Self-Awareness

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. Albert Einstein

Self-Awareness
For all of us, life has its sentinel moments – those moments when something touches us so profoundly it changes our trajectory. For me, one of those events occurred when I was 15. It was a beautiful Spring Day, and I was finishing a high school track meet. You probably are expecting a sports analogy, but my lesson had nothing to do with the meet. It happened during a small incident afterward.

Since I was too young to drive, my friend and I were dependent on our parents for transportation. After the meet, I was in a hurry and left my track shoes in the visitor locker room. En route home, I realized my mistake and had to ask my friend’s parents to take us back to pick up my shoes.

As 15-year-old boys do, my friend harassed me about my forgetfulness. It bothered me and I made one of those self-promises that I would learn new habits to avoid being forgetful. Believe it or not, that simple promise set the foundation for my desire to become a leader who desired to be extraordinary.

Know Thyself
Several things came out of that experience, one being that I developed self-awareness. That simply means that I began to recognize my strengths and weaknesses.

I realized that in my desire to engage people, I became forgetful. I was so relationally invested in the moment, I would forget the task at hand. But that awareness caused me to implement countermeasures.

Not surprisingly, I became a list person. Although those lists have taken different forms, they have been a constant throughout my life. One of those lists resulted in this book!

Another component of self-awareness is understanding how you are wired. We each have unique DNA, and that DNA causes us to have certain likes, dislikes, and personality traits.

For business leaders, one great way to learn about yourself is to take a business-oriented personality assessment. Over the years, I have taken several which helped me better understand myself, and how I work best. If you are interested, let me know, I have a prepaid one that I use for our clients.

Excerpt from The Extraordinary Business by Mike Hill

Write to Mike at Mike.Hill@TeamTrenton.com