Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the foundation of knowing your character, feelings, motives, and desires. According to Daniel Goleman, best selling author of the book Focus, “Self-Awareness represents an essential focus, one that tunes us to the subtle murmurs within that can help guide our way through life. And this inner radar holds the key to the managing what we do, what’s important, and what we don’t do. This internal control mechanism makes all the difference between a life well lived and one that falters.”
Self-Awareness For Success
One of the first step I believe is critical to long-term fitness success is to improve your self-awareness aka be honest with yourself. Consider this step a self-assessment in knowing where you are, who are being, and what you need to do to get better. You must look within, listen to your body and do what feels right for you. My #1 recommendation to start building better self-awareness is to journal. Journaling doesn’t have to be painstaking as many believe it is. You should just write down whatever comes to your mind for 5 minutes every morning or evening. You’ll start to notice patterns and pick up on areas that will make you more self-aware.
My recommendation is to begin identifying excuses, habits and become aware of the language you use. When you say you don’t have enough time to exercise, check in with yourself to make sure you’re being honest. Notice if your journal entries are more complaints than celebrations. Is it full of excuses? If so, begin to change your language and find the areas of your self that you can celebrate and be grateful for. The first entry could or should be, “I am grateful I read the blog Steve wrote on becoming self-aware and I that I am taking the first step which is journaling.”
Follow Through
Following through or completing what you started is always going to be critical for success. My recommendation is to set realistic goals and don’t be too hard on yourself if you mess up. Just get back on track and pick up where you left off. Being self-aware is an ongoing process that you’ll hopefully be attuned to for life. As life changes, as our needs and wants change too. These are the habits that make us who we are. Have fun with this process and enjoy getting to know yourself better!
Your health and fitness coach,
Steve Jordan
If you haven’t listened to my latest podcast, you can LISTEN HERE. I am excited to announce I will be having the best selling author and America’s Cardiologist, Dr. Joel Kahn on the I AM Healthy & Fit podcast in 1 week talking about his latest book “Holistic Heart Health for a Hearty, Wholesome Life”
