Self-awareness: Understanding the Importance of Internal and External Awareness

This article discusses the concept of self-awareness, which is the ability to recognize oneself as an individual operating separate from the environment and other individuals. It explores the two broad categories of internal and external awareness and their impact on job satisfaction, personal control, and happiness. The article also highlights the four archetypes of self-awareness and the importance of developing self-awareness to master one's own life. Finally, it provides tips on how to develop self-awareness and reap its benefits.

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Self-awareness
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Self-awareness
Self-awareness is defined as the ability to recognize oneself as an individual operating
separate from the environment and other individuals. It rests in the ability of the individual to be
conscious of himself/herself by knowing the feelings, desires, characters and motives that define
him (Morin 2011, p. 810). This means a clear perception of one’s personality which leads to an
easy understanding of other and the interpretations that people have on their environment.
It exists in two broad categories of internal and external awareness. The internal category
focusses on people see themselves through understanding their own values, aspirations and
passions to determine how they fit in the environment and impact the interaction with others
(Axelrod 2012, p. 349). In the organizational context, this is associated with high job
satisfaction, personal control and happiness. Those who have low internal self-awareness are
characterized by stress, anxiety and depression. The other hand, the external category is the
understanding how people view us using the factors that define the self-awareness of the
individual. This self-awareness in highly influenced by the view that one has about the
definition that others hold on them. For example, people who are aware of their external
characteristics show more empathy and form better relationships with others thus making them
more satisfied.
According to Eurich (2018, pp, 8) suggests that being high in either of the category does
mean that one is high in the other. This leads to four archetypes of self-awareness. Introspectors
understand themselves clearly but lack the ability to challenge their own views or analyse their
self to determinehow they can improve or be more succesful. Awares are those people who
understand who they are and what they seek to accomplish in life (Ugur & Stevens 2015, p. 91).
This is the characteristic that succesfulleaders have since they can handle different situations.

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Seekers are those people do not understand themselvesnor what they stand for. These people are
characterized by lots of frustration in performance and relationships. Lastly, pleasers focus more
on what they want others to see in them at the expense of not minding what matters to them.
These people make choices that do not define their success and fulfillment.
The importance of developing self-awareness is the ability of the individual to have self-
knowledge of situations thus increasing the ability to master their own life. Demetriou & Kazi
(2006) argues that through focusing their attention on emotions, personality, reactions and
behavior, self-aware individuals determine the decisions that they make in life and the
relationships that they form with others. Therefore, to develop this attribute, one has to focus on
attention on details of personality and behavior (Sutton 2016, p. 649). Through assistance of a
psychological expert, one can learn how to pay attention on thoughts, emotions expressions and
behavior thus developing their self-awareness. This attribute can be achieved through mastery
like the way one gains intellectual knowledge when reading a book.
Therefore, successful individuals focus building both their internal and external self-
awareness through relying on critics from others to determine how they can improve themselves
and be more successful. People should thus seek to improve their self-awareness to reap the
benefits associated with it.

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References
Axelrod, S. D., 2012. Self-awarenss: At the interface of executive development of
psychoanalytic therapy. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Volume 32, pp. 340-357.
Eurich, T., 2018. What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It). Havard Business
Review , 04 January.
Morin, A., 2011. Self-Awareness Part 1: Definition, Measures, Effects, Functions, and
Antecedents. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(10), pp. 807-823.
Sutton, A., 2016. Measuring the Effects of Self-Awareness: Construction of the Self-Awareness
Outcome Questionnaire. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 12(4), pp. 645-658.
Ugur, H. & Stevens, M. J., 2015. Self-Awareness and Personal Growth: Theory and Application
of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 60(4), pp. 89-11-.