her know more about their strengths so she could manage everyone more effectively.

This outcome is directly related to Sarah being ‘aware’. Sarah’s pathway to knowing more about herself meant she also opened up the pathway for others around her to know more about themselves. What an amazing shift in focus. Great leaders know more about themselves than anyone else. Their focus is on their self not others.

Application

Having greater self awareness is part of becoming a leader. A leader is a person who is leading their own life from strength to strength. Great leaders we see around us are great because they follow their own pathway, they know who they are, they have planned out their pathway for learning and personal empowerment and they are on the journey of greater self awareness.

They recognize that self awareness and personal development is something you must value and is then part of you for ever. Being a great leader is not following someone else, it is simply knowing yourself.

We sometimes think that being a great leader is about standing up in front of many and running a company and creating huge financial and personal success. Yet many great leaders have never been great for these reasons. Stop for a moment and think about who your role models of great leaders are.

List what you think their strengths were. No doubt you have listed all the strengths you either have or wished you had. You are likely to list all the strengths that you value. They are great leaders to you because you identify with some of their strengths. When you gain greater self awareness you are also becoming a great leader, leading your life on a pathway or journey that you are passionate about, gaining ongoing awareness of yourself.

Those around you will see your confidence, will see your focus and will see you growing. To them you are a great leader, leading the pathway for others to follow, showing the importance of following your dreams and passions, showing the importance of knowing who you are, showing the importance of focusing on looking inward rather than outward.

At the end of 2008, the world went into an economic downturn. Banks crashed, governments crashed, institutions that were once strong and financially secure suddenly crashed. The impact was devastating. People lost jobs and houses. Families became unbelievably stressed, people panicked as there was no clear path forward. Change had been forced upon everyone. The story of the economic downturn was told far and wide as the media covered stories of hardship and struggle.  

Everyday bad news was told, everyday people lost their jobs and security. The greatest pain was the pain people felt at being lost, unsure of what to do next, waiting for companies to climb out of the crisis. Many people waited (and are still waiting) daily to hear the news, hoping for a better future. The saddest thing to watch was people frozen in fear, afraid of the future, afraid of what was going to happen. Everyone was feeling the fear.

In times like this people have change forced upon them. A shift this great often opens up opportunities for greater awareness. We are forced to look at who we are and to rely on our strengths. Communities congregate and we turn to each other. Reaching out to others can be the first step to awareness. How much more empowering would it be to determine our own pathway rather than having it forced upon us or not knowing ourselves enough to be able to see a future.

There are many ways to support you in developing your self awareness. Next week I’ll share a list that will outline just a few ways. Ultimately, The best approach is to determine what works best for you.

I’d like to thank again my coaching school, ICA, for their inspiration and assistance with this topic.

Now…let me know your thoughts so far in the comments below.