4 Meta Traits of Highly Self-Aware People, Backed by Research
And how you can build them.
Our thoughts impact our actions, which, in turn, impact the outcomes. Our responses to those outcomes form our beliefs, which feed back into our thinking.
Depending on whether our thoughts are positive or negative, it’s a virtuous or vicious cycle. At its center of this cycle lies self-awareness.
The term self-awareness means different things to different people. To some, it’s the ability to monitor their thoughts. Others think of it as a temporary state of self-consciousness. Yet others see it as the difference between their self-image and external image.
To summarize all these views, self-awareness is the ability to know who we are, how others see us, and how we fit in the world.
Self-aware people:
- Are confident and creative, and take better decisions.
- Report higher satisfaction in their jobs and relationships.
- Feel less anxious, stressed, and depressed.
- Are more likely to do the right thing in a given situation.
This makes self-awareness a coveted skill. And like every coveted skill — driving, listening, empathizing — people overvalue how good they are at it…
