On Self Awareness

Self awareness is the core human ability that has enabled our species to improve over centuries and millennia. Had it not been for our self awareness, we would not have the ability to anticipate future situations and to change our behavior to either avoid it (if it is negative), or improve its chances of happening (if it is positive). As you can see, without self awareness, we would be miserable captives of the ebb and flow of life.

Like all human abilities, we are endowed with self awareness at birth and, just as with all human abilities, we start out with an underdeveloped one. Over time, through numerous life experiences, our self awareness grows. In this sense, self awareness is very similar to your muscles. The more your exercise it, the better it gets. Likewise, without regular exercise, your self awareness will atrophy and you will become a victim of fate.

The wonderful thing about all of this is that you can build upon the lessons of others to “turbo boost” your own self awareness. As you know, this is the reason why I started this blog: so that the two of you can take advantage of the lessons I’ve learned in my life and, hopefully, avoid the mistakes that I’ve made or, if that’s not possible, to enhance the lessons you take away from them.

I’ve been reading about Stoicism lately and I’m glad to discover a philosophy that describes the way I live my life more eloquently and in better detail. I’ll be sharing some of those lessons here in the next few days. I hope you will both learn from them and put them to good use in your lives.