Inform Yourself

SELF AWARENESS AND SUCCESS!

What is self awareness? Webster’s distionary defines self awareness as “an awareness of one’s own personality or individuality”. What are they really saying and how does this relate to success?

Let’s start by breaking down each component of the Webster’s definition. Personality is the complex characteristics that distinguish you from everyone else in the world. Your personality is the totality of all of your behavioral and emotional characteristics. These are your unique distinctive traits and characteristics.

Your individuality is your total character unique to you that distinguishes you from all others. Your individuality is those traits that make each one of us unique.

To become more self aware you must first willing to be totally open and honest with yourself. The above definitions don’t say this but it is implied. In order to have superior self awareness you must be willing to accept those characteristics about yourself that you may make you uncomfortable. To become self aware, you must focus on you noting of all your unique characteristics, behaviors, and emotions. Those that you enjoy and are comfortable with are your strengths. Those that you are less comfortable with or do not enjoy are your weaknesses. Make a complete list of all of your strengths and weaknesses.

Once you accept and understand your strengths and weaknesses, you are miles ahead of the majority of the population in moving towards success. Most people are uncomfortable admitting their weaknesses. This is unfortunate because the better you understand them the greater your opportunity for success.

In order to achieve success, you must define exactly what success means to you. We each have our own unique definitions for success. Some examples of how we all define success differently is noted in the fact that some people are driven by materialistic things, some strive for more social causes, others are driven by the quest for knowledge, and still others are driven by some combination some or all of the above.

So now you have the two key ingredients to achieving true success. You have increased self awareness and your unique definition of success.

So how do you use your self awareness to achieve success? First, identify which of your unique characteristics you need to utilize in order to achieve your definition of success. Take note if the characteristics you need to utilize are strengths or weaknesses. Ideally you will want to maximize the use of your strengths and supplement these with continued development of your identified areas for improvement. The more you can utilize your strengths the faster you will achieve your success.

Next, continue developing those areas you identified which are necessary for you to achieve your success. Develop them so you become a master of these strengths. You want people to identify you as a genius in these areas. Develop those areas which you noted are weaknesses but are necessary for you to achieve your success. This is critical in order for you to achieve your success.

Finally, take action towards your success. You now understand your uniqueness’s, true definition of success, and what you need to do in order to achieve your success.

True self awareness is the complete understanding of yourself, your strengths and weaknesses and how they relate to your definition of success. You should now understand which of your characteristics are most important in achieving your success. The more self aware you are the more likely you are to achieve your success.

"Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. It may get tough, but it is a small price to ay for living a dream." Peter McWilliams

The more self aware and willing to be uncomfortable you are, the greater your probability of success.

Welcome home! Welcome to Your Blissful Life. So, tell me, what does it look like? Why do you sound so different? How does it feel to achieve that what you have been searching for so long? This is your new and improved life. Words can hardly express how you feel at this moment. Like the movie star who just received their first Oscar, you cry. Look back at where you came from and all that you have achieved to be in your new place. Wow!

You are much like the old-time sailors. You left a safe and comfortable port (your old place) with the definition of a broad destination of where you were headed. You utilized the various posts here, as well as other information, and defined your specific destination. You then charted your course of action. It provided you with the process and certainty you needed to continue sailing. This is much like the old maritime sailing charts. While sailing traditions provided a process, the destination was always determined by how the sailors utilized the process. Once they began their journey, there was no turning back to port. Their desire to reach new and safer harbor was too great. Just as they sought new and exciting places, so did you. Your destination— Your New Place or Your Blissful Life — was defined, and how you charted your course was the process you just completed and will maintain on a continual basis. The closer you got, the more focused, specific and determined you became to reach it.

Enjoy your new place, Your Blissful Life. It is your personal Garden of Eden. Look around you and notice how all of the colors are brighter, more vibrant! Listen to the birds; hear the songs they are singing in your honor! What is that song? How happy are you at this very moment? This is how every day will be for the rest of your life. You will enjoy every moment of every day because you now feel, hear and see things in a new and more useful way. You look forward to every day and all that it offers to you.

