Why is self awareness important?
Life changes begin with awareness. There are two parts of awareness:
– intuitive or subconscious. You may know it as “this job doesn’t feel right anymore, I’ll look for a new one”
– conscious, aware of – you know that the job doesn’t fit your needs anymore, which exactly needs and what your new criteria are.
So what is the difference?
Our brain always “knows” what is right and wrong for you. And here is how it works. The knowledge about your dream job is kept in a huge storage room together with millions of other files about all aspects of your life, from your heart rate and air temperature, your dinner preferences to your perfect job requirements, ideal living place, views on the relationship etc. So literally everything.
And to make it more challenging, this storage room is pitch dark, and your most crucial data (medical files, diet, accidents history, etc) is well ordered and kept in the front, and glamorous magazines and posters about your perfect life are stored on the back and hardly used.
This storage is your limbic system, and although it is black as night, it’s a very high-tech automated center. It picks and highlights the most important information to the director – your prefrontal cortex. Your decision maker. The part you think makes you YOU.
Actually your director works with the information he has received by your limbic system. What is the chance that your career development ideas will be picked daily so you can really manage this area of life? Honestly, the chance is almost zero. There are hundreds of more “important” tasks to take care of, and these tasks are crucial for your survival and thus they receive a higher priority in your limbic system.
What does it mean for you? It means that most of the truly life changing information remains in the subconscious zone (not aware of it fully or partially) and one cannot use his/hers brain power to even start managing it.
Sounds familiar? If you have a feeling that there is a career path that will make you happier than you are now, it is maybe worth trying to bring awareness there. It won’t happen automatically. It requires time and reflecting, but self-awareness is the biggest treasure you can give yourself.