Even when faced with what others perceive as bad or stressful situations, you remain blissful because you now know how each moment or event fits into your life! Your knowledge enables you to deal with these events in a manner that is more useful for you. You realize that they are merely teaching something that you need to know or experience. You now take these lessons and experiences and enjoy them for what they are—lessons and experiences. Where others see limitations, you see opportunity. Where they feel pain or depression, you feel a sense of tranquility and hope. Where they hear others calling them back, you hear joyous music urging you forward.

Is it possible to be any happier than you are right now? I didn’t think so! When I finally achieved my blissful life, it felt as though I had finally reached what I had been searching for my entire life. I was finally blissful! No longer was a part of me missing. I now knew exactly what I wanted my life to be, how I wanted to live it, and who I wanted in it. I am still on cloud nine!

Awaken every day and be thankful for all that you will experience today. You cannot wait to get moving and experience all life has to offer. Who will you meet today? What will you learn today? Who will you help today? What gifts will the universe offer you? You are a powerful force within this universe and you can do and achieve all that you dream. Wow! Every evening, reflect back on you day so that you do not miss anything. Be thankful for all that you have experienced, learned and received. Finally, take a step back and realize how this day fits into your future. How is it preparing you for tomorrow? By doing so, you better understand all that you have experienced and how it fits into your grand plan.

I never knew just how great life could feel. I am truly in awe of all that I have become and all that I have. I am amazed at how everything I experience and learn prepares me for the next step in my journey of life. I love today and cannot wait for tomorrow!

Now go and enjoy Your Blissful Life! You have what you need to live life like you have never done before. Enjoy!

How do you feel about yourself and your life right now?

How are you different now that you have completed the process defined in my prior posts?

Anyone who has spent any time focused on self-improvement or self-growth has heard the word “integration.” But what does it mean? Is it another process? It is an action? What does it mean to you?

Actually, integration is all of those things rolled into one. Webster’s Dictionary defines integration as, “The act of combining into an integral whole.” Ultimately, because we are all unique individuals, every individual defines integration as it relates to them. Some define integration as a process, some a specific action, some merely a definition. However you define your integration, it is the essence of how you meld and weave your new features into your existing core.

So, how do you integrate your changes? What works for one person may be less useful for another. Just as we are all unique individuals, our integrations are also unique. One thing is certain though, integration is a good thing. It leads to a new and improved you!

The objective of integration is to find that balance between your mind, body and spirit in a manner that is most useful for you. It is that easy, peaceful feeling you have when you are in complete balance. Many people utilize meditation, others prayer, and still others a conscious effort to realize this balance. “Your Blissful Life” actually incorporates a process within the process of defining your blissful life, enabling you to naturally integrate changes into yourself. As long as you take action to achieve your blissful life, your integration will take place. This is because you consciously defined your goals for every part of yourself. Next, you consciously and subconsciously checked to ensure that your goals for each part were congruent with your other parts. This process is a step of integration, ensuring that your mind, body, and spirit are congruent. Finally, you defined your action plan to achieve your blissful life. This enabled you to define the actions you need to take in order to achieve your blissful life, all the while, ensuring that your mind, body and spirit are in congruence. As such, you defined your own integration, in your words, so it is most useful for you.

When I discovered my blissful life, I actually spent a great deal of time not only discovering and defining exactly what it was that I wanted for each part of myself, but also how I was going to integrate these things into my life. I did not use the framework defined in this book to help me. As a result, I was actually quite lost for a period of time, searching for a method of integration that was most useful for me. I had my defined my blissful life, but what was I going to do with it? How was I going to use this to change my life? What did I need to do to achieve it? How was going to get from where I was at to where I truly wanted to be? I struggled for a long time. My blissful life was a radical shift from where I was before my discovery. It was, without a doubt, a life-changing event.

After much struggling, I attended a retreat that introduced me to the process for stepping into the future and looking back toward the now in order to discover what I needed to do to achieve that which I wanted. I could clearly see exactly what I needed to do to get here. I took it a step further though. I would focus on a single part” at a time and note all of the items I discovered. I would be very clear and specific about what I needed to do to achieve all that I wanted for that part of myself. After I was done with all my parts, I had many pieces of paper, each with its own action plan. I then reviewed all of them and noted any common actions so that I would know how many separate parts would be impacted by specific actions. I also prioritized which parts were most important to me and then focused on my top three. Since my action plans were already defined, all I had to do was act!

This method became the process that is interlaced in my prior posts. You rintegration is actually sprinkled throughout the posts so your integration would occur naturally, without struggle! You can avoid the issues I faced simply by working through each post. This makes your integration easy and simple to do.

Change is the only thing that is certain in this universe. All things, living or otherwise, experience change on a continuous basis. Embrace it! You will experience change as you continually achieve and then redefine your blissful life and what it means to you. Just like you, your blissful life is a dynamic, ever-changing definition. These changes typically come in waves like the low and high tides of the ocean. Some people experience them on a regular basis while others experience them less often. One thing is certain though, you will experience them. Embrace your changes as they represent your growth toward new goals, expanding your mind, body and spirit, your world.

In this instance, change is good. Many times, individuals will view change as a bad thing because they are uncertain of how to deal with it. They are allowing their conscious mind to overrule their subconscious mind. It is because of this that any change will quickly send their life and world spinning out of control. If they were to take the time and recognize change for what it is — growth, learning, or experience — they would soon realize that it isn’t all bad. They would recognize the lesson to be learned and how the universe was challenging them to challenge themselves to grow in some manner. Once recognized, one can then easily integrate this into their lives. People successfully do this every day and integrate these changes into their lives without even thinking about it. Why? They trust and allow their subconscious mind to absorb all that it needs in order for them to move forward and grow. They know their subconscious mind is always protecting and doing what is best for them at that moment. Their subconscious mind views these changes and only allows those that are useful for them to be integrated into their lives. They experience learn, and grow without even thinking about it. They automatically have a system defined for them that dictates when and how to learn and integrate. These people tend to take any required action automatically. Many of their friends will call them special, gifted, or even lucky.

You, by virtue of reading this post, know exactly what action you need to take in order to integrate your new or redefined goals. Your conscious process for integrating change is defined and can even be referenced as required. Simply reach for this book, reviewmy prior post Your Blissful Life: Your Action and walk through the process you have used in the past. Lucky, regardless of what type of individual you are, you have a process defined for yourself. It doesn’t matter which process you use, either works just fine. It is this experience that provides you comfort in knowing that you will achieve your new goals because both processes work. Your outcome will be exactly what you want. As long as you follow the process, you can achieve exactly what you desire. That’s right, everything you want, just the way you want it. Awesome!

Since my initial discovery of my blissful life, I have experienced a tremendous amount of growth. This growth has impacted just about every part of my being over the last three years. However, I am totally comfortable with the impacts because I—just as you do now—had the tools to apply the changes to each respective “part” to ensure that my goal for that part was very clear. I then ensured that these new goals were congruent with my other parts. Finally, I reviewed my personal action plan to determine if I needed to make any adjustments based on my new goals for myself. Where I used to shy away from change, I now embrace it. Change is an indication that I am forever growing and learning and expanding as the unique individual that I am. I do not place limits on myself and this has allowed me to expand and grow at an accelerated rate. This is exactly what I defined for my student part. I am and forever will be a student of life. Regardless of the growth or the area in which I grow, I use the above process to integrate change in to my life. Which process I utilize depends upon a number of items such as how I am feeling at that moment, what part of my journey I am on, what “part” is being impacted, and the change itself.

I encourage you to be totally open to your personal growth and, ultimately, change. Once you define the change and what it means to you, integrate it to ensure you remain congruent.

I recommend that you, at a minimum, review your growth annually. Some individuals review their goals quarterly. Some like to revisit their goals on a monthly basis. Others, like myself, revisit their goals and integrate any changes on an as needed basis. When I feel a shift occur within me, it is a change indicator for me. It indicates that I need to rest, recognize the changes, integrate them, and make any necessary adjustments in my plan. This enables me to ensure that my goals are always accurate. You will get to the point in your life, just as I have, where the recognition, integration and adjustments occur almost naturally, without much effort. It becomes this easy because you utilize the process so often that it becomes second nature to you.

As I said before, you are forever changing and growing. How you deal with your growth determines if you are able to remain happy throughout your life.